McGaffs On The Fly

Some people go to the beach, the shore, seashore, shoreline and/or just ocean. When Little Al kept telling me he was going to the coast with or without me I knew what he meant, I just didn’t know if we were ever going to escape our Spring Branch captivity.

For those of you that have never seen an Airstream cry, we’ll let’s just say you have to drop everything and let the little guy’s dream come true. So we cleaned him up and loaded for our first away trip in months…here in Port Aransas through Monday.

Well, another change of plans.

Seems we were not destined to take Little Al anywhere this month no matter how hard we tried.

Instead of heading to warmer weather we will be driving to the tourist destination of Dallas to babysit our granddaughter for the week. Again, a parent at her school was exposed to COVID and they have shut down the school for 2 weeks.

OK, better safe than sorry!

One step back for our trip. Little Al has no comment, he is not speaking to me.

One step forward, we get to hang with the sweetest and cutest little girl.

Second step forward, Marco done gone and got the shot.

After a tough and tearful conversation with Little Al, we’ve decided to leave him behind and head for warmer weather in Florida. He wants to go so bad but we think it’s better he rest and get ready for our next long adventure in the summer.

Just seems like yesterday we were leaving for CO looking for cooler weather, oh how things have changed.

Our plan is to leave Thursday and drive eastward until we get tired and make our first stop around Lafayette, LA. Our first destination will be the Destin area for two nights to scout out where we want to stay on the return trip then head farther south looking for that perfect 75-80 degree weather. I’ve been told by my copilot that we will go no further south than Tampa, we’ll see how that goes.

A few thoughts on the way:

We still plan to quarantine and will be staying only at Airbnb properties.

We’re hoping we will be able to get the vaccine as quick, if not quicker, in Florida. Since I’m high risk with Type 1 diabetes I hope it is sooner than later.

If I can get mine before Joanie, how will she be able to party with me in Florida when I hit the bar scene? I guess it will just be me, every other high risk geriatric, all the millennials that COVID can’t touch, and “you know who” supporters…should be a grand time.

Thanks for following, here we go…

Hanging with the McGaff’s in Dallas is not for the faint of heart; it is a full time job of “projects”, babysitting (a young persons game) and plenty of scary movies at night. Just when I thought I would ease into retirement with sweet Joanie, work broke out.

And…I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This I can tell you,

You will get a full nights sleep after babysitting a 20 month old all day.

There are always “projects” that need to be done.

Family time is the best.

Jojo and Zeusy are tired…a good tired.

Home on Friday, still waiting on my two special appearance bloggers to send me their write ups…clocks ticking.

After waking early and getting on the road in Nashville, we dashed across TN and AR running from Delta and made it safely to TX without much bad weather. Our 11+ hour drive was the longest we’ve made on any day of our adventures and mutually agreed to be our longest we will ever drive.

We woke up early on Saturday and hustled to Blaine’s, I certainly didn’t want to miss the big game…after all, TEXAS is back. Follow up, I hate college football.

Here through Friday, Baby Fi time.

Things we’ve learned, thought about or hallucinated about on our loooong drive Friday.

Tennessee is wider than it is long.

No matter the big city name, drivers are aggressive and are mean to Little Al and I.

I35 doesn’t have anything on I40, both are crazy busy roads.

Arkansas is just as long as it is wide.

Joanie is really a nice front seat passenger, but I am still not going to let her drive.

Graceland will have to wait until next trip for Joanie, it’s not like Elvis is going anywhere.

Texarkana is just as nice on the TX side as the AR side…not moving to either.

We are very picky on the type of RV Park we will stay at…unless we have been driving 11 hours and it’s 9pm. We stayed with the banjo kid from Deliverance on Friday night.

Every few miles we pass the Mississippi River or the Red River, were we going the right way?

There is no place like home, there is no place like home, there is no place like home.

We are not home yet, just closer and with family…that’ll do pig.

We made it safely to Tennessee and have Little Al parked across the street from the Grand Ole Opry at the Nashville KOA Resort. At night you can actually hear the ghosts of Chet Atkins, Roy Acuff, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline sing into the night…pretty cool but just a little spooky and we just want to sleep.

Yesterday, based on recommendations from some close friends, we took a day trip to Franklin and Leiper’s Fork. Both towns were pretty awesome in their own way, but Leiper’s Fork stood out…very quaint town with a small town atmosphere, all star pork BBQ (as if pork is real bbq) and big town art studios.

Getting up early and heading west running from Delta…destination unknown.

After leaving Brett and Jim’s condo in Arlington and fighting the early morning commuters (so sad people have to have jobs), we picked up Little Al and headed south with no real destination but an idea of where we wanted to land.

We ended up finding a great spot at the Down By The River Campground in Pineola, NC. Good news, they had one spot left and it was all ours. News alert: whenever you call a campground 99% of them will tell you they have “one spot left”. Interestingly enough, 99% of the time the campgrounds have mega spots open when we arrive.

Anyway…from this locale we were able to accomplish all we wanted; visit our good friends the West’s (outdoor social distance with a much needed chimenea), check out the city of Boone, hike to Linville Falls & Beacon Hikes, get rejected for no reservation at Grandfather Mountain, and enjoying such beautiful scenery throughout.

Turns out the Outer Banks may no longer be Joans favorite, she was really digging this area.

For the last two nights of Bretts “Griswold Vacation” we decided to stay at a b&b in Yorktown, VA. Joanie and I had been here years earlier for a wedding and really wanted to come back and explore the area. The owners and staff went out of their way to keep everything as normal as possible while at the same time going out of their way to ensure social distancing.

The area has so much history capped by The Battle of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War. It was such an important battle because if the Americans would have lost there’s a good chance now we would all be speaking English…oh hold on.

On Saturday Joan and Brett took a day trip to Colonial Williamsburg to see what that town had to offer while I spent the afternoon getting my heart broken, again, by my favorite college football team. They spent the day walking the streets but most activities and/or events had been cut way back or closed altogether. I spent the rest of the day reminiscing of “what could have been”.

On Sunday we took it easy in Yorktown checking out the city and enjoying the local open market. We finished the day with a driving tour of the battle of Yorktown, you could almost hear George’s wooden teeth rattling as we drove through the beautiful sites.

The 2 weeks with our sweet little girl flew by and we delivered her back to Arlington, VA safe and sound to her waiting husband. A few game of cards, a nice sleep in the pull out couch and on to pick up Little Al for our last adventure south.

Best of the best was the Yorktown Pub where we had at least 3-4 meals sitting in their newly constructed outdoor tent. We definitely received our seafood fix each day with great chowder, gumbo, seafood and appetizers. It’s ok though, we’ll workout in the morning…

On to Boone, NC.