Drive south

It's almost time. As I write this, I'm thirty-four hours at most from leaving for vacation.

I don't know that it's been intentional, but my vacations have taken me a little more off the beaten path than your typical destinations. For my first "grown up" vacation, meaning I actually had paid time off from work, I visited a friend who lived about an hour south of Dallas, went on to Austin for a couple days, drove up to Iowa where my mom was a minister for a year, and then came home.

For spring break my freshman year of college I went to Cleveland. My senior year I went with some friends to Chicago. I don't imagine too many other college students were traveling to cold climes. In Cleveland I saw U2 and The Pixies in concert, so maybe that makes it sound less strange.

With 90-degree temperatures cooking us in Ohio, the natural place to go in early August is...Arkansas? Actually, it'll be my fourth time in the state. I've driven through it twice on the way to Texas, and I spent a tornado-ridden, late November night there two years ago when tagging along as radio announcer/surrogate sports information director for the college's basketball team. It was on that trip that I met Donna and her family in the flesh. I knew her and husband Noel from a film discussion group, but I wouldn't say we knew each other well.

It's through knitting, this blog, and chats that I've come to know Donna better, and it's through all those things and her that I've become friends with Jenn. Even though they live almost eight hundred miles south of me, I cherish the friendship I've developed with both of them. So I'm headed to Arkansas for vacation to visit them. That might sound kind of crazy considering our interactions have been online, but I'm sufficiently convinced that Jenn isn't an ax murderer. If Donna vouches for her, she has to be all right. (I imagine that goes both ways.) They're smart as whips and generous souls, kind of like the sisters I never had.

I'll be visiting Jenn first in Fayetteville. A few days later I'll make the drive to Conway and connect with Donna and the rest of her household. I am extremely excited that I'll be able to spend time with them--and knit, of course. Arkansas may be known for its diamonds, but it's a couple of other gems that I'm looking forward to seeing.