“And they’re off!” Appropriate words on the day when Justified wins the Triple Crown. Instead, they signify the beginning of another adventure as we travel back home again to Indiana. This time, however, we fly into St. Louis instead of Chicago O’Hare or Indianapolis. We’ll spend the night there and drive through Illinois tomorrow, arriving in the Hoosier state in time for dinner with my wife’s mother.

We already went through the “you’re on vacation while it’s just another day for me” discussion, as my wife gets a well-deserved week off from work. She got through last week by dreaming of the Viking Ultimate World Cruise. We can only hope that this incentive lasts four more years until she joins me in retirement.

I’m sure she would rather be traveling elsewhere – say Bali. These quarterly visits to her home town eat up most of her vacation time at considerable expense. Only my sister, her kids, and grandchildren are left for me to visit, but mostly we stay in touch by phone. There just isn’t enough time to cover all our bases in the state, so I try to get with them for Christmas each year. They are celebrating the high school  graduation of my nephew’s step-daughter this weekend. They are all growing up fast.

The Midwest tour will include a trip to my 96-year old mother-in-law’s doctor, a visit with my newborn great nephew, a couple of nights with my brother & sister-in-law, lunches & dinners with friends, some research on my birth mother’s family, and a Cubs vs. Cardinals game at Busch Stadium.

Our pets are home with a house sitter. Tinker our 100-year old schnauzer a.k.a “the poopingist pup on the planet,” was left pouting on the rug in my office as we tried to sneak our luggage out to the car. Tally, her younger sister, will like the attention and exercise she’ll get in our absence. Her eye is healing thanks to steroids, and we’re thankful that the biopsy proved benign. Otherwise, she might have become a Pirate dog sporting an eye-patch. AARRRRR….

It’s Father’s Day tomorrow, and I will probably hear from my son who lives in Florida. He’s busy with a new baby that I won’t see until our next trip to Illinois in two months. Hopefully, she won’t be graduating from high school in a blink of an eye. We’ll all meet at Wrigley Field, a sacred spot for my son and I. We took my grandson there when he was a baby, and my granddaughter a few years later. My son’s wife is from Chicago so they happen to be visiting for their annual vacation.

Keeping up with family is our greatest challenge. Only my wife’s eldest daughter lives nearby in Portland, while her youngest daughter is in D.C. I’m stopping over to meet my granddaughter in Chicago on the way to shake hands with a man who may soon become my (step) son-in-law. We’ll all have dinner in DC before they come to Portland for a wedding. It’s all part of the engagement process, or at least we hope.

So, we’re off for another “Planes, Trains, and Automobile” experience. “Back Home Again in Indiana,” where my wife and I met and had our children. Now, everyone is spread out all over the country, and we look for opportunities to get together as a family. It’s hard to believe that I’m actually trying to add a birth mother and other potential dna-based cousins to an already overwhelming puzzle of relatives. I don’t even have time to stay in touch with the Indiana cousins from the parents who adopted me 66 years ago, except through Facebook. Oh, the family ties that bind me!