Today we leave for a three-week getaway. To all those blog stalkers who plan to come rob us, please make sure you feed the cats and turtles while you are here, ok? And water the plants? Thanks much.

We are driving - yes driving - back to Michigan to make our annual sojourn to The Cabin. We are taking it slow with a plan to just drive from 6am to noon daily and then enjoy the rest of our day wherever we land. So our one week cabin stay will be preceded and followed by a week each of driving. Slow & steady wins the race, right?

If you are reading this and live in or near Hot Springs Arkansas, Mt Vernon IL, Memphis, St. Louis, Ft. Wayne, Chicago or Tulsa, drop me a private email and we’ll try to hook up. I’d love to meet more bloggers along the way!!

It’s funny how things change over time. Last year I did not really want to go and was motivated only by a desire to visit with my Dad and stepMom. This year I am positively frothing at the mouth at the very idea of this entire trip! There will be pictures, many many pictures. Think total seclusion, privacy, quiet and peace on a beautiful lake with eagles and fishing and 70 degree weather and that’s what I have waiting for me.

As a bonus, I also get to see some friends from Michigan who I haven’t seen in awhile, so that will be fun. We’ll be potlucking this time next weekend and the following week I get to hang out with my good friend and her family up north and I’m really REALLY looking forward to it.

Because we are totally insane, we have also scheduled a dentist appointment in Michigan with our fabulous family dentist. We, of course, means the children and Tony. I will be drinking heavily somewhere else. haha. Seriously I’m sure we can find an ok dentist here but no one will replace our old dentist. I really trust him and we’ve had a lot of unique dental issues to contend with.

And also we are taking our dogs with us on this trip so that we can board them up in Michigan at our old kennel. I just never got around to interviewing kennels here locally and although I have a short list of personal recommendations, I haven’t gone through them yet. Plus this will shave 2 of the 3 weeks off their kennel stay which will save us TONS of money.

And I’m a little - ok a LOT - gun shy about leaving my dogs just anywhere. A few years ago we took my little dog up north with us instead of boarding her and we found a kennel up north to leave her for a few days so we could do some non-dog-friendly day trips and the kennel LOST her. In the Great North with nothing but forest and farms for miles. We had to go home without her. I sat in a sullen depressed funk for days and finally got my boys together, loaded up the car and drove the 4 hours back up north determined to find her. We picked up some Arbys sandwiches and set off to do some serious back-woods driving. Then, the very first street we pulled onto, she was sitting like a little tiny white statue on the front lawn just waiting for us. She was very very traumatized and scared and didn’t trust me at first but once she realized who we were, she went positively insane. We fed her sandwiches, gave her lots of water and drove the 4 hours home in time for Dalton’s soccer practice that night.

So I have issues with leaving my dog just anywhere. In fact we got our other little dog shortly thereafter specifically so that, should we ever have to kennel our dog again, she would be with a “friend” and less anxious. And my kennel that I trust in Michigan knows of her history and is careful outside with both dogs and takes very good care of them.

So short story long, we are kenneling our dogs in Michigan and also going to the dentist in Michigan. We are so loyal! Or stubborn.

So wish us luck as we pack four kids and two dogs and three weeks worth of “stuff”, including fishing poles (fly and regular becuase who can chose just one?) and life jackets and butterfly nets and then there is the car entertainment - DVD players and DVDs, iPods, video game system and alcohol snacks. And I hope the kids are good at driving because there won’t be room left for us adults!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 8:10 am and is filed under Holidays & Vacations, Moving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.