All things must end. And so it was for Hilten head. Steve and Connie were up and off to their next adventure. This time it was Charleston, SC. Coincidentally, Sandra, Karen, Alexa and I would eventually make our way there as well. So why not send scouts? We eagerly awaited reports of their fortifications once established.

After good-byes, and promises to catch up in the later part of the year. We all did our normal day's events, which included sun, beach and beer--sometimes all at once! I have taken to biking down the long beach a few miles while I dodge beached Jellyfish and little sand urchents; which we commonly refer to as 'kids'.

At the end of the day, hunger took over and we got in our best shorts and tee-shirts and headed out to the fine local establishments that could be visited within a couple hundred yards. The place was booming...so much so, that the common wait times were over an hour. Dang! When did Hilton Head get discovered? And on a Monday no doubt! So we foraged...until we could forage no more...and settled on the Piggly Wiggly for our last meal out (or 'in' I should say). Mark had beat me to the task and was able to slit off home with a frozen pizza. The thing I had planned. Fortuneatly, it's not like showing up at the same party where your friend is wearing the same dress...showing up back at the house with another frozen pizza was not shunned, but celebrated!

So goes our last meal, on the last day at Hilton Head. Fat, Happy and full of Rolaids! Tomorrow...we road-trip.

Woke up...Fell out of bed...Dragged comb across my head...."Beatles".

Somewhat a repeat of yesterday for the morning hours. I did another workout/walk down the beach. This time with shoes. Unfortunately, I am now sporting a little limp from the previous barefoot experiment. Never again, I tell ya. These fragile little nubbins will forever be sheathed in the finest JC Penny cotton sock booties.

Mark, Pam, Steve and Connie were conquering another golf course. Sandra and Alexa were heading to the beach, and I believe Karen was hanging around the pool. We're all operating according to our own clocks. But with the intent that we meet back at the house mid-afternoon and head off to Savannah for a night on the town. Sandra made reservations at the "Pink House" months ago as this pre-revolutionary house was a hot commodity and hard to get into.

We did the back-of-the-envelope math and figured we would need two cars for this venture. The Landcruiser was a possibility, but it comfortably seats 4, and uncomfortably seats 7. With eight of us, it saved 5 people the awkwardness of constant physical contact for the hour trip.

When Alexa pulled in yesterday, I asked her how much gas she used getting from Athens to Hilton Head. "Half a Tank, Dad. No problem". Awesome! That should be enough to do a round-trip... Not so fast. Apparently, at UGA, students are taught to believe when the needle hits 1/4 tank; it's a round-up situation. This Common Core math is crap (memo: write my congressman)! So, gas on the way out of town, right? Nope...first stop we actually did find one of those stations actually out of gas. So it wasn't a hoax. OK, I'm sure Savannah has some gas, and a quarter tank....maybe.

Through the bumps and potholes through SC and GA we were able to find a gas station along the way...which took that back-burner concern of Gas Shortage off the radar. We whipped along the highway, then dropped into Savannah at around 4pm or so. Our 8 person caravan was descending on Savannah like Sherman's march to the sea. Except, we weren't armed; or had any intent to burn fields...but, I'm sure that were pretty hungry too.

It was "Square" here, "Square" there! Everywhere a "Square, Square" as we hit a bunch of the neat historical stops along the self-guided walking tour. A fair amount of walking was in order, but the sun wasn't too hot, and with the thought of a "Hot Meal" at the end of the day, made me feel 10 years old again--Only this 10 year old likes Wine and Manhattan’s with his dinner.

Sandra guided us through the blocks where nearly each house had something historically important to say. We saw where Sherman slept; where Oglethorpe slept, and on a couple of benches, where the panhandlers slept. Sandra pointed out the various Bed-and-Breakfast places she, Karen and Alexa had stayed over the course of Alexa's tenure at UGA. I think I recognized the one Sandra and I stayed at; but I couldn't be sure unless I rounded the corner and could see the Six Pence Pub. So, we'll leave that as a mystery to be solved at a later time.

