Vacation...

Back porch view

I got back a week ago from my trip to tiny village Illinois... where I've been "vacationing" for the past five years.  If all goes as planned, the property will be sold as of this coming Tuesday, making this my last vacation here.  It's bittersweet.  I enjoy going there with my Mom and visiting with our friends there.  It's a place to really disconnect as we don't have TV, internet or anything else really.  We had a stove, a small fridge, and a microwave  in the house and several local little restaurants for when we wanted something a little more grand.  If we needed the internet, we went to McDonald's (which has recently been renovated and is very nice), about seven miles away.  This is where I went to just re-charge my batteries.  The picture here is an interesting tree as viewed from the porch of the house -- the house where my Dad was born and raised.  We figure it's been in the family for about 90 years.  I will miss my yearly visits.

While we had already taken most of the big items that we wanted from the house, there was still a few that we needed to get before it was sold.  They all had to go in the back of my Mom's Escape.  I wasn't sure how it would all go in there, but there wasn't really much in the tiny pile that we wanted to weed out.  I was just going to have to make sure it all got in there. So, I channeled my Dad's packing gene, mapped it out in my head, and lo and behold it all went it there fairly well.  Mission accomplished.  

One of the things I worried about was getting a terrible rental car. I don't like driving big cars, but my last rental, a nice little compact, it felt like my butt was dragging the ground. It's a two hour drive from the airport to tiny village and no one wants a crappy car for a two hour drive. Once again, I lucked out. I wound up with a Chevy Sonic, which I guess is a new model for Chevrolet. I had no idea what it was when the rental agent told me what I was getting. It's a little hatchback and it had quite a bit of pep. It turned out to be a fun drive. We scooted all over in it - from tiny village to various tiny towns. Plus, good gas mileage to boot. Can't beat that. I checked it out online when I got back and found out it's turbo charged; which explains the pep.

I splurged and added a day to this trip (all but wiping out my little bit of vacation), but it was worth it.  After the time off for the move, I sorta thought it was ridiculous to take a vacation. Turns out, it wasn't. Plus, I got to say my good-byes to the house. Not sure where I'll go next year to re-charge my batteries, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.