What I Did On My Summer Vacation

You know those scenes on Star Trek where somebody (the doctor, the captain) orders somebody else (the captain, another officer) to take his vacation?

Well, something like that happened to me not so long ago.

As a (regrettably) single guy, I don’t have a family to motivate me to take vacation, and it’s easy for me at present to throw myself into my work. As a result, I’ve accumulated a whopping huge number of vacation hours, and Karl recently ordered me to get out of the office and start taking my vacation.

So I did.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been gadding about the country in my pickup:

1) First I went to Roswell, New Mexico, where I did the outer-space tourist thing.

2) Then I went to Oklahoma City, where I visited a friend (who I recently gave away in marriage) and her new husband.

3) Next I went to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where I visited my dad and my brother and his family (including my brand new nephew).

4) Afterwards, I went to my family’s cattle ranch in Deep East Texas (though my 85-year old grandmother recently sold the cattle, she still gets out with the brush hog and mows down the tough stuff that grows wild on the ranch).

5) Subsequently, I went to Houston (South East Texas) to visit the multiple aunts and uncles who live there.

6) Then I shot back to San Diego, crossing Texas (more than half the journey!), New Mexico, Arizona, and California in a two-day period.

It was a great trip.

Six states. Twelve days. Four thousand miles in a pickup.

I got a lot of family business and fun stuff accomplished, including taking some great photos and getting some great stories.

More on those soon.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

8 thoughts on “What I Did On My Summer Vacation”

  2. Sounds like a neat vacation. It must be nice to just pick up and go. Wish I could do that . . . .

  3. We’ve gone on several long road trips to Oklahoma City and Virginia, where his parents and my family live, respectively. The longest trip was five years ago, when we went from 29 Palms, CA, down to San Antonio, through New Orleans and that area, up to Norfolk, VA, where I’m from, then up to Detroit, over through Chicago, down to Missouri and Arkansas, to Oklahoma City, then back to California. This past November, after my husband got back from deployment, we again drove to Virginia, but by the simpler I-40 route. We did take a couple of detours- to the Grand Canyon for my husband’s birthday, to a bookstore in Lynchburg, VA that I found out about on the internet, called The Inklings (oh, I could have spent the whole trip in that store!) and to show my kids and husband my grandma’s old place in Tyner, NC. We had to make an emergency trip to OKC a couple months ago. It’s tiring, but I love road travel, even if it’s just from the interstate. We usually end up driving straight through (takes about 24 hours or so for us) from OKC to Oceanside, though. There’s not much to see on the roads between the two points, except Flagstaff, and a HUGE cross off the interstate in Groom, TX. (website: http://www.crossministries.net/) My husband has mentioned Roswell a few times, but we’ve never made it there.
    Glad you had a good time on your trip. 🙂

  4. Ahh shucks…….I wish you would have let me buy you dinner in OKC, to bad the world is so full of craizes, that you can’t just meet up with some of your fans for some low carb beer and meat snacks…
    If I may ask, where did you go to Mass while in OKC ??
    Maybe Mr. K sent you on vaction because he thinks your wasting away to nothing, not because of your accumulated time….(just joshin)

  5. Joe: I liked it just fine. Since I have friends there, I end up going there periodically. Nice place. Nice folks.
    Cornelius: It was a neat vacation, though my duties at Catholic Answers don’t let me just pick up and go. These things have to be pre-planned to avoid missing deadlines.
    Davida: THANK YOU for providing the link to the giant cross. I saw that when I went through Groom, but didn’t get a good picture of it. I’m going to blog it now that I have the site. Thanks!
    Jake: It would be great to meet C.A. supporters when I visit places, but unfortunately the logistics usually prevent that.
    Was only in OKC a short time, so didn’t end up going to Mass there this time. Had been to Mass on Sunday in Roswell. Afraid I can’t remember the names of the churches where I’ve been to Mass when I’ve been to town before.

  6. Jimmy,
    You’re welcome. 🙂 Something else I discovered when I was researching the giant cross was a restaurant somewhere nearby, on historic Route 66 somewhere, called Blessed Mary’s. The link I found it on was a pastor’s description of visiting there on a vacation. It’s a small place, with twelve tables.. each named for an Apostle. There’s no prices on the menu-there’s a jar by the door and a note on the menu, asking customers to please leave an ‘appropriate’ amount for the food they order. If I’d known it was there, we’d have found it on one of our trips out that way. Here’s the link to the pastor’s page: http://www.epulpit.net/groom.htm It’s a great story. 🙂

  7. In a pickup. Any tips on how to improve gas mileage on these cusses?

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