It's Good To Be Back Home

After close to two weeks on the road I can comfortably say that it is good to be back home.  Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy our little break from the day to day.  After all what could be more appealing than a quick trip to the Smoky Mountains bookended by time spent with my sons?



Along the way I enjoyed an afternoon catching up with a dear friend in Nashville, an impromptu family reunion along the interstate and attending my first professional hockey game in many, many years.  I have to confess that it is probably a good thing that there is distance between myself and the ice.  I could get hooked.  The fast pace of the game, the smack of sticks on ice, the roar of the crowd, the fisticuffs, it was pure entertainment.

Our two night stay in the Smoky Mountains was a tease.  Spring may have been in full swing in Nashville but not so in the mountains.  We found that many restaurants and motels were closed.  It seems April is a respite for the locals between the end of winter ski season and the arrival of May flowers.  That can only mean one thing.  I must return.

We arrived in Hickory in the nick of time.  I hadn't seen the grandchildren since Thanksgiving and I was about to keel over from withdrawal.  Our two munchkins move at a pace that even those hockey players would find difficult to match.  There was bedroom volleyball, Easter egg hunts, walks with Henna, backyard baseball, coloring, drawing, putt-putt golf, Wii golf, bowling, tennis and boxing, hide and seek and more.  I found muscles that I didn't know were lost and enjoyed every minute of it.  (Especially those rare moments when they let me take a break.)

And then it was over.  And that brings me back to where I started... home.

After two weeks on the road and time spent with my family making wonderful memories, I can confidently say, it's good to be back home.