The World's Common Tater

I’m sure everyone has been anxiously awaiting my post about what I did while I was away last week. I don’t have photos of cool places to show you. I just have an excruciating day by day recap of what I did. Don’t read before operating heavy machinery.

Day One – The first day of or trips to visit family are always driving days. It takes about 8 hours to drive to my mother-in-law’s house. We don’t make any stops except for gas and bathroom breaks. I drive, sleep, and read – not all at the same time. This drive was made a little more interesting with a road closure due to a crash and cows.

Day Two – a nice, boring day at my mother-in-law’s house. Sometimes we will do some sort of hike or something, but this time I just read my book and relaxed. I did have a political argument with her to spice up the day. We got take out from restaurants we don’t have at home.

Day Three – Up early to make the two and a half hour drive to my brother’s house. My sister and her family spent the day there as well. My nephew and his family came by after he was off work. It was a day of food, family, and fun. Time in the pool. Pool volleyball. Cornhole. Basketball. Barbecue. I need more days like that.

Day Four – Pretty much the same as before. My sister sent the day at my brother’s again. We live at his house while we are in town. Burgers., brats, family time. Pool. Cornhole. Good times.

Day Five – Kayaking day. The last time we went kayaking it had rained a lot and the river was fast. It was easy except for the place where we had to go under a fallen tree. This year there was a lot less rain. The river was low and slow. We had to row a lot more and we had some places where we had to get out and drag the kayak. I flipped my kayak twice, but survived. It was a long hard day and we all decided that next time we will do the shorter kayak trip if the river is low. We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants for dinner where I finally ordered a Hot Brown instead of chicken and waffles.

Day Six – We planned to leave my brother’s house to stay a night at Mammoth Cave. That changed due to a couple of things. All the cave tours were sold out due to Covid limitations and we discovered the cottage my wife booked had no AC and it was almost 100 degrees. So, we spent an extra day at my brother’s house. We spent the morning in the pool and the afternoon watching Shutter Island. We had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Day Seven – The sad day of leaving my brother’s and heading back to my mother-in-law’s. Just a two and a half hour drive and then more sitting at a house reading and watching TV. Everyone else plays cards at night. I started watching Cruel Summer on Hulu while they played.

Day Eight – More reading and watching TV. Dinner at Freddy’s, the burger place we love and can’t get at home.

Day Nine – Up early for the long drive home so we can get the dog from boarding before they close.

And now we wait until Christmas to see family again. I really hate living so far away from them.

I will leave you with one photo – one my sister took of me while we were standing around the kitchen.