Back Home, Safe and Tired

I am back in my own house, after a night of sleeping in my own bed, and I wish I could say that I awoke refreshed and fully rested.  No, not exactly--I had dream after dream of floods.  Happily, it wasn't my current house being flooded in my dreams.  And it doesn't take a trained psychologist to figure out my anxiety dream.  Still, I was ready to be up.

Let me record a few thoughts from my last days of travel:

--Wednesday was our very long travel day, similar to Sunday.  We left Petit Jean State Park and headed back to East Tennessee.  We traveled with my spouse's dad and step-mom that day.  We've always gotten along well, but we've never taken such a long car trip together.  I'm happy to report that it went well.  On both Sunday and Wednesday, we made sandwiches and had a nice picnic at rest areas.  Here's my Wed. Facebook post:  "I just ate a picnic lunch of homemade pimento cheese sandwiches at the Johnny Cash rest area- - and I will spend the rest of the afternoon trying to work that into a country song."

--We were at Petit Jean State Park for a wedding.  I wasn't sure what to expect, having never gone to a wedding in a state park before.  In fact, it's been a long time since I've been to a wedding in any venue.  Lots of us were traveling from far away, and the park itself felt very far away from civilization of any type.  It was a wedding, but it was also a family reunion, along with a vacation and a splash of educational opportunity.

--When I thought about this trip, I thought we might do some hiking, but it was wet and the trails looked a bit strenuous.  In fact, the signs stressed how strenuous the trails were:

--Would I have been as worried about slipping if I hadn't had a bad fall a few weeks ago?  Maybe.  Happily, we had other options, boardwalks that made for an easier walk in the woods.

--There were also areas where we could pull right up to the scenic overlooks which were a brief walk from the parking area--and see the burial site of Petit Jean, for whom the park is named:

--But the highlight of the trip was the chance to be with far flung family members, from Illinois and Indiana, from South Florida, from Mississippi, from the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.  It's amazing that we could all gather in Arkansas to share good times and make good memories.

--Yesterday we took the southern route across the mountains to our house, along the Great Smoky Mountain Expressway.  We saw beautiful mountain vistas and rivers ran beside us, and there was only a brief disruption for roadwork, unlike Saturday, when we sat and sat and sat for over an hour on I 40. 

--We also got to stop at Darnell Farms, where we got a wide assortment of fruits and veggies, which we'll enjoy for the next several days.

--It is good to be home.  Here's the last Facebook post I made yesterday:  "We are home, looking out at a different set of mountains, not knowing exactly what time it is, and missing family, but enjoying a light lunch after a long road trip. Happy we were able to travel almost all the way to Oklahoma to celebrate declarations of love and trails that do not end in tears."