Midweek Makers

Block 19 for Melva's Pieces of My Life QAL is called Rough Road.  Looking at the group of blocks that I've made so far, I decided I needed more red in this quilt, so that determined my fabric choices.  

Melva said in her post that the focus of this block and post is family and travel, which in our household went hand in hand as the kids were growing up!  We have two sons, both born in the 1980s.  Our oldest son loved maps when he was growing up (still does!) so he was always planning out places for us to go.  When my parents bought their winter home in Mesa, Arizona, in 1982, that became a frequent Spring Break destination for us.  Other road trip destinations included Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, and the Pacific Northwest.

But the ultimate road trip for us was a trip to Washington, D.C., in 1993.  I talked about my dad passing away in 1992 in my last Pieces post.  He left us some money which we decided to use for two things - this trip to D.C. and to pay my tuition to go to graduate school.  We also had a fairly new Dodge mini-van which we knew would be perfect for taking a long road trip.

And we had a blast!  We planned out stops along the way that were about every half day.  We stopped in St. Louis and went up in the Gateway Arch, and put our toes in the Mississippi River.  We toured the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and watched fireflies by the river in Charleston, W. Virginia.  (We don't have them out here in Colorado.  We stayed with friends in Manassasas, Virginia, and took the Metro rail into the city every day, and visited all the monuments and memorials and important buildings.

A very special stop was the Vietnam Veterans Wall, because Mike is a Vietnam veteran and his best friend in high school died there.  We were able to find out where Dennis' name is on the Wall and go to that section to see it.  It's a very moving experience.

We took a northern route home, stopping at the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and visiting friends in Michigan who took us for a boat ride on Lake Michigan, and stayed in downtown Chicago in a high rise hotel with a roof top pool!  

Of course, there were a few "rough roads" along the way!  Younger son got sick and we had to find an urgent care to help us out.  When driving into Chicago, we took a wrong turn and got into a part of town that we didn't really want to be in.  And on the way home our route got diverted from our plan because the Mississippi was flooding and we couldn't cross where we had originally planned.  But we eventually arrived back home, very tired of driving, but full of memories.  This map is in the front of the photograph album I made of the trip.

4,326 miles!

These days instead of traveling with our kids, we are more likely to travel to see them.  But they are going on road trips of their own - and so are we!  

Linking up with Melva for Block 19

and at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.