On The Road Again!
Just as gas has reached an all-time high price per gallon, the incidence of required road trips has also increased. Only now I make an effort to combine as many activities into one trip as possible.
For instance, a friend in Crozet and I went in together on a plant order to save on shipping. The plants arrived but instead of immediately jumping into the vehicle and charging off to Crozet to deliver them, I waited until my trip to Martinsburg and stopped in Crozet on the way home.
And the trip to Martinsburg was a doozy, resulting in the acquisition of three new Lady Gouldian finches, two sapphire blue lobsters, five assorted turtles, and two forty-gallon aquariums. It was without a doubt worth the tank of gas the trip used up. Plus there was the enjoyment of visiting with an old friend who used to live in Pamplin.
Getting ready for the Egyptian Event, an annual gala week-long Arabian horse show in Lexington, Kentucky, has also required a lot of little road trips. When one “volunteers” to take charge of hospitality and fund-raising activities for one’s non-profit group, one is then responsible for arranging for all manner of items. Just for starters, there is the matter of raffle tickets and posters from the Village Print Shop, which had to be picked up. Then the snazzy official Al Khamsa polo shirts that were sitting in Lynchburg needed to be collected so all the volunteers will look professional.
And don’t forget the road food. It is a long drive from Appomattox to the Kentucky Horse Park. Eating at Quick Stops is no way to prepare for a busy few days meeting and greeting and encouraging attendees to buy Al Khamsa-logoed items to take home as souvenirs of their exciting show experience.
Now all that is left is to pack the vehicle with boxes of official AK mugs, AK bags of Kona coffee and Earl Gray Tea, the aforementioned shirts and raffle tickets, clothing, cooler, and sleeping bag. Yes, this is also a camping trip with community showers. But the great barn parties will more than make up for the less than ‘luxe accommodations and that is why they invented deodorant, right?
At least we are not hauling any horses along. The trainer is in charge of that little detail this time.
But that trailer will be tagging along in a few weeks with another road trip to Illinois which will be followed by the Shenandoah Valley Classic Arabian Championship shows I and II, followed by the Festival of Horse and Hound (and Wine) in Bedford, VA, followed by a final run to Illinois in August for yet another batch of horses…. Hope is running high that the crude oil market will crash before we go broke buying gasoline!
I’m not quite sure why the need for all these road trips just happened to coincide with the kind of gasoline prices we used to laugh at Europeans having to pay. It’s not so funny now that the boot is on the other foot. But, on the bright side, they are still paying bunches more than we are - but then their cars all seem to get 50 MPG…. Twenty-five on the Interstate isn’t so bad, is it? Perhaps if I keep telling myself this I will come to believe it and that $80 bite to fill the tank won’t hurt so much…sure, and beehive hairdos are coming back into style any day now.
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