I am fortunate to be able to travel for both my career and in my personal life.  Compared to the many road warriors I’ve encountered, I have no desire to claim the deep experience and travel scars they do. However, I do manage to have some off beat adventures and quirky side adventures.  This one is happening as we speak.

I grew up in a very small Northern town in Michigan, a village by definition.  Heavily agricultural with a strong reliance on manufacturing,  Elkton was a sheltered, safe place to be a kid.  It also gave me a sweet launching point to the world.  I now live in the Empire State of Atlanta, a bustling small town of a city that is a completely different speed of life.  Luckily, I met the man of my dreams in the Deep South and we have had many world wide travel adventures together in our short years together.  After seeing Paris, I decided it was time to bring him home to see Elkton.

As a full disclosure: The Dear BF is a pilot so we are fortunate enough to have travel flight benefits, which means we fly for close to free on any open seat.  Since it had been almost two years since I had seen my small village, my home sickness was at an all time high and I decided to stubbornly carve out a long weekend visit.  I secured the precious vacation day from work, sent my out of office emails and we thundered into the sky late Thursday evening.

The weekend could not have been more perfect.  My aunt met us at the airport excited and happy we were home and promptly whisked us into the dark Michigan night to her home.  The next day my grandparents and other family members showed up and we were able to visit and enjoy the peace of being home.  The word itself implies a loosening of tensions and ability to relax into the lap of family.  After a very full two days of trekking around the Thumb and eating our way through Michigan, it was time to return South and back to “reality”.

We woke up early, enjoyed a massive breakfast near the airport and Auntie M faithfully delivered us back to the terminal for our journey home.  When we booked the flights, plenty of  non revenue seats were open.  When the flight left, dear BF and I were still on the ground.  Not only did we not make this flight, our prospects for getting anywhere near Atlanta earlier than Monday night were dim.  With a high demand job and his impending return to work in the back of my mind, we made an executive decision.  Instead of wishing and hoping for two seats to open up, we have rented a car and will be making the 10-12 drive home on I-75 South.

Wish us luck on the journey and I will faithfully check in.  If life is an adventure, we are certainly adding another chapter today!