Near 7pm, we started back to the first Square we were parked and got in line for our reservation at 8pm. Good news! We still have a reservation. The "Pink House" was terrific. It really is an old house where tables are spread out through different rooms. I think we were in the parlor; or maybe the anti-room. But as a party of eight, we had the grown-ups table in the middle of the room with a couple of satellite couples placed in the corners. Down in the basement was an actual place where battles were planned and ale was had (probably Revolutionary and Civil).

After a nice, yet expensive dinner; what wouldn't be complete without a card-switch at the end. I ended up with Marks card and his mine on the tab...boy! I sure got the better end of that deal. Them Manhattan’s ain’t cheap. But given the stability of the Karma universe was at stake, we put it all into balance. Whew, destruction of the universe averted—Buddha would be satisfied.

The trip back to the house was darker, but just as bumpy. Now, back...we crashed fast.

Can it still be considered Graduation? That seems like back in the days when I had hair. Could call it Vacation at this point, but for the symmetry of it all, I still go with "Graduation". This day was really no different the others; I awake at the usual 9:30am, to find that everybody is nowhere to be found. Apparently in the Johnson family, their days begin with a couple hours of tennis while most folks are content to imbibe in a quart of coffee to achieve the same effect. Thus, I made my way to the coffee maker to start my daily routine. After a cup, I was then ready for my second exercise; the shower. I couldn't remember if this was soap day or not; could be it's my lean against the shower wall until the hot water runs out. I couldn't remember so I split the difference.

There would be no sign of Steve, Connie, Mark or Pam until the Golf bug has run its course. Sandra and Karen headed for the beach. Alexa was still on her way to Hilton Head. I too would not see them until much later in the day. It got a bit quiet in the house. So, I decided to do my little adventure and go for a long walk. I programmed my phone for my crunchy tunes and headed out into the Hilton Head abyss.

About a mile in, I decided to veer off the pavement and see the goings on with the beach dwellers. Peering over a walkway; and it didn't look so bad. I saw bikes making their way across the formidable sand. I thought "maybe this is "walkable" too"! I got out of my shoes and touched down on the hot grains like Neil Armstrong. It was an epic step for me since I do not like beaches. Somewhere between that soft bluffs and the water I found the compacted part of the beach. I walked a couple miles barefoot; which looking back was a mistake as my soft little toes ended up getting a little cut-up. Those delicate "little piggies" have not been let of their pen in a long time; and were not used to the hostile world of barefoot warfare. I ended up putting my shoes back on after a mile or so, then finished the walk.

Back at the house, we were still waiting for Alexa to arrive. Before she left, I had asked her to "ping" me every hour to that we could keep track of her progress. We were a little concerned about the gas shortage on the East Coast and if she had enough gas to complete the 4 hour journey. Knowing Alexa, I was betting she left with a quarter of a tank of gas and a cellphone with 10 minutes of charge left on it.

We stopped hearing much on the gas crises, so I let that fade to the back burner, but now concern was focused on the Post Office in the middle of nowhere--is she stuck in Serling-ville with no way out? To Alexa's credit, she would prompt in with helpful information like "I just stopped at a Starbucks", or "I'm on the Move"; followed with the comforting "I need to go into Airplane mode to save power". ?!?! What kind of information is that?!? Whatever happened to "I left at 9:42am, traveling at 48 Mph", and "my current location is 33.957413° N, -83.3768° E". This Starbucks thing provided me no information whatsoever. But the "Going into airplane mode" confirmed my suspicions that she was almost out of cell phone power. Oh well, she won't need a phone in Serling-ville.

She rolled up around 4:30pm, like it was no more than a trip to the store. Kids! They'll kill ya, I swear.

With everyone here and accounted for...we were able to start "phase II" vacation. It just so happens it was Marks 62nd birthday as well. Karen and Sandra headed out to the Piggly Wigley to get supplies. They came back with Steaks, Cakes and Wine! This is starting to look like the kind of party one would expect at the beach. After we toasted the last vestige of Alexa's graduation (we didn't get to do that back in Athens), we proceeded to bring in Mark's celebration. Pam grilled the steaks like a pro! Usually, when I grill, everybody gets a nice "Well Done" steak; like god intended--I think it's in the bible somewhere actually; between Revelations and Smiting. She was able to deliver to everybody the "temperature" they all requested...hmmm, I suppose there is another way than 550 degrees in the kiln and the polite half-smiles when people are handed a dry perfectly done piece of meat. A little sauce I find clears that up.

