Mothers’ Day and My Travels

First of all, happy Mothers’ Day. A mere twenty-seven years and change ago, a tiny baby entered the world and changed our lives forever. And I am so proud of the young woman she has become. So here is to Quinne and her mother, Michele—both of whom made me a father.

Who travels?

I made a bit of a joke a while back that my truck was currently getting six weeks per gallon of gas. That’s now up to almost two months per gallon. I did have to chuckle a little, though, when I received my travel report from Google Maps yesterday. Here’s what the message said:

Nathan, here's your new Timeline update

You're receiving this monthly email because you turned on Location History, a Google Account–level setting that saves where you go in your private Timeline.

Location History data also helps give you personalized information on Google, including better restaurant recommendations, and suggestions for a faster commute. You can view, edit, and delete this data anytime in Timeline.

I know that having elected this setting, I am being tracked and plotted every time I turn on Google Maps. However, don’t assume that if you turn this setting off, Google will stop tracking and plotting your journeys. The setting merely allows you to save and see that information.

I enjoy seeing this stuff and since Google is tracking it anyway, I might as well make use of it. Here’s what my travel map looked like at the end of 2019.

Pretty impressive, huh? This told me that I had traveled 11,244 miles in 2019 and that was equivalent to 50% around the world. I started the year in the lower left corner of the map, went north to the scrum in Washington and Idaho, went south through California, and then east. The last pin on the right is where I spent the holidays with Amy near Claremore, OK. All told, a very satisfying journey.

Here’s the map they sent me for April:

 

Yes, I traveled a whopping total of 4 miles and visited Costco and H-E-B plus! (grocery store).

Now the Plan

I hope to leave Pharr TX in just over a week. I’ll leave here on Tuesday the 19^th and take a more direct, Interstate-guided route north to Sun Meadow in Idaho. I’ve plotted the trip on a map.

It’s supposedly 2,547 miles. I’m not estimating anything better than being at Sun Meadow before the end of May, around the 28^th or so. I will be happy to get there and reluctant to leave again in the fall.

Well, that’s the plan, anyway. And as we know, no plan survives contact with the enemy. My daughter sent me a couple of new masks and I will wear them like a desperado! Along with the new Stetson she sent me.

I only wish I had a 45 so I could shoot me some of them virus things. We’ll teach ’em!

Stay safe. Stay isolated. Stay sane.