Man, it has been a long time since I’ve sat down to write. Here it goes! with the Best Of my Double Adventure Roadtrip, or Double Roadtrip Adventure or whatever:
Last Roadtrip with Betsy
Last Sunday, I drove up to Iowa to visit my maternal grandparents. I typically enjoy solitary road trips, but this one was a little sad, because I knew it would be the last one I took in my trusty 1991 Oldsmobile 88 Royale, Betsy. A pimp car if ever there was one.
I’ve had it since I was a junior in college, sold books in it for 3 summers, drove it as a poor graduate student and a poor newlywed. But it was time for us to part. Someone needed her- Betsy the Oldsmobile- more than I did. My grandparents are going through a really rough spot right now and don’t currently have a reliable vehicle, so I decided that since I was planning on getting a new car later this summer, that it would make more sense to give the car to family than to sell it to a stranger. So, I knew that this was the last roadtrip that Betsy and I would take together. She was all gussied up- had new rear brakes, a new windshield, fresh oil and even had been detailed (high-rollin’!).
I <3 Iowa
And man, I love Iowa. Springtime is Iowa is delightful- the corn is green and growing, the air is cool and damp (rather than HOT & HUMID, like in Oklahoma). And the small town that my grandparents live in is freaking adorable- colorful town square, cute hardware store, houses on the historic register and a neat waterpark for all the local kids. I used to ride my bike all around the neighborhood when I was young, particularly in the cemetery (where you could really fly!)- weird, I know. But driving around, running errands with my grandmother, I could really understand why they’ve enjoyed living there for the past 24 years.
Paintin‘
Another part of the trip that I really enjoyed was seeing my two young cousins- Brittany and Kaitlyn. The last time I saw them they were little girls and now they are charming elementary schoolers. I was in Iowa to do some renovations on my grandparents house, and my cousins thought is was the FUNNEST THING EVER to paint cabinets and trim and walls. We painted for 4 days and they were SO disappointed when we were finished. You ever see is paint-spattered 8 year old, pouting because there’s no more trim to paint? So funny.
Home Again, Kind Of
I enjoyed visiting with my grandparents and reminiscing about my childhood visits to her house. Boy! but she leaned on me hard to give her some (great) grandbabies! Never-mind that she has 2 that live 5 blocks away. I had to laugh.
I rode home (bye, Betsy) with my Momma in a real pimp car, her Cadillac Deville, to her house and my sweet husband came to pick me up.
Then we were off to a Lifegroup retreat, at the lake (don’t ask me which one). We took The Lola, obviously, and I really enjoyed spending some quality time with the girls from my Lifegroup, hanging out, reading magazines, eating too many snacks, etc. After a week of hard physical labor, hanging out dockside was such a blessing.
Canoe Dog
Ultimately, though, the most memorable thing for me was paddling around with G and Lola in a fiberglass canoe. We saw baby deer in the woods, fish in the stream and almost got knocked over with Lola’s lunging back and forth to see over the side. 
She even went for swim in some shallows- she can only swim for a minute or two- and then tried to scrabble back in the boat. Silly puppy. It’s good to be back home.
[...] I’m not going to mind the commute as much because I got a new car!!! Remember how I left my car in Iowa? Yeah, we decided that I was gonna wait (patiently, oh so patiently) to get another vehicle, until [...]