Graduation Parade

My great-niece’s high school graduation parade announcement was on Face Book.

We’ve driven our Chevy in a few parades lately.  We thought about how fun it would be to show up for that one. 

But this parade would be in Texas, and attending was extremely unlikely.  Driving the Chevy there was even less likely. 

My wife checked on the rumored, low cost airline tickets – a false rumor.  What if we drove the Yukon?  I asked.  I told her the map said it was a 27-hour drive.  We were standing in the lower part of Tuesday – the parade would be Thursday.  We would have roughly 48 hours to drive 1750 miles.  That’s less than 37 MPH – we can beat that!

Adventure was calling.  We made a last-minute decision, quickly packed the Yukon and left home at about 7:30 that evening.  We drove non-stop (about 24 hours) to Phoenix where we got a room for the night. 

I saw 113 degrees on our Yukon thermometer in New Mexico. Good thing we didn’t drive the Chevy, it has windows – not air conditioning.

We continued 7 more hours the next day, arriving in El Paso less than an hour before the parade was to begin.  My nephew knew of our plans, but the graduate, Isabella, did not.

We were the last car in the parade. 

Isabella cried when we surprised her.  It was contagious.

We stayed five nights.  I forgot how long it had been since we last saw my nephew and family.  We did a lot of visiting, just sitting and talking – although we did break away to go and see the world’s largest Pistachio. 

The best part about our marathon visiting was recognizing little johnny’s personality in the adult johnny’s body.

After returning home, I had an overdue colonoscopy and a follow-up upper endoscopy, it was kind of like a two-for-one deal.  The resulting list of discoveries included Polyps (removed and sent for testing), ulcers (Ulcers?!), and internal hemorrhoids (what?).

This is my favorite Isabella video: her witch dance