Extra Rider

Traveling with family is fun and exciting yet exhausting all rolled into one. My friend always says visiting or traveling with family resembles fish. After about three days, they begin to smell. Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling with family, but I realize that we are all set in our ways the older we get. We all need our own space to do things the way we like to do them.

Mom lives on the farm by herself now. My dad passed away almost two years ago. Dad was a tried-and-true farmer that did not like to leave the farm. His idea of a vacation was going to the local livestock auction or an occasional farm sale.

Mom enjoys traveling and ventures out and about with us every now and then to go pick up used farm equipment. Our first maiden voyage in the semi with Mom was a trip to Texas. On that trip, we learned several hard and fast do’s and don’ts.

Getting her into a pickup is a challenge, but she can maneuver on her own so far. However, getting her into the semi is a little more of a challenge to overcome.

Mom has mastered the process by bringing along a little step stool. The routine for loading Mom up into the semi begins by strategically placing the step stool so she can step up from the ground to the first step of the truck. Then she can hang onto the door and pull herself up to the next step. Sometimes if she hasn’t had enough Wheaties that morning, I give her hiney a little boost to support the next step. My farmer husband advised me this chore is totally my job because he is not going there. Once we get her in the cab, all is good.

On our first trip with Mom in the semi, we placed a black folding chair in the middle of the cab, slightly behind and between the two front seats. Mom and I would take turns rotating between the air-ride passenger seat and the folding chair.

Before our trip to Hereford, Texas, my farmer husband firmly advised Mom and me that when sitting in the folding chair, always hang on to something and always be ready to hit the floor in case we needed to make a sudden stop. We assured him we would always hang on.

Having never traveled to Texas before, the trip was a welcome treat for Mom on her birthday weekend. All was going well, and the weather was beautiful. We had mastered the process of changing chairs every couple of hours.

Mom was seated in the folding chair, chatting about the different businesses she saw as we drove down the street. As we traveled through the edge of Dallas, a little car jetted quickly in front of us as we approached a stoplight. Slamming on the brakes swiftly to avoid rear-ending the car, my farmer husband was shocked when his mother-in-law came flying forward, almost landing in his lap.

With cat-like reactions, he quickly stuck his arm out, sending her in the other direction instead of in his lap, keeping us in our traffic lane. The folding chair was retired immediately. Now we rotate from sitting on the bed in the sleeper to the passenger seat.

Hereford was a nice town, and we enjoyed a good steak. We took Mom’s picture with the Hereford bull located in front of the hotel. There were several other painted bulls sprinkled around town.

The next day we traveled to San Angelo, TX. The downtown area has a beautiful walkway along the river. Mom was worn out with all our walking from looking around the area. We loaded her back up into the semi and headed off to find supper.

My farmer husband is kind of a foodie. Where we eat is always the highlight of his day. He followed his phone as he drove us to the restaurant of choice. Mom began telling him how he should drive. Let’s just say he didn’t appreciate the extra advice. Now one of his favorite sayings is that “there is nothing worse than having three women telling him how to drive.” Referring to his phone, wife, and mother-in-law.

Overall, it was a good trip allowing us to get to know one another a little bit better.