Beautiful Bride

Tonight was Beth and Anders wedding at the old Mill City (Minneapolis Museum) ruins.  Quite the setting for a wedding.

Here's the mother of bride (my sister Renell) and the sister of the bride (my niece Caryn) watching as the bride comes into the courtyard.  Renell is really trying to hold it all in. Beth is first niece to get married, so all her aunties were trying to hold in the tears as well.  

Here's the bride and groom. 

It was a beautiful evening and yes, I did the Wobble and I didn't wrench my knee.  Here's a couple of photos from the dance floor.

The first one I would caption.... Yes, Caryn (my niece on right), your aunties can still get 'er down!

My caption for this one below is "Would you believe that two of these three sisters are totally sober?"

Yes, it was a fun evening!

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes!

Jimmy Buffet sings about "changes in latitude, changes in attitude."  In other words, the lower the latitude (further south) the more relaxed a person feels (i.e. changes in attitude).  This change usually correlates to sea islands and beaches of the lower latitudes!

Guess what?  The higher latitudes (as I get further Up North) my attitude changes too.  I guess I'm a bi-latitude person....my attitude changes for the good when I go Up North or to the southern beaches.

After 10 hours driving today, my attitude loves just a good meal, excellent margarita (and I'm not even a margarita-lover) and a bed to sleep in.  Can't forget having WiFi coverage too!

Yesterday, I blogged about planning many parts of our trip.  I didn't mention that we talked and decided that we would eat a breakfast (included with room charge) at the hotel in morning and then have nuts, Twizzlers, and granola bars for lunch and snacks during our drives.  Upon arrival at our hotel, we would have dinner out.  Worked fine, as it worked according to plan yesterday,  Today, "the best laid plans of mice and men went awry!"   First change of drivers had me inside a convenience store buying M&M's for each of us.  A couple stops later, we each bought a doughnut or two.  Our final change of drivers included a potty break and an ice cream cone.  Needless to say, no nuts or granola bars were devoured today.  

Let's hope the rest of the trip goes according to plan and if doesn't.....who cares, we're still traveling and having fun!  Tomorrow a niece gets married in Minneapolis so blog may or may not happen.  No, it's NOT on my agenda to blog tomorrow night.  

OCD Me?

I wasn't planning to write a blog tonight, as we only traveled today and didn't take any photos or have any fun experiences....other than playing the slots at the local casino for an hour and coming out ahead by 33 cents.

But, I was asked a question about our travel plans and I realized that I have to be truthful about some thing.  This trip I have become obsessive and compulsive about planning.  Yes, ME, adventuresome, free-wheeling Rayna has gone overboard in some planning aspects.

In my defense, hubby likes to know where we have a place to stay every night so that means figuring out how far we can drive, what do we want to see and do and estimate how much time those activities will take.  I use MapQuest; TripAdvisor and National & State Park service websites.   So, I have a spreadsheet of all this info.  I would share this here, but I'm OCD; not technically proficient.  

Based on last year's lengthy trip, we found ourselves each night spending 30 minutes or more trying to decide where we were eating for dinner.  So this year, in addition to making hotel reservations; figuring out driving distance and times between point A to B; and reviewing what things to do....I have been poring over the TripAdvisor for each town we're spending the night in and making a decision about where we are eating.  I didn't really think that was so bad of an idea until I said it "aloud" to a friend.  OMG, I'm OCD aren't I?  

Now the big challenge will be to go through this trip and have it all go according to plan.  As we know, the best laid plans of mice and men go awry!  I will keep you posted!  

Back in the saddle again!

Yep!  I'm back in the saddle again!  Getting ready for another long road trip and looking forward to not only the experiences, but to sharing them on my blog.  Last year, I started sharing the blogs about our travels on Facebook. Now that Facebook has this feature, "On This Day," I can look back on this day a year ago, two years ago or whenever I posted on this day.  It's been fun to read my posts from our trip last year.  It reminds me of how thankful I feel that I have these opportunities to travel and see the USA!

I hope that people don't think I'm narcissistic posting my blog.  I truly am so thankful for what I can experience; experiences that others may not be able to...that I want to share the sights and thoughts we have in our travels.  We all have choices in life and I choose to share my travels and my photos with you.

I better get back to packing my saddle bags! Luckily, my "horse"....the car decided to die (needs new battery) today, instead of when we're on the road again.  Can't wait to get on the road again....