More About Our Trip Out East

Written on 10-25-26.

        I am lying on our bed waiting for the Denver Broncos game to start.  They play Arizona today, so I will be writing during the commercials.  Amanda and Eric will drive home today, and then they will decide whether they will go to Wooden Shoe tonight or tomorrow.  They might decide not to go after all the flooding, but it subsided yesterday.  My bet is on tomorrow.

I want to give some more details for our trip.  This was nearly as great as our trip to the Redwood Forest and Crater Lake last year.  We spoke about it a couple of days ago, and we decided that Crater Lake was our favorite.  Even with the horrible news we had gotten on the way there from Danielle, it still ranked highest.

We used up most of our Hilton Honors Points on this recent trip, and because of that, we were able to stay at most of our hotels free of charge.  That saved us gobs of money.  We paid just over $1,000.00 for the flights and the rental car using Priceline.  I like how they bundle stuff for more savings.  We did pay Guy for our part of the AirBnB for the weekend when we watched ShyShay play, but we felt we did pretty well saving money on this trip.

We wondered what the rest of this trip might be like after our first leg, the ride to the Sunport with John, our Uber driver.  He confided that he was divorced and he was a locksmith, too.  He was...

interesting.  Tattoos covered his right arm.  After a bit of small talk, he asked us two questions.  He asks all of his passengers these same two questions.  1. Have we (humankind) been to the moon?  2. Is the earth round?  We said yes and yes.

I was curious what he thought, and he said the answers were no and no.  This is why I said he was interesting.  Sounded to us like he had gone down some rabbit holes while searching the internet (he did admit to that), and Belinda wondered if this was the reason for his divorce.

I thought of “APOTE”-All Part of the Experience.  That comes from the movie Vacation with Chevy Chase, and we have used it over and over ever since.  

We divided our vacation into three parts.  The first part was Monticello at Guy’s suggestion.  We had never been there, and we love American history, especially with the 250th birthday of the U.S.A happening this year.  

The second part was in Williamsburg with the VA Swopes.  We toured Colonial Williamsburg and watched two of Shylah’s matches.  We were finally able to see the Williamsburg Bray School, too.  I saw it a couple of years ago on the Today Show, and, as an educator, I really wanted to see it.  I had my teacher friend, Belinda, with me this time, and we missed it last year when I was with Bev.  I was so happy to check it off the list.  

The William and Mary volleyball team did not do well.  They lost both matches, but they played so much better the second day.  We tailgated with the parents just like Bev and I did last year.  Mostly, we tried to stay out of the politics of the team, but they were ever present.  It was great to be a guest and stay out of the fray.  ShyShay played very well, and I am so proud of her.  My plan remains the same; I hope to go every year to visit and watch her play.