I can remember driving my grandmother home from a visit with us and returning home myself the same day when I was in college. My best friend went with me and we had time to stop at a state park and wander around on the way home.
Today I live a 16-hour drive from my mother and about the same distance from my brother and all his family members, though they are scattered a bit themselves. One niece (Kirstin, who came to see us this past Sunday) lives a couple of hours away from my mother, but my brother and the outliers, although in Texas, are about eight hours away by car.
Add to that the complications introduced by weather. It is difficult for me to plan a trip from Wisconsin through the middle of the country to Texas in the winter because of potential snow and ice. Ditto that in the spring because of potential tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and hail. A Christmas trip in 2013 had to be cancelled and this trip was delayed a day because of weather. There was a two-day window in the severe weather that let me get here. Now it looks like there will be another two-day window so I can return to Wisconsin early next week, but again a day later than my original plan.
When I say severe weather, I am not talking just rain. Today there are severe thunderstorms in the Texas panhandle, including golf-ball-sized hail in Amarillo (where my nephew lives) and possible tornadoes in Perryton where everyone in the family used to live.
As a kid, I thought those three-hour drives to Whitehouse and back were endless. Today they sound pretty relaxed.
Flying is possible but not at all convenient. I won't bore you with the details, but let me assure you that it is a mess.
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