Two different trips

My wife's theme next week should be "On the Road Again." Either the Willie Nelson or the Canned Heat version.

She is preparing for another bus tour.

Her first was last September, to Branson, Mo., to see the country music shows there. This new tour is also to Branson, but the special appeal this time is a series of Christmas-related shows the tour group will attend. That's right up her alley--she loves Christmas-themed shows.

As last time, I will stay back here, keeping the kitties company in the increasingly chilly U.P. I've got the girls volleyball districts this week. I'm pretty sure at least one team will make it through to next week's regional tourney, so I'm going to be supporting the girls. (Umm, did I phrase that right?)

Also, one of our football teams is in the playoffs, and they play Friday night. This is the team that has gone to the state finals in Detroit for the last five years--but their 2010 tourney trail could end Friday night. Maybe. Time will tell.

However things turn out, on Saturday afternoon I am driving her about 90 miles west to the place where she gets on the bus Sunday morning--we will stay at a motel Saturday night. It's just a few miles from where my friend N lives; on Saturday evening, we plan to go out for dinner with her. My wife hasn't met N yet--we almost did earlier this year, but the trip was called off for other reasons.

Before she gets on the bus, I'm going to try to give her a crash course in sending/receiving text messages, which can be a handy skill during a trip/tour like this. She has a Tracfone. Now I have to show her how to send texts. And this time, don't leave the charger home!

My wife would like me to come along on these trips with her; she says she would even pay my way! But the trips seem to be scheduled when life at work is especially hectic. And we've got a small staff. You can count the reporters on our staff with one hand and still have a couple fingers left over.

She has expressed interest in a cruise tentatively planned next May--the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, etc. But that's in the middle of the spring season. Also England, Wales and Ireland--but that's next fall. And let's not forget that I've got places I like to go/things I like to do during summer, too, and two weeks of vacation simply won't cover it.

She doesn't have to worry about stuff like that. I do.

What she really ought to do is find a good, dependable friend who is able to go on trips and tours with her. She tried to interest one of her sisters in this trip, but that didn't work. If she finds a reliable friend who is able to travel--and yes, I have no problem if it's a male--that would solve that problem.

Eventually, I will be able to retire. That's not too many years away.

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While she is out of town next week, I'm taking two days off for a trip of my own. This one is very special to me.

Several times while my brother and I were growing up near Milwaukee, my mom and dad would take us north to the Horicon Marsh, which is part of the North American flyway for Canada geese--it's a national wildlife refuge now. We would see incredible numbers of geese, honk-honking around in the sky or enjoying the marsh--they rest and feed there before resuming their flight south. With so many thousands of geese in one place, it's a very noisy place.

It's been many, many years since we last went there. And now I am the only one left. I'm pretty sure I took my wife there once (maybe before we were married), but that would still be decades ago--we moved to the western U.P. in the late '70s.

So next week, I'm taking my cameras along to record this incredible sight. I'm leaving early Wednesday morning and should get there in the early afternoon. That night, I'll visit my friends S and T--I'll take them out to dinner, and maybe we will enjoy the pool at my motel. (I won't spend the night with them this time.) Thursday morning, I'm driving back north. Not much time off, but you take what you can get

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I will eventually write something about Tuesday's election. Not today. Let the dust settle a while. Let the poison leach out of the airwaves.