HAVE CRADLE, WILL TRAVEL.

I like road trips. I always have, since I was a little kid. I wanted to be one of the guys from the old TV show "Route 66. "  I also wanted to be on the ultimate road trip. On the TV show "Wagon Train" with Ward Bond, they were on their way to California, but never seemed to get there.

Anyway, I was gone most of last week. I went on a road trip with my sister. Not the most happy happy, let's have some fun type of sister. She is way older than me (by two years) and does not really know how to have a good time. Her idea of a good time is teaching water aerobics at the rec' center. Or watching a documentary on stained glass.

Me? I like to boogie (like that word?) down the road. And if I see something that catches my interest, I stop and check it out. I like history, so a lot of the historical markers and such are a must stop, and read, and look. But, with my sister doing some of the driving, we didn't do a whole lot of that.

We were on a mission, of sorts. My brother-in-law made a old style baby cradle. We were taking it  from Denver to a little town just south of Seattle, Washington. It was for a young couple who just had their first child, a little boy. My sister asked me if I would go with her on this trip, and I felt honored to do so. You see, the young man had been in the same unit as my nephew who was killed a couple years ago. I had met him at a picnic in my nephew's honor some years back, here in Colorado.

This young man is now out of the service from wounds he received in Afghanistan. He is now a proud father. Robert, my brother in-law, made this cradle for his new little boy. It will be a family heirloom to be handed down through the generations to come. I was honored to get to go with my sister to deliver the cradle.

It gave my sister and I a chance to talk and to reminisce about our childhoods and to talk about family. Things that she remembered at times, I could not remember. And, if I brought something up, she also could not remember some things. We were in a hurry, but not in a big hurry. When we arrived at their home, there was excitement and hugs, and a few tears. My sister held the baby for awhile and would not give him up so I could hold him. But that's okay.

We stayed and chatted, drank some ice tea, and I took some pictures. My sister and I left and drove on into Seattle to a hotel for some good sleep. I found out on the first night on the road that sleeping in a reclined front seat of a Subaru Outback at a truck stop does NOT make for a good few hours of sleep.

I also found out that it takes Robert several months to do one of these cradles. I think the man is wasting his time driving a truck. He ought to be making more of these and the wooden toys that he makes. I think he could make a good living at it. Unless my sister likes him out of the house now and then when he is on the road.

(continued tomorrow)