Anniversary Weekend Adventure

So, this past Sunday (Sept. 14), was my 11-year wedding anniversary.  Wow, it blows my mind sometimes to realize that I have been married for that long.  We've had our ups and downs for sure, but all in all, I am happier and even more in love than I was 11 years ago when we said our vows at the Fort Wayne Botanical Gardens.

To celebrate, we decided to do nothing.  No, really.  We made arrangements for the kids to be gone for the weekend, and we set off with no specific plans.  OK, now I should clarify this...  What we decided to do was get in the car and start driving and keep driving until we felt like turning around and coming back.  The weather in Fort Wayne was somewhat ugly on Saturday, so our only specific goal was to keep going until we found sunshine.  This trip was not about the destination (since we didn't really have one).  It was about spending time together and sharing a common experience.  We drove, we talked, we listened to music.  We wandered off the main highways just to see where we would end up (knowing that the GPS would bring us back to the beaten path if need be).

For the curious among you, we left a little after noon and headed south, after a quick look at the radar showed the most promise of sunshine in that direction.  We got out from under the clouds and into full sunshine about an hour past Indianapolis, but we had it in the back of our minds that we really wanted to get all the way to the mountains.  We didn't make it that far, but that leaves another adventure for another day.  We stopped at a rest stop a half-hour or so away from Louisville, and decided that we at least had to go that far.  We crossed the bridge into Kentucky, took some pictures of the downtown skyline, and drove around the University of Louisville campus for a little bit.  Then, we got back on the highway and headed north.  On the way back, though, we chose to get off of the interstate near Brown County and just explore our way around the back roads.  We stopped in at Brown County State Park, but decided not to pay to go in, as it was already almost 6:00.  We wandered around the back roads for a while, meeting back up with the interstate near the southwest corner of Indianapolis.  A few hours later, we were back home at the end of a truly enjoyable day filled with nothing specific.

I'm sure to most people, especially with gasoline prices just over $4.00 a gallon, this would seem like a somewhat insane thing to do. On the surface, I would agree.  But, honestly, how many people spend thousands of dollars on 'vacations' that do nothing but stress them out and cause conflict?  Does my $150 for gasoline and food really sound outrageous?  I don't think so, especially since I would say that it ranks up there as one of the best road trips ever.