We finished the night on the back deck and headed off to our respective rooms...Uh oh, I think I have a sunburn on day one.

Yawn...another day waking up to an empty Hotel room. Looks like Sandra has more family to take on the big walk and breakfast. With Mark and Pam now here, it's a full-house with Steve, Connie and Karen to complete the wolf pack.

I decided to spend the morning, all 2 hours of it packing in anticipation of check-out and the road trip; it was my way to avoid the early morning exercise. When in hotels, I liked to be packed up well ahead of checkout; then celebrate my accomplishment of fitting it all into the bag. Of course, I do this two times just to make sure the first packing was not a fluke. Sandra burst into the Hotel room with 10 minutes to checkout and started collecting her clothes from all over the corners of our temporary home and jamming it into the suitcase she brought; no folding required. She apparently does not need the two hours I require to solve the space/time problem. We met everyone down in the lobby eventually and began the Hogwarts Sorting ritual where it was decided whether we were Gryffindors or Slytherins. We ended up in Mark and Pam’s back seat with Sandra's monster suitcase in between us...yup, we were Slytherins.

The funny thing about the south is all the interconnected web of highways that lead to the same place. Technology hasn't reached many of these places, and with our being accustomed to Google Maps, we were fading in and out of connectivity. I made the mistake of mentioning an old Twilight Zone episode where a couple drives into a town where all roads leading out of town bring you back. Ha Ha...good one I thought. "Recalculating" then voiced itself over Pam's phone. Opps, Jinxed it. Yikes! we were at some crossroads in the middle of a one building town with no cell service; albeit one lousy bar. I'll never judge Steve and his paper map again. We decided the good plan was to go to the one building in the town, which fortunately was a Post Office. Sandra launched out of car to heroically ask for directions. I mean, me and Mark weren't going to do it...being men and all. We were perfectly happy to flip a coin for our direction. We did take the opportunity to utilize our rights as citizens to use the federal premises as our private bathroom. At least priority Two was taken care of in quick order. Now back to Priority One--getting out of this geographical oddity. Turned out the Post Office was unmanned (of course); but Sandra was miraculously able to get the Map function back on her phone with One bar! We were off, and I flipped Rod Serling the bird as we jetted out of that One Building town.

Somewhere along the way we were separated from Steve, Connie and Karen. So we'll never know if Steve's paper map experienced the same adventure we encountered. The rest of the trip was filled with scenic pastures of dirt, cows and weeds. As we approached Hilton Head, the scenery changed from pastures to highfalutin resorts and perfectly manicured golf courses. If our phones were capable of 11 Bars, I'm sure it would've registered in this resort town. A few traffic circles here, a few traffic circles there we finally arrived at our beach house. Wooo! It's a big one! Has a pool; some bikes, and a clean fridge ready for holding cylindrical recovery cans.

After we got all our suitcases placed in our rooms and a general walk through of this very spacious house; I turned to say "Nice job, Sandr...?!". Wait! Without a beat I see the back of her at a full sprint to the beach to start maximizing her time in the sun. Oh well, should've seen that one coming.

I ended up pumping the tires of one of the bikes provided and made off to the Piggly-Wiggly for beer and chips. After all, we all deserved the wind-down; and the fridge was empty. The next few days should be nice.

It's Graduation Day! Hooray! The whole reason we began the trek several days ago. I woke up, and as normal, Sandra was already off to breakfast and lunch with everybody (Mark and Pam were still in transit from Washington State). But Steve, Connie and Karen were all here ready to go. I rolled out of bed, pulled the drapes and nice...it's a clear blue-bird day. Only downside was there were only two coffee-pods left, and I had a hankering for 3 cups of the Dark Mistress. After only 2 cups, I figured out I too should do a walk in order to keep my girlish figure...so into the shorts and off I went into the UGA trail abyss. I had my collection of crunchy tunes to keep me occupied.

