I made it home shortly after midnight. Lots of bumpy plane rides, and then rain on the way home. Needless to say, I drove very carefully home. The closer I got to home, the more snow was on the ground. It nearly covered the road, so it’s a good thing I knew where I was going.

I made it back to Alabama at about 8:30 last night. The National World War II Museum took longer than I had expected. It was extremely crowded and took about 3 hours to go through and that was going through fairly quickly. If I’d waited to see all the films and did all the interactive stuff, it would have taken all day. As it was, I was in a hurry to get back home, plus it was after lunch before I even made it through the line to get in. Needless to say, I was hungry when I got out of there. And while New Orleans is renowned for their food, I was in no mood to fight NOLA traffic and parking to eat in town, so I drove to Slidell and ate there.

I made a few stops on my way home. I’m looking to buy an Apple Watch Series 2, but all the Best Buy’s are sold out and I can’t seem to find anywhere else that has them. I stopped in four or five Best Buy’s stores between Louisiana and home. Nothing.

Finally though, after I stopped a few times for gas and to eat dinner, I made it back to my aunt’s house. I was exhausted. So I just went to bed early.

I’m making a stop in New Orleans on my way back to see the National World War II Museum. I’ve been there when it was the D-Day Museum but I haven’t seen the newer exhibits that make it about the whole war. Part of this side trip will he for work, they are actually paying me to go and take lots of pictures. Then it will be the long drive back to Alabama.

I feel so cut off from the world down here. The Internet is spotty. My parents turn it off most of the time, which is really annoying. I do almost everything on my iPad and nearly every app calls for the Internet. It’s only two weeks of this. I can survive it. It doesn’t make it less annoying. Tomorrow, I am taking my mother to the cemetery then we are doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Then tomorrow night, I am going to get a new iPhone. I’ve had a 5C iPhone for a few years now and it’s time for an upgrade. This will be my Christmas present to myself.

All my Christmas gifts have been sent home, some are even already wrapped. I leave Wednesday flying home, and I am already dreading it. My mother, without consulting me, has already made plans for the whole time that I am home. She called last night with a list of places I had to go and a list of things I had to do. It gets exhausting, and I’m not even home yet. I’m fortunate to have my parents though, even if they drive me crazy. I still love them.

I fly back tonight. At least tonight’s flight back is a little easier than my flight down. It will still be hard to say goodbye to family, but I will see them again at Christmas. It looks as if I will get back just in time for the first snow of the season. The forecast shows snow for Tuesday. It was expected to snow yesterday but it looks as if the forecast changed, and I don’t think they had any snow while I was away. Everyone tells me that this winter will be far harsher than last winter. We shall see.

Early this morning, I left on a plane heading to Alabama. When this blog piece posts, I will be at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport scrambling to catch my next flight to Charolotte before then heading to the Montgomery Airport. Once in Alabama, I’ll have time Friday and Saturday to spend with family. The visitation will be Saturday night and the funeral Sunday afternoon. Then Monday evening, I will be flying back to Vermont.

It will be a whirlwind trip and a sad one, but at least I will get to see my family and spend some time with them. I will also get to see my kitties, Edith and Lucy. I plan to get in some good food and some sweet tea while I’m there also. So while it is a sad occasion and a sad trip, there will be some pluses along the way.

My flight home Monday night began at 9:20pm. I know they expect you to sleep but my sleep was very fitful. When I finally arrived back home around 9:30am, I slept most of Tuesday.

I spent a large chunk of yesterday flying to California. Have I mentioned how much I hate to fly? A total of almost 7 hours in a plane. I hate sitting still for that long. After a few bumps along the way, and I’m not just talking about the turbulent flight, I got checked into my hotel room. I immediately took a nap because I’d been awake since 2am eastern time. 

Tomorrow, my conference begins with two workshops. I’m really looking forward to the workshops because they are supposed to train me for the next part of my job at the museum.