He Gets Around

Davis has two full weeks plus of work as a Congressional intern under his belt. Lest he get too comfortable, that leaves only thirteen more days before he changes venues and moves 369 miles to the north and east to internship dos: Rochester Institute of Technology.

Walter and I will head that direction by car in even less time than that to have the first of our two road trip vacations this summer. We have plans to take the southern route on the way up and stop in at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and see our dear friend and Walter's college roommate, Mort. (If you don't have a long history reading Erin's Home Page--and by long I mean as far back as November 2006--you probably want to read more about Mort so you can see why we might want to start out our trip with a stopover in Tuscaloosa.) I think this route then veers north up through Knoxville and through the Blue Ridge Mountains at the edge of Virginia and West Virginia. . .absolutely new territory for me.

But, oops, I got distracted (probably a bright, shiny object flew by just at the edge of my vision). This post is called "He Gets Around," not "His Mom and Dad Get Around." Besides his current residence in DC and his future residence in NY, Davis added another state to his summer experience by grabbing a train at Union Station (located conveniently just blocks from his house) after work last Friday and railing it to Trenton, New Jersey to visit a friend (thanks Bethany and Shari for your willingness to be on "Davis Watch" in case anything unplanned happened. It didn't.). He has also asked me to bring his passport when we go to Washington. Who knows what other side trips he has planned?

The other thing I wanted to share with you, actually does have to do with another trip Walter and I will make (in about an hour). As President of the Texas State Historical Association, Walter has some ceremonial duties at Texas History Day in Austin this week. I had not originally planned on going with him, but when the moratorium on UIL actitivies mandated by the near (far?) miss on the Swine Flu epidemic pushed the contest back a couple of weeks, my services became more valuable (Yes, I am going to be one of the replacement judges. Only about 130 of the originally scheduled 160 judges could shift their schedule around, so voila, I am promoted.).

This honor brought to mind my dear son, who as as a seventh grader (back when I was still taller than him), won the Robert Henry Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Certificate of Award for Excellence in Texas History Studies. It made me wonder then, as it makes me wonder now, who actually joins the Daughters of the Republic of Texas these days? Perhaps the mothers of the youth who are competing at Texas History Day this week. I will have to ask around.