We have all been dying to get home and see our family, all of them. We were determined that at the first break in my schedule big enough to make the trip we would go for it. The schedule was slow in coming out for good reasons as we do have several of our core staff on leave. I recieved it on Wednesday and noticed that in the whole next two months I only had one long break off and it was the weekend coming up starting the very next day. We had been in contact with Chuck and Donna (Grandma and Grandpa Owens) and knew that they were planing to get away for the weekend to celebrate their 39th anniversary. It really wasn’t the best weekend to run home, but we had talked to the kids and they knew that we wanted to go home sometime during this assignment, those of you who know me know how much it does not sit right with me to not do what I say I will do. No we had not promised, but we had given them that hope. We let Grandma and Grandpa know what we were looking at and they we excited to see us and invited us to join them at the beach, not at all minding that we would be joining them for a traditionally couple only celebration. Chad packed our bags while I worked on Thursday. Jumping into the bathroom, changing clothes as Chad packed the kids and bags into the car we headed north toward Sacramento. My cousin William and his daughter Trinity live in Sacramento in the house that my mother grew up in. He had a guest room set up for us and gave us instructions on how to get in and that they would see us in the morning as we were to roll into their place around 0100. The traffic out of Fallbrook was stop and go so we ended up taking some very scenic hilly/curvy roads out of town to bypass the freeway. I loved seeing all the avacado groves, so amazing and so beautiful. I have always heard that Fallbrook is the avacado Capitol, but as many times as I have been in Fallbrook in my life (besides the tree in the back yard at grandma’s house when we were growing up) I hadn’t seen the avacado groves that put this town on the map. It was great. I want to drive those back roads ten more times before we are done with this assignment. Once we were on the freeway the trip was uneventful. We were thankful of that. No hint of snow or foul weather. We enjoyed the greeting from little Snickers their dog as we came in for the night. She cuddled up on our bed as we turned out the lights. Snickers is just a few weeks older than Hannah. We met her first on our family camping trip to the Redwoods when Hannah was not quite two weeks old and Snickers was just a tiny puppy. A little beagle as sweet as she could be. We were up early. We wanted every spare minute to visit with William and Trinity before he headed off to work and she headed to school. I think there are many times on this blog that I have mentioned the individual blessings that have been given to us through this journey of travel nursing. One of the very biggest blessings of all has been visiting with family. Much of the family we get to visit before travel nursing we saw them maybe once every couple of years and now we see them a couple times a year. Some family on the east coast we hadn’t seen in 25 years. This gift alone has made travel nursing worth it for our family. We had some cold cerial and coffee sneaking in about 45 minutes of visiting. We as a group headed out to the car each departing our different ways. So thankful for the time although short that we had to invest in each other. On our way out we drove passed another cousins house. It didn’t look like they were home and knowing it was time for them to be dropping off four of their five children at school, we reluctantly passed. We are hoping we get another chance this assignment to sit down and visit with them too. We stopped by the hospital in Redding where my cousin works and stole a quick hug visiting for a few minutes before her pager went off and she had to tend to her patients. We headed over the Siskiyous. It was beautiful & green with out snow even on the peeks of the mountains. We could see home in the distance tightening our seat belts and not stopping for any reason.
We were headed to Lincol City the first night bypassing Salem. We arived at our hotel at dinner time calling Chuck and Donna as the kids were getting ready to dive out of the car and run to them where ever they may be. They were picking up Pizza for dinner and we be there in 15-20 minutes. We checked into our room and got Eve in the bath. About that time there came a knock at the door and to smiling familiar faces filed in. Grandma and Grandpa!!!! Yay. It had been four months too long! We visited and ate pizza. It was dark already and raining, but we could listen to the surf and see the white wave tips in the moon light. Grandma and Grandpa looked great! They always do. Eve got out of the bath and back in a few times before we were done eating dinner. Chuck and Chad discussed the business and how it was going, as well as some other life stuff like taxes. Donna and the kids went on a mermaid hunt around the hotel stopping in the lobby to get cookies. It was past bedtime Chad was going to put the kids to bed when they came back so I snuck out to visit with the Newport night shift girls. I miss them and their positive attitudes, a hardworking not much complaining group (my favorite kind). We visited until about 0100, I hated to leave but I knew morning would come early.
Owens Endeavors 