We spent a few days together in Lake Tahoe, the big kids, Sara, Travis, Bob and I – and our small ones, Cash and Carson. The campground a couple miles from the lake has been a regular stop for us every summer while we have had the boys for a few weeks each summer. It filled my heart to hear the boys say “Hey, there’s our favorite ice cream place”, and “Look – there’s the bike jumps at the dirt track we rode last year”. Our hope has always been that these weeks we have with the boys each year will help to make lasting memories. I lost my grandparents as a very young child, but when I married into Bob’s family at the age of 18 I gained 2 grandmothers. One lived to be 99 and 11 months, and was a strong influence on not only myself, but on our daughter as well.

I always enjoyed the wild stories that Bob would tell me about his Pa. An early developer of Key Largo, he would take Bob along on rides through the Keys, checking on construction and generally teaching him all the useful things that every young boy needs to learn. The inappropriate lessons somehow always seemed to be taught also. Peeing outside, put pepper on your ice cream so you don’t get a brain freeze, and that ginger ale went really well with bourbon.

Fast forward fifty years or so, and it’s now Bob’s turn to teach the boys some things. How to make a super loud whistle with a blade of grass, that certain rocks skip much better than others and if you hold your arm just right you can get 10 skips in a row on a cool clear river. That ice cream doesn’t need pepper, but it does need to be the biggest scoop you can possible fit in the cone. What to carry on a 5-mile hike, and how not to get lost. He is a great teacher.

We are on the path to South Dakota this trip. This year we have the boys for 6 weeks!!!! With the new travel mode in the motorhome there is plenty of room and should make it real comfy for the miles ahead of us. We said goodbyes to their parental units and down the road we went. It’s going to be a wild ride.