An Adventure Together

 Coming home yesterday felt surreal. After being on the road for 5 days and passing through 3 in a half states, leaving California, seeing Arizona, New Mexico, coming through Texas and seeing family in San Antonio and then finally Houston has been a special, somewhat intense and exhausting, memorable, whirlwind road trip. 

I never thought I would do a trip like this let alone with my brother. He landed his first ICU nursing job in Houston, Texas and invited me to join him for this epic journey all the way to Texas. I was only slightly hesitant, thinking about travel by car with just the two of us and then me flying back home. But as I thought and pondered it, I knew the answer would be yes. How could I pass up an opportunity like this? Such a milestone for my younger brother, and not sure when I would see him next. It would also be a good experience, and a trip that we would always remember. He even said that we could see the Grand Canyon on the way! I've wanted to see this world wonder for sometime now and was even thinking of seeing it sometime this summer. With an opportunity like this, I knew it was an additional reason to go with him and experience this memorable adventure alongside with him. 

For part of the trip, I kept thinking about Our Lady and how she went lengths to visit and accompany her cousin Elizabeth who was also expecting later in years, John the Baptist. I thought of Our Lady's commitment, generosity, charity and support. The first long days of travel felt quite intense with being in the car for many, many hours and a lot of time seeing beautiful yet similar scenery for long hours at time. The tiredness of sitting, and travel and being on a time constraint were things to adapt to. But thinking of the Visitation was helpful in how I could continue to support Steven on this trip as well as his adjustment to Texas.

St. Joseph came to mind a lot as well. His tender care and love, protection and support of Our Lady when they were traveling on donkey to find a place to stay, or when it was unsafe for them and they had to flee to Egypt as refugees for their baby son, Jesus to be safe from Herod's evil tactics and malicious hands. St. Joseph was the one leading and brought Mary to the stable to give birth since there was no room anywhere else. I knew St. Joseph was leading us on our long and tiring journey to get to our destinations safely and on time. 

There was one night when we were in Albuquerque, New Mexico and driving through heading to our destination for that night. The city, Santa Rosa didn't feel that nice or safe and it was getting later in the evening. The place that my brother and I were planning to stay didn't look all that great either, a simple motel. It also looked closed, though the sign said open. We eventually talked to the man and he confirmed that we didn't have a reservation and that he was booked for a number of weeks. We were confused and figured the Expedia didn't go through on their end so we had to find something else. We were tired and exhausted from driving, had seen the Grand Canyon that morning and were ready to call it a day. 

We tried 2 more places in hopes of finding an opening. One place we briefly looked at and it liked less safe to me than the prior one, and with a barking dog outside someone's door, it didn't feel very comforting let alone for a good nights sleep with a loud dog. We scratched that idea and attempted with another motel, somewhat similar to the last one. And when the guy finally let us in, it seemed sketchy to me, and there were only smoking rooms available. We knew we had to find something else, as the man stated there more further down we could try. But it didn't seem like much left, and it was approaching 10pm. I didn't feel that safe in that area and especially at night, but luckily with my brother, I felt okay. I told Steven, lets say a Hail Mary to St. Joseph to help us find a safe and nice enough and affordable place to stay the night and to get a good nights rest. We tried a motel chain across the way that looked like an upgrade from all the rest we'd seen, and it felt safer with more rooms and not so close to the street. My brother went inside to ask and sure enough he they had something available. I knew it was to St. Joseph that we could get a good nights sleep and feel safe that night.

Driving through Arizona, New Mexico and a good portion of Texas was very eye opening for me. I never considered how much land there is among these states, the agriculture, the rural land, and the mountain ranges in Arizona that display a reddish burnt color that makes you think of the Grand Canyon. I also thought a lot of the Pixar movie 'Cars' since it was set in that area and Route 66 which we took. The pace was very different because I'm used to suburban, city life not country. The music I would play from my CDs would go nicely since a number of them were from my favorite band, Lord Huron which is an Indie/Folk genre. 

I feel that I could focus on the roadways and whatever happened this past school year, it felt all behind me. I was just enjoying the present moment and scenery with my brother and embracing this trip as well as the summer ahead. There were a lot of things to laugh about either in the moment or reminisce about later, such as the street play in Williams, Arizona that he kept replaying the recorded video he took, and talking about it since we didn't quite understand it because we missed some of it. It took a while to adjust that it was just me and Steven. I'm so used to having a sister around, or another woman like my mom. It was a learning curve to realize that him and I were experiencing this altogether yet how different we are- he's choleric, melancholy, introvert, and I believe to be a 'J' in the Myers-Brigg and myself- a phlegmatic melancholy and  a 'P', and definitely a sensitive introvert. 

But I think considering everything, it went well and we got along because we are very different and opposite; I also think we helped each other. Towards the end of the trip, I asked him ,'So, are you sick of me yet?' And he said no right away, and I said 'Yeah, I'm not really sick of you either.' I think also what helped in creating and sharing memories was laughing. 

There is a lot more to say and write, but I will stop here now. To be continued..