DAYS OF MY LIFE

I dubbed it “The Vacation of the Unexpected,” and it was a trip for the memory books, for sure. Some of the unexpected was cause for jubilation, but a large majority of the unexpected was cause for stress.

There was a worrying call from my job before I ever got to Beaumont, and then, while sailing down 59-North in Hattiesburg, MS, about 5 p.m., my car decided to call it quits. Long story short, a wrecker hauled us to a repair shop, we left it there, rented a mammoth SUV the next morning, and got to our condo after dark. We thought we might have to spend the night on the balcony, in the freezing cold, since our door was not cooperating with the given code. After 30 minutes of pulling and pushing and jiggling and jumping, we relented and called the help number. A security guy came about 20 minutes later, let us in, and we let out a loud whoop and unloaded our things.

From then on, it was a lovely time in the mountains, with perfect fall weather. We enjoyed hanging with our cousins, Ed and Sharon Allen. Oddly enough, they live in Hattiesburg, MS, but had taken off for Pigeon Forge a few days prior to our breakdown. Lucky them.

Cameras can’t ever capture the beauty, but I give it a try every year I go. If you’ve never driven through the Smoky Mountain National Park in the fall, you really should put it on your bucket list. The last week of October is normally a great time for colored leaves, and no matter how many times I’ve seen them, they always take my breath away.

I won’t go into the trip coming home, but we dragged into town about midnight Friday night. Thank you, Dayle Allen Shockley, for being with me every mile of the way and sharing the joys and the woes.