The Sultry South

Boy, this has been a busy month! With 3 weeks off I thought I'd have plenty of time to get a lot of house projects done.....WRONG! But, I wouldn't have it any other way. I got to travel quite a bit and spend time with people I don't see too often. I ended my time off with a long weekend trip to see family in MS. Just between you and me, I was dreading it because of the humidity and warm weather "wildlife". However, it was hands down the best trip I've ever taken there! We got there last Thursday and, of course, it wouldn't be a trip to MS without a few minutes in the closet, "hiding" from a possible tornado. Other than that, the weather was perfect! It was nice being able to go for a run in the morning and sit on the porch at night.

We packed A LOT into the trip, which is my idea of a great vacation. We started out by going to Mudbugs for crawfish. Let me rephrase that. The guys ate crawfish. I ate a grilled cheese sandwich. After the multiple tornado watches, we went golfing with some of Rob's friends on Friday evening. Then we topped off the night with a houseful of friends over for dinner.
Saturday we got up, left P with Mom and Dad Herrington and took off kayaking. I have to admit that I was nervous about rafting due to water snakes. I was worried that I'd fall out of my kayak and have to wrestle a water moccasin. It didn't help that the water was up 8 inches due to Friday's storms. However, my fears quickly disappeared when we passed a sign that said Okatoma CREEK. I figured I could stay in my kayak on a creek, which I did with no problem. It was a fun day, but I ended up getting a SEVERE sunburn on my legs despite putting 50spf on twice. (I'm still burned a week later!). Sunday Rob, Jay and I got up before the sun to make a day trip to Talladega. I was more excited about people watching and the whole "event" more than the race. I was disappointed with that part of Dega but the race itself was like no other. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to go back to that track for another nail biter race!
While we were at Dega Mom and Dad Herrington spoiled P. They took him to pizza, to the zoo and topped it off with Dairy Queen. I doubt he missed us but we sure missed him, after being gone from him for almost 2 days. Monday we decided to stick close to home so we could enjoy family time. We tried to help around the house and then went to visit Dad at work.
Mom and Rob were able to enjoy an afternoon of golf while I hung out with P. That evening P got to enjoy a VIP egg hunt. All the eggs were just for him so he had no competition and he was thrilled to discover that each egg was filled with a toy car!
Monday night I talked Rob and Jay into taking me gator hunting. I was more than a little nervous at first but Rob kept reassuring me that he wouldn't do anything that would harm me. I finally relaxed, more because we never caught a gator than because of Rob's words of comfort. Tuesday we packed up, but weren't ready to say our goodbyes. We had had such a fun trip that we wanted to stay longer. I have wondered on several occasions why anyone would want to live in MS, but this time I finally understood the reasons.
I got to see different parts of MS and realized that, other than the brown water, it is beautiful. But, I digress. We said our goodbyes and boarded the plane to come back home.

Little did we realize that we were about to be on a travel nightmare. We were in the air when the pilot came on the speaker to inform us we'd be diverting because of storms in Dallas. We were taken to what I'm sure is the smallest airport in the US, as were several other planes. We then had to sit there for a few hours, uncertain as to our final destination. Thank goodness for FB and thoughtful friends we were able to get a last minute flight back to MS since our flight to Reno had been cancelled. So, long story short, we got to spend another night and day in MS. We flew out Wednesday, and after a delay and luggage issues, we got home. Rob and I both had to work yesterday and we were BEYOND exhausted by the time we crawled into bed last night. Other than our flight we had the perfect vacation, a wonderful way to end a great 3 weeks off.