The trip was a great success. We had a wonderful Christmas, highlighted by a delicious Polish Christmas-Eve dinner cooked and hosted by my father-in-law's friend, Danka. Along our route, we saw as many as possible of our friends and family who cannot easily travel. Two originally unplanned visits fell conveniently into place: We saw my cousin, Jo Erickson, nee Lane, at her beach house along our route in North Carolina; and a close boyhood friend, George Martin, and his wife, Pat (who makes the best pecan pie that I can recall), were kind enough to drive four hours from their home to have dinner with us in Charleston.
Nothing is ever perfect. I wish that we had had time to detour to see even more friends and family; I wasn't happy about not having time for exercise for that many days; and the food at most of the restaurants along the way goes far towards explaining why there is an epidemic of type-2 diabetes in this country (at Catherine's Restaurant in Ahokie, North Carolina, where they served butter with the hushpuppies, the featured dessert, fried cheesecake, might have been one of the healthiest choices on the menu!). But it was a fine trip.
