Marla and I had some serious decisions to make. We hadn’t visited with our youngest daughter Stacy and her family for over a year. We missed them all like crazy! Would our grandkids still remember us? Well of course they would,…but we wanted to see them in person rather than on a Zoom call or Facetime. Though we both had our COVID vaccine shots, we were not naive to the risks involved with travel and even family contact. After looking internally at our risk tolerance we decided to take the plunge and fly to Dallas.

Marla and I have almost 4,000,000 miles on United Airlines alone over the years from personal and business travel. Preparation for travel was something we could almost do in our sleep. However, after a year of the pandemic it was like all our travel skills had atrophied! Questions kept arising: “How do I pack?” “Which suitcase should I bring?” “The blue shoes, the black ones?” “Who will sit next to us on the plane?” “What will the airport be like?” “What did I use for that quart size bag of liquid carry-ons? ” Marla and I both dreamed of traveling all year and… now we don’t know to handle it. It was as if a strange and stressful travel malaise had settled on us both.

Denver’s airport was somewhat of a moshpit of earnest and excited travelers, and almost all were wearing masks in the terminal. We were a little worried about how it would be in Dallas as Texas is now almost 100% open and the mask mandate is mostly ended. DFW required masks. We were happy and a little surprised to see masks still worn by most people in stores and restaurants.

Seeing the family again was beyond our wildest dreams with wonderful smiles from ear to ear and our hearts beating with joy! The image above was at Bistro 31 in Dallas’ Highland Park Village. We still had restaurant apprehension and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous.

The Boys have grown! We took them out for lunch at Eataly in Dallas’ North Park Shopping Center. I am like a kid in the candy store every time I visit Eataly and I can happily roam for hours admiring all the fresh pasta, salumi, fine Italian wines, row upon row of amazing olive oils, and of course…gelato! Everyone loved lunch in Eataly’s socially distanced and masked restaurant!

You can feel Marla’s happiness with her “Girls.” They have grown up so much. This is at a lake house on Cedar Creek Reservoir south of Dallas where we spent the next blissful week.

Out for a walk with our beautiful and amazing, Stacy!

Could I possibly be any happier?

Owen and I on a ride out to “the islands.” We rarely saw other people.

I love chatting with Vaughan about his interests and especially about track and field. We hope to attend the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene together. The trip is pending the approval for fans in the stands.

The “crew” drives by on one of our daily walks. The girls have masks at the ready.

We had a daily ritual of watching the beautiful sunset over the lake.

All of us are adjusting to this new and evolving pandemic world. COVID-19 and new variants are still with us though new cases and deaths are slowly abating. With more states opening up will this change for the worse? More and more people are being vaccinated. I am feeling more hope which has been a rare ingredient the past year.

Marla and I are “seizing the day” as we slowly emerge from this pandemic isolation. The Roman poet, Horace” was on to something with his phrase, “carpe diem quam minimum credula postero,”(literally, “pluck the day”) to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can. We are still in a learning mode, slowly adapting and adjusting to a new world.

I love to plan for new travel experiences and have taken to heart the sagely advice of our friend Tom Rackerby,… “I find that having trips planned out 6 to 18 months in advance gives something to look forward to, and a form of immortality.“

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission. CNN image 1 and cartoon by Dave Whamond.