Justin’s maternal grandparents are traveling the country this summer in a camper trailer. They live in southern California and have traveled up through Wyoming and all the way over to Vermont and now down as far as South Carolina. I honestly haven’t spoken with them very much about their trip, so I don’t know what they’ve seen, but they have certainly covered a lot of ground in the last handful of months.
The entertaining thing about their trip is simply the fact that they’re traveling together. Justin’s grandparents have been divorced for many years. But they have houses next to each other. When Justin’s grandma has been visiting us before, Justin’s grandfather would call at least once a day. Seeing them together, I can understand sometimes why they are no longer married. And yet, they still do a lot of things together, including travel across the country, although they are doing that each driving a separate vehicle. The whole situation is just a little bit off kilter.
I’m not completely sure I’ve got this right, but this is how I’m remembering their travel plans to our house. Originally, they were going to arrive in early to mid-August. They were delayed on the way down by visiting different tourist sites and then by a problem with their refrigerator in the camper. They changed their ETA to be sometime over Labor Day weekend, which was problematic for us because we’d already made plans to visit our friends up near Athens, GA. We’d made the plans months ago and informed Justin’s grandparents of it before they left Vermont. They were able to delay a couple more days, and told us they would get into town on the Wednesday after Labor Day. We went to visit our friends, getting back into town on Monday. I went to work on Tuesday and the grandparents arrived later that afternoon.
I’m kind of fuzzy on all that, but it seems pretty close. I know that they were three weeks late and one day early. But with all the other things that have been going on, the exact details of their travel times weren’t important enough to remember.
They’ve been here for about a week now. They’ve parked the trailer at a park about 10 minutes from our place. I can’t remember when we saw them between Tuesday and Friday, though I’m sure they stopped by the house, and we ate dinner together on Friday. We went to Hunting Island on Saturday to go to the beach, and they went back again on Sunday morning – we stayed home, but they stopped by in the afternoon to drop off beach accessories. We had dinner together Monday evening. Yesterday, Justin and Grandma helped Jessi with her dorm room, but I didn’t see either of the grandparents at all. Justin’s in Hilton Head with Grandma right now, and we’re going out to dinner together either tonight or tomorrow. And I think they plan to head out of town on Friday, but plans are all very squishy.
It’s been nice visiting with them. I’d met Justin’s grandma several times previously, but this was my first time meeting his grandfather. It’s been enlightening, to say the least, getting the opportunity to see that far up on Justin’s family tree. Justin’s grandpa helped me get the grill going on Friday when the coals wouldn’t start. Justin and his grandma had a great discussion about the politics of laws regarding corporations over dinner on Monday. Pies and pastries keep appearing in my kitchen. Grandma and I wandered through shops in downtown Beaufort (I got a plate shaped like a turtle; she got Justin a book called “All my friends are dead”) while Justin and Grandpa took a hike on the trails on Hunting Island (at least I think that’s what they did – I was shopping).
It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable visit. The only thing I could possibly complain about is that I’m never really sure of the plans in advance – for example, I’m not sure if we’re doing dinner together tonight or tomorrow. And we have a friend who could use computer help and we keep telling her we’d love to help, just as soon as we know if we’re going to be home or not. But as far as the unpredictability goes, they are certainly on the mild end of things. They tend to just stay in their trailer or do things on their own. We’re more likely to not see them for the evening than anything else. It’s a huge difference compared to another branch on that tree.
It’s actually hard to believe that they’ve been here for a week already. It’s been a very enjoyable visit with them so far. I really have to remember to get a photograph with them and Justin before they leave town.