Travel
The Day has Finally Come!
As we drove to Casper today to deliver Zip to Miles and Alicia it occurred that I have a driver. I keep forgetting that I can choose to allow her to drive. I mean she has had her license for over a year now.
On the way home we have her the wheel. I chose to ride in the back and knit of course.
I am working on a howl-cat for Loganne. The yarn looks more pink, but it is purple.
John was clearly excited to ride with his sister at the wheel.
The worst is our rule has always been driver controls the radio. Well we are reaping what we sow there.
Down the Road We Went
Every fall I pack my bags and head home to Tennessee to visit my parents and the rest of my family. You see I am the only one in several generations to move more than an hour away. I moved across the country. Which might as well be across the world to my family. However in the fall I go home ALONE! You may think well that’s weird, but I leave my kids, the fabulous grandkids at home to attend school and allow them and their busy schedules to mix with my husband. It is a lovely experience for them trust me. I on the other hand get to spend uninterrupted time with my mom and dad. It is fabulous.
Well mom and I have become quite the knitters. She picked up her needles after close to a 50 year hiatus last November on our girls trip and I started this past July. She is a little deeper into it than me mostly because she lives so close to yarn stores and knitting classes that she is always doing something. For me Ravelry and You Tube are my closest friends.
Now to say we are excited about yarn is an understatement. We love it like a baby seeing the bottle headed his way. The excitement that emerges right when we walk into a new yarn store, is like nothing you can compare. The rush of colors and textures. Well it’s enough to cause at least small heart palpitations! It is just so fun.
Now we have yarn at home. We have yarn in bags we take with us everywhere. We have projects started and projects almost finished and finished projects. However the excitement of finding a new more beautiful yarn is exhilarating.
I am beginning to think we are moving toward yarn hoarders from simple yarn collectors. Mom however is so organized I could vomit. She puts her skeins of yarn with the chosen pattern into ziplock bags so she is ready for her next project to start. I mean she buys yarn with a project in mind. Crazy! My yarn stash looks like a store. I think I could actually open one. I have no idea what I am making. I just like yarn and I buy a skein or two. The majority of my projects are hats. (Well we live in Wyoming on a ranch. We work outside everyday. The kids have recess at school unless it is below zero, so a multitude of hats, scarfs, and cowls is essential. Well I can justify it anyway.) With making hats I only need one skein, so I’m okay with my stash. If I start making big things well I will be in trouble, but for now I’m good. I can usually find a fun hat pattern and then look for the yarn in my ever growing plethora of spun wool. I love wool. It is so soft and warm and I love sheep. Therefore I love sheep ranchers and I need to support them and buy more wool! Wow see how that all just worked out. I should buy some wool yarn today.
Well if you are a yarn shopper as I am. You have heard of a yarn crawl. Yes, YARN CRAWL! It is a fabulous little idea where yarn stores team up at certain times if the year and give away prizes. You travel to each store on the list collecting a stamp from each one and your name goes in for drawings. Sound Fun? Well it is! Wish we had one in Wyoming. I would do it like every month! I would be so broke I would have to go work for the sheep ranchers so I could buy more. Anyway when I went home it was already over.
Mom and I cleared up our disappointment like big girls and did what only grown ups do. We made our own! That’s right. We traveled all around East Tennessee and western North Carolina visiting so many yarn stores. We had a blast. I drove and mom finished so many of her projects I almost demanded a switch. But, she does have more projects started and I hate unfinished projects. I will say we saw some of the best stores ever and met some of the nicest people.
My mom works midnights at a hospital, so you can imagine that when she is off work she doesn’t exactly go to bed early. After a long day of driving and shopping, we would come home, unload our purchases and knit! Yes knit! I spent more time on Ravelry than I knitted, but it was productive. We would knit until around 2 or 3 am and then turn in. My dad would also stay up reloading bullets. He was our supper in the middle of the night guy. It had been years since I had Taco Bell at midnight.
My trip came to an end and I returned to ranch life and my knitting has slowed down due to cattle work. Mom however has taken several more classes and finished a few more projects. Next time I think we should hire a driver so we can both knit as we travel. That would is a splendid idea and down the road we would go just as happy as can be
It’s addicting!
I stopped at a yarn and quilting store on our girls trip. Mom decided to try knitting. She hasn’t done it in years and we have days of driving for her to refresh her skills. Love my time with my mom!
That One Magical Place. SCOTLAND!!!
I don’t know about you, but most people I talk to have one place in their heart and mind that is their magical place. Maybe it was a place they used to live, a place that the celebrated a great memory, maybe a place their family lived at one point, or just a place they have visited or want to visit. It is that one place that when we think of it, our worlds fade. Our hearts begin to slow their beating, and we can feel it. We can smell the scent of the air. AHHHH! It is purely magical. Is it not?
For me it is a place that I had always wanted to visit. I had dreamed for years, lets say decades. I can date myself. Yes decades. I just imagined how lovely it would be. And then we went. In 2010, I was able to convince my ranching husband that the cattle would be fine. We had grass that summer. The weather was great, so hopefully no fires. Things were good to go to the place of my dreams. I booked our vacation and in August we boarded a plane for SCOTLAND!! Oh, I threw in a visit to a cattle ranch so that he would be getting his rancher needs met. It was going to be glorious.
I am an avid romance novel reader. I have always been a reader, but highland romance novels as corny as they sound are just fabulous. I can read it in one night and enjoy a little mind vacation to the place of my dreams.
When we arrived it was just as I had imagined only better. It was the most glorious place my eyes have every witnessed. It was so green, with sheep grazing on the hillsides. The coast was amazing. In our 8 days of driving, we only had rain once. It was just awesome. I took over 700 pictures, and not a one does the country justice. I hope one day to return to take my kids, when they are grown.
The people, although hard to understand at first, were downright the nicest ever. I felt right at home even though I was a silly tourist. There is not one bad thing I have to say from our experience, except that we weren’t there long enough.
Scotland is definitely one place that has never left me and I find myself going their in my mind as often as I can. I have told my husband that when he dies, which will surely be before me, that I am going to move there and live out my days.
Do you have a place like that? A place that pulls to you. A place that you can never full shake out of your system. It seems to creep up in one too many conversations, until you know you begin to annoy people with your fascination with it.
Oh, even now. I can see it, I can feel the damp air, smell that aroma of stone and history. I don’t have family from Scotland. So sad for me. Irish yes and Wales, but no Scottish. Lots of German and some English, but no Scottish. Oh to be a proud clan from Scotland. Don’t get me wrong I am very proud of where my ancestors have come. But they are different there. To be a member of a clan and to have that heritage on your shoulders. Oh, Heaven would be mine. I dare say it would.
I think I am going to have to settle for a romance novel tonight and dream of my Magical Place!!!
The Modern Ranch Wife 