The Great American Road Trip: Days 105 and 106

Distance - 273 miles
Time - 5 1/2 hours

Monday Aunt Sue and I both slept in a bit and spent the morning chatting while I put photos and captions on Facebook (I was only a month behind :p). I didn't realize it, but we were less than an hour north of Aunt Elaine and Uncle Charlie! (Well, actually she's my father's aunt, but I grew up calling them aunt and uncle). So off we went to visit - Sue managed to get herself down into my little car, and we had a great time talking and looking at old photos that Elaine had magically found somewhere.

My dad's family would go up to the Great Lakes/1000 Islands region of New York State every summer. For most of my childhood we went to what I later was informed the rest of the family called "The Camp From Hell" (I knew it as "The Camp"), and after the property was sold to another owner we started on a wandering search to find a new camp, trying a different place every year or two until Steve and Gale ended up buying a home up there that became The River House. I've forgotten a lot of the places we went to during that searching period, but when I saw the photos I remembered this one in particular, which was pretty neat.

Charlie had to go to an appointment, so Sue and I said goodbye and headed back up to Palm Harbor to get dinner. We ended up at Cody's Roadhouse, a barbeque/steak place known for serving peanuts and encouraging you to throw the shells on the floor. It got us started on more stories, particularly the time Sue came out to Denver to visit Dad when I was young, maybe 9 or 10, and we went up to the mountains to tour around some of the mountain towns. I really don't remember much of it beyond little snippits - the man at The Broadmoor who was carving wooden gnomes and gave me one named Omsole (he told me the name and that's how I remembered it phonetically, I have no idea how it's actually spelled, but I do still have the gnome at home), seeing Maroon Bells - twin peaks in Aspen, getting a really decent photo of a deer using mom's film point and shoot film camera (remember those?) because it let me get really close without running away, and a restaurant who knows where that encouraged this peanut shell on the floor practice to such an extent that the staff kept brooms at the door so that they could clear a path to your table. Nothing like a good dinner with good company and good stories!

I wish I could stay longer on my visits. The very next day I was on my way to Miami, but I stuck around for the morning and enjoyed a nice breakfast with Aunt Sue, then her neighbors came over (they're also from upstate New York where Sue lives) and the four of us had a great time chatting away for an hour or so. I did a lot of listening - those New Yorkers know how to talk! ;) It was really nice to meet them, and to know that when she's down here she still has people checking up on her and keeping her company (and dragging her out of the house to bingo and flea markets).

A couple of people have asked me what I've been listening to as I drive. Sometimes I try to get NPR on the radio, or listen to whatever music I can find on the radio or have on my phone, but most of the time I've been listening to podcasts! Some of the ones that keep me company, especially out of range of a cell or radio tower, are:
The Moth - true stories told live without notes by the person who lived it
Radiolab - weaving stories and science into sound and music-rich documentaries
Sawbones - a marital tour of misguided medicine
The Splendid Table - stories and interviews about food and the people who make particularly amazing food
ERCast and EmCrit - emergency medicine discussions and reviews of best practices

All highly recommended, the first four being particularly "general audience" friendly, the last two being probably pretty dull unless you're really nerdy about medical procedures ;)

I had a great drive down through central Florida, and arrived in Miami a little after 5:30pm. I spent some time just driving around downtown, exploring some of the neighborhoods and generally poking around. Then I went out to north Miami meet Anne! Another Peace Corps volunteer, Anne and I didn't actually overlap in our service but heard so much about each other through Sunyata that we had to stop and confirm that we had only met once, almost two years ago, when Anne visited Burkina near the end of my service and we had lunch. I love that I instantly felt at ease with her, it really did feel like stopping to stay with an old friend.

Uncle Charlie and Aunt Elaine

Sue and Charlie

Me and Dad, I think I was about 11 or 12 years old?

Me, my cousin Stephanie, Dad, Charlie, and Elaine

We went to see Christmas lights - this one had them timed to match the music they were broadcasting over the radio (there was a sign telling you what station to tune to at the top of every hour). It was very impressive!