Running Away From Home

B and I had enough of the snow and cold this past Monday so we decided to
run away from home for a couple days.  So on Wednesday, we set out for Appleton,
Wisconsin.  It is about 3 hours from here but a lot warmer.  By the time we got there,
it was already 82 degrees.  "Heaven!"

The hardest part about leaving home was leaving our cat Al.  I don't know about
anyone else but leaving my cat for more than a day was a painful experience.  Although
I knew he was being taken care of by my son and dil, I was still nervous about leaving
him.  I am such a cat mom.

Some interesting things we found when we got to Appleton was that a number of brick
and mortar stores we usually went to were going out of business or already had gone
out of business.  It was very depressing to see that.  Yes, people tend to shop more online
these days but I still like to go thru the stores and see things in person.  One special sad
thing was a store that I used to go to when I was teaching to buy all kinds of supplies for
school had gone out of business and was now a furniture store.  Very sad.  We also found
that gas was 30 cents cheaper there and made sure to fill the tank before we left for home.

One of the first places we went was the Barnes and Noble bookstore.  My kids call this
mom's happy place.  It has everything that makes me smile: books, vanilla cappuccinos,
music, books, comfy chairs, clean bathrooms, books.  I believe you can figure out that I
am a bit of a big reader.  I could spend a whole afternoon there.

B and I went to a couple shops that were his favorite so that I could get him some
birthday gifts.  His birthday was on the 3rd of April and he is very hard to shop for.
So letting him pick things out for me to pay for is the best way to do it.

We were in Appleton until Friday and although we didn't want to leave because the
weather was wonderful, we were also anxious to get home and see what was
happening while we were gone.

Because of the snow melt, we found our dirt road covered in large deep puddles of water
which made the potholes that had been there before even more treacherous to drive thru.
We were lucky that our driveway was still intact because we live at the bottom of a hill.
The melting snow runs down the hill in the spring and sometimes washes out the
driveway. So far, fingers crossed, we still have the driveway.

Needless to say, my cat was happy I was home and refused to leave my side the whole
night.  Although, they are predicting cold rainy and possible snowy weather this week,
B and I are content that soon the warm weather will be back.