Mother Road

It's been a fun four days and three nights with Eli, while his parents were out of town, as seen the last three days.

Within ten minutes of being on the road to pick up his mother and dad, Eli was asleep. Just worn out. We've been sooo busy these last few days. When he woke up we were at the airport and he was soon sweetly reunited with Momma and Daddy.

It's always fun to have a break in our normal routines. To have a trip to look forward to. New adventures are good for the soul.

We stopped at Pop's (see May 31st) on the way home. I love this sculpture that sits on the lawn in front of the building, on Route 66, the Mother Road. John Steinbeck coined that phrase in The Grapes of Wrath.

Many people have traveled this road with so much history. I've always loved road trips that took days to complete, as well as shorter road trips. Being on the road, I imagine the people who lived and traveled before me, before there were roads, let alone cars. Some leaving family behind. Some starting their lives. Some escaping their lives. Some doing all of these at the same time.

This fall, I found out for the first time, that two of my uncles were part of that migration from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl and Depression of the 1930's. My dad is the youngest of ten children, so his older brothers were grown and married when he was very young. My brother and I are the two youngest cousins, so there is a lot of information we just didn't know like our older cousins.

Although they went to California, they eventually made it back home.

And as we were reminded this week with Eli and the Wizard of Oz, there's no place like home.