Travel Weekend!

Yes, I know it's only Thursday, but the weekend begins early for us retired guys.
In a short while we'll be on the road towards Central Illinois for a family reunion. I think there will be lots of cousins and grand-cousins and even some great grand cousins (isn't that easier to understand than all of that 1st cousin, second cousin stuff?).

With many of us that have moved away from our Central Illinois home, it isn't often that we get to see each other. I honestly don't know most of the grand-cousins and great grand-cousins. One of the few blessings from Facebook and other social media networks has been the ability to connect with distant family members. There is a cousin (grand-cousin) of my mom's from the Philippines that will be there, too! Everyone else is from my dad's side of the family.

It's a lazy, dreary morning in the Ozarks. We had planned on a mid-morning departure, but since there is no hurry and it seemed like a good morning to sleep in -- we did. As a matter of fact, Chris is still snoozing while I enjoy my coffee and my blog.

My parents now live in Metamora IL where the Rohman side of the family grew up. I remember Sundays at the Rohman home and many nights crashing on the enclosed front porch after some post season high school football games (their HS, not ours). We are expecting members from the Rohman clan (my dad's sister's family) and from the Dunlap IL Hills (my dad's brother's family). It should be a grand time.

We'll arrive sometime tonight (it's about 7.5 hours of road time) and most of the family will be in tomorrow afternoon or evening. Saturday is the big gathering and I'm sure that the other families may be planning smaller family gatherings as well. I know that we are.

It's too bad that we will be in the cage (that's the biker term for car) rather than riding the motorcycle, but Chris is a non-rider and we'd have to pull a trailer for luggage.
Wow! That'll be 5 days without taking a ride! I might have to go for a long ride when we get back on Monday evening. As it stands, I'm less than 100 miles from 7,000 miles on the bike since March 1st. Maybe I'll get that on the 31st for the 7K in 5 months.

There will be no magic show at the reunion this year as I still have to rebuild and replace the things I lost a few weeks ago. There are many talented family members to provide entertainment for us, though. And it would be good to see somebody other than Uncle John with his lame magic show.

I have a selection of Nicaraguan cigars packed for the few cigar smokers in group. It is always a joy to be able to share a good smoke with someone that appreciates a good cigar. I have recently become a fan of the Nicaraguans and hope to convert others, as well. I have four different Nicaraguan cigars that I'm bringing and am currently out of a fifth one that I like.

So -- in spite of the fact that I'll be many hours in a car for the weekend, I plan on a very enjoyable time. I hope that your weekend will be a good one, also.

John <><