Good morning, welcome, please help yourself to a cup of hot or cold beverage and join me for a quick chat.

My Christmas road trip officially ended on December 26 in Bryce Canyon. Instead of making the 4-hour drive home that day from Bryce Canyon, I opted to spend the night in the nearby town of Panguitch, Utah in a newly-renovated 1940-built hotel. On the way there, I came so close to hitting a wolf or a coyote as it darted out of nowhere. It was my second encounter with wildlife on this trip – the first was with three deer crossing the road on the first day of the trip.

“No deaths!” I told myself. I’m not going to be someone with the death of a wild animal on my conscience.

So final thoughts on the Christmas trip. It was fun though I could’ve done without the nightmares and sleepless nights caused by those stupid scammers and the 3 hours drive to New Mexico to get my phone fixed. I felt because of the drive time between places, the schedule with quite tight. Also, I could’ve done without any family member tagging along. As I mentioned in my posts, I could’ve easily gone to the Horseshoe Bend that afternoon after Four Corners but my aunt and uncle wanted to go the next morning.

After we parted ways, the trip went so much smoother as I’m on my own schedule, not anyone else’s, and I no longer had to concern about anyone’s meal but my own. Since most of the restaurants and stores were closed between Christmas Eve and Christmas, I stocked up on frozen dinners in case I couldn’t find food. Thankfully, I found a restaurant in Flagstaff that was open on Christmas and it was just the thing I wanted – a bowl of hot steamy ramen on a frigid Christmas night.

Include the drive home, I drove a total of about 1,840 miles and 33.5 hours in 5.5 days. One thing that made this trip pleasurable was the rental car. I signed up for a compact SUV but got a large SUV instead but the SUV came with adaptive cruise control with steering capability. I can determine the gap distance between my car and the car in front. I used this feature most of the trip instead of keeping my foot on the gas, which saved me a lot of knee pain.

Today is my last day home alone. I’m picking mom up later tonight. I’m going to miss this.

I am, however, quite annoyed that mom called me each day just to have me either help her check into her flights or check her email or check train or bus schedule. There was never “how are you” or “how’s your trip going”, just do this or that for me like I’m her secretary or something. But then, I feel like that’s who I am to the rest of the family these days. I am only here to be used.

Last but not least, I finally got a new pair of glasses. I didn’t used to wear glasses but my astigmatism has gotten worse to the point where the letters often blurred together into a puddle of alphabet soup . The new glasses have been helping, surprisingly, and I must admit that this is the first pair of glasses that felt right.

#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