Vacation All I Ever Wanted

I decided that I wanted an easy-going traveling experience, so I thought that a long train ride would do just the trick. I didn’t want to leave my car in Denver for a month, so I got a bus ticket to take me up there. Once I woke up on Tuesday the 19^th, I realized my trip would be anything but easygoing. I looked out the window at 6:45 in the morning and it was white out…snowing like crazy with a couple inches already on the ground. I had a woman from my bible study give me a ride to the local airport where the bus picked me up, and waited, waited, waited and waited. It was an hour late, but I was finally on my way at 9. It was about a 3 hour trip to Denver with the stops along the way, but when I got off the bus, I realized that I needed to get to a different station. The Central Station was closed for repairs and the temporary one was in a different location. The bus driver only pointing in the general direction, which meant I had to walk with all of my luggage to the next place. What should have taken me 15-20 minutes of a walk ended up taking me an hour. I should have taken a different route, but had no idea the right way and ended up getting fenced out by the stadium across the street from the building I needed. I could see it but couldn’t get to it. Not only that, but from going up and down the stairs on both sides of the stadium, I had lost a wheel to my luggage so I was half rolling half dragging the thing around downtown Denver. I was so tired and sore I wanted to sit down and cry, but I pushed forward. I was so happy to finally get to the Amtrak station I was laughing at my whole ordeal.

The rest of my trip went better, as I had a good seat partner for the long ride to Chicago. She was a teacher and Christian a few years older than me and we got along well. Once we got to Chicago, we both had a long enough lay-over to grab dinner and watch each other’s luggage. That trip was about 18hrs, so we had a long time to sit and chat. My layover was about 6hrs, so I just hung out by the terminal and read. Finally at 9:30pm, the last train to leave, I boarded for Cleveland. I arrived the same time my dad did, a little after 5am. And it was good to be home. Since he was picking me up after working and I had barely gotten any sleep that night, we both crashed when we got to his house. I was sure glad to be done traveling though.

After my nap, since my dad had to work that afternoon (Thursday), I decided to pay my mom a trip and go to my old church, which was luckily having a Christmas worship service that night. It was good to get in a couple hours with mom and seeing old friends, many of whom didn’t know I would be there that night. The rest of the week and the next I spent at my dad’s and New Year’s week I spent at my mom’s (with some visits a few days Christmas week also). Christmas was thankfully not as chaotic as last year (when I was at 5 different houses that day), and I got to visit with family. Christmas eve I had dinner at my stepsister Jeniffer’s house, where a huge dog slobbered all over me…Beethoven anyone? I had my first try of pizza chicken and realized that I was definitely going to gain weight eating during the holidays. Christmas morning I opened presents at my dad’s, the stocking always being my favorite. Then I headed to my Aunt Christie’s to see my mom’s side and celebrate my sister and cousin’s birthdays which were both on the 21^st. My sister is now officially no longer a teenager! Then I went to my mom’s for a few hours to hang before heading back to my dad’s. That next Wednesday I also went to Mt. Gilead to see and meet extended family on my mom’s side. Again, it was great to see everyone and eat all of the awesome home cooking and desserts. New Year’s Eve was my mom and stepdad’s anniversary so I stayed at my dad’s to watch the ball drop and eat the traditional potato/pork/sauerkraut meal at midnight.

I did shopping at my dad’s and mom’s for new clothes for work, made monster cookies with my grandpa, ate way too many milkshakes from steak and shake with my step mom Kim, started painting my mom’s kitchen, sold back school books for extra shopping money, built a snowman and hiked with my friend Cortney, visited my old work/got prescription filled, went to lunch with family friends Teri and Dorian (which our wiper blade flew off while it was snowing and I laughed hysterically. Luckily, a man saw my mom and I reading the instructions on how to replace it and changed it for us), had a lunch date with my old roomie Nina and a lunch date with even longer time friend Jamie, watched lots of movies, went to the dentist and back again the next day to get a cavity filled and never did get to start my book. I guess I was too ambitious to think I could do that, as I barely had enough time to get done what I wanted to get done. But overall, it was a wonderful vacation that could have lasted another 2 weeks. Alas, Friday morning at 1am I was on my way back to Cleveland for the train to Colorado. Both trains back were quiet and uneventful, and this time I took a taxi to the station (which had changed from Union to the Greyhound). I had a couple hours in Denver until the bus came, so I walked around the 16^th St. mall (similar to an outlet) and had breakfast at Starbucks. I bought t-shirt that says “Got Oxygen?” for Denver’s high altitude, though where I live is a couple thousand feet higher. It was 5pm when I got back in town, and the same woman, Sue, picked me up and graciously brought my some groceries as well, knowing I probably had to go to the store. I love small town friendliness! I am more than likely coming back in April when I graduate for at least a week, but this time I will flying instead. Thank you to everyone who made my vacation awesome and thanks to all 4 of my parents that fed and housed me during my stay. I love you all!