Trip down to Austin
There was a DeFor family reunion down in Austin today. I decided to take Relia down and show her off. The FP Gal choose to take advantage of a quiet day and sit at home watching her stories and drinking daiquiris. Really, who can blame her?
The drive down had one big flaw. Right near Faribault there is about five miles of construction on I-35. Going southbound we hit the backup four miles before reducing to one lane. It took 45 minutes to crawl those nine miles, nearly all of it in first gear. The whole thing was ridiculous. Northbound traffic seemed to move without a problem and I couldn't see any backup on that side.
(Let me get off topic a bit here. I've driven this route literally hundreds of time. Every summer there is a stretch of road construction. I've never had that type of delay. Up until this year Minnesota has prompted drivers to get in the correct lane some miles before being forced to. This year they've put up signs asking drivers to use both lanes and merge at the last point. I can't help but wonder if there is a connection.)
So we were late but timing wasn't terribly important. We got to the reunion and saw bunches of family. (To those concerned, Montana is just fine.) Relia played with Pop-pop (my dad) and had a wonderful time. She was very adament about sitting at an adult chair to eat, even though the table was at eye level. She also enjoyed 'sharing' my chocolate cake.
Then we made a quick run over to the Bremner's to drop off a gift. They have 17 children now (possible number may be as low as six) and they loved Relia. She was quickly swept into their maelstorm and ran around. It also seemed like she hugged any kid that was near her although the images flashed by rather quickly. I chatted with Steve and Micah and took some time convincing their youngest son Peter that we had the same name.
We left Austin very late. Shared a bit of food and made our way back north. She fell asleep about twenty minutes in. Breezed through the construction area with no real delay. (Those poor suckers going southbound were backed up about two and a half miles.) Relia woke as we pulled up to the house but we quickly popped her into bed.
A good (but long) day.
The drive down had one big flaw. Right near Faribault there is about five miles of construction on I-35. Going southbound we hit the backup four miles before reducing to one lane. It took 45 minutes to crawl those nine miles, nearly all of it in first gear. The whole thing was ridiculous. Northbound traffic seemed to move without a problem and I couldn't see any backup on that side.
(Let me get off topic a bit here. I've driven this route literally hundreds of time. Every summer there is a stretch of road construction. I've never had that type of delay. Up until this year Minnesota has prompted drivers to get in the correct lane some miles before being forced to. This year they've put up signs asking drivers to use both lanes and merge at the last point. I can't help but wonder if there is a connection.)
So we were late but timing wasn't terribly important. We got to the reunion and saw bunches of family. (To those concerned, Montana is just fine.) Relia played with Pop-pop (my dad) and had a wonderful time. She was very adament about sitting at an adult chair to eat, even though the table was at eye level. She also enjoyed 'sharing' my chocolate cake.
Then we made a quick run over to the Bremner's to drop off a gift. They have 17 children now (possible number may be as low as six) and they loved Relia. She was quickly swept into their maelstorm and ran around. It also seemed like she hugged any kid that was near her although the images flashed by rather quickly. I chatted with Steve and Micah and took some time convincing their youngest son Peter that we had the same name.
We left Austin very late. Shared a bit of food and made our way back north. She fell asleep about twenty minutes in. Breezed through the construction area with no real delay. (Those poor suckers going southbound were backed up about two and a half miles.) Relia woke as we pulled up to the house but we quickly popped her into bed.
A good (but long) day.
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