Traveling with Dad

We are barely minutes into our trip and I’ve got my first dadism. Dadisms are phrases I wouldn’t expect to hear pass through anyone’s lips. Except my dad’s. The first one is pretty innocuous as he tells me he could never fly alone because my mom had been the “brains of the operation”. The second one, about 10 minutes later was about the bathroom so I’ll keep it to myself.

I have an older and younger sister so we share them via text as they come up because we have all experienced them in their varying forms. I am currently in re-entry mode so I hear them every few minutes until eventually, they become part of the background again. My older sister who has been living with him for a couple of months will only share the doozies because she’s been highly desensitized to them.

Much of the time he is regurgitating random facts he picks up (from God knows where). Once he told me only about half of a gaggle of ducklings that passed us on the lake would survive. Many times his facts are unverifiable so I just take them in like a cool shower of information. I say all this with the greatest love, awe and respect because I envy his unfiltered way of living.

You don’t need to be too conversant to travel with dad because he can hold up any conversation and never runs out of things to talk about. He will talk to anyone and I was pretty amazed when he described himself as an introvert on our trip last year. If he’s an introvert, what am I?!

We’re only a few hours into our trip and I’ve heard several stories about previous trips of his to Florida in his younger years, many of them new to me. There were a couple visits to Miami and St. Augustine and Daytona Beach and I love hearing all the details. I’m sure it’s just the beginning of some great conversations this week.

MC