My 4 mile loop ended going along Stanford Football Stadium where the Graduation event is to take place. About 75% of the field was covered with rows and rows of chairs. Whew! This is going to be a huge evening. Took a couple of pictures while it was empty, so I could compare later. Then more importantly, I tried to spot the best seating in anticipation of where the sun was going to set as to avoid the sizzling of cooking skin in what otherwise the venue could be perceived as a deep fat fryer for space aliens looking down--I remember the Outer Limits episode from my youth.

When I got back we got all dressed up and headed out to a 2 O’clock lunch/dinner (aka L/Dinner). Strange time to eat, but the event is at 7:30pm and there's not an open window on each side of that time spot. We ate at The Place. Alexa arrived shortly after the rest of us, and had her new boyfriend in tow. Dillion got the hot seat; right in between everybody. I remember my first interview too! He turned out to be a nice guy and apparently can play better golf than me. In the end he nailed the interview.

OK...now it got awkward. We were finished with "L/D"inner, now had to figure out what to do with 3 hours until we make the venture to the stadium. I was wrapped tightly in a new suit and very much overdress according to my surveying of everyone within binocular distance. Fortunately, we all headed back to the Hotel, where I was able to get into some shorts and a tee-shirt before I had to get back into my burrito wrap.

When the time arrived, and we were all dressed up, except for Mark and Pam who were obviously arguing it out with a rental car person in Atlanta. We started navigating down the stairs, in a section that was totally opposite from what I have mentally planned earlier in my walk. I tried to point it out to Sandra the angle of the sun, and my theory of Space Aliens eyeing us for dinner once we reach the temperature of Chicken. But, to no avail...we're heading into the hottest part of the fryer; and me without a hat.

In our planning before the trip, we forethought the idea we would need binoculars so that we could find Alexa in the crowd of soon to be graduates. Once there, I thought hoo-boy, we need a telescope and a daughter who was willing to stand on a chair and make herself visible to us in the peanut gallery. There were so many false positives, that we had to give up the effort. We were not going to see where she was in a sea of 2000 kids, half of which were blonde girls wearing the same attire.

There were two commencement speakers; one a student, the other a well-known ESPN sports journalist. I was amazed at the courage of the student speaker to get up in front of a couple thousand peers and deliver an address. It probably was not my cup-of-tea subject, but kudos for him delivering it; and without flaw--he'll likely go far. Next up was Maria Taylor. She was an ex-graduate from UGA and made it big into the sports journalism. Her speech was more to my liking. A telling of a triumph through adversity which was such a refreshing and motivating speech than some I have seen throughout the last couple years. We walked out uplifted!

It was dark now, 9:30pm I believe, and we were to meet Alexa at the bookstore next to the stadium so we can all hug and congratulate her. Funny, the word got out this was the best place to meet after the event; so we along with 1000 other parents and friends met at the bookstore and attempted the pattern matching experiment of "Find the Blonde". We did find her not to far into the search, and it was great to see the excitement and fun she was having. We didn't get to hang out long...just enough for a hundred pictures and a face-time call with Grandma Peggy. She was back in Oregon recuperating from a medical episode; but it was awesome that she too could congratulate Alexa in real-time. Technology is great! I have to work on Steve to embrace it--he may be allergic to WIFI. Connie has had a few decades to work on him and get him into the Matrix; but he's a tough customer...then again, when the Electro-Magnetic-Pulse occurs, he'll have the only paper map in existence. Maybe not a bad investment plan.

End of night. We made it back to the Hotel. Mark and Pam arrived and had a similar Rent-A-Car story and Steve and Connie. Things are still on yellow alert with regards to gasoline too. Georgia is at 50% gas station closures due to the pipeline shutdown, and our road trip to South Carolina is tomorrow. Oh well, we'll work it out tomorrow...tonight was not to be touched.

It's Wednesday. It's raining of course. But who cares, nothing to do today. Sandra got up earlier and headed over to Alexa's apartment to help clean up before she embarks on her next chapter in her story. Graduation is a day away and it's good to know that she has both claws firmly embedded into her current living situation. The day earlier, I was able to see the condition of Hoss (My beloved Landcruiser she has been taking good care of). I'd put a wink-and-a-node in that last sentence...but then I would be digressing into several layers of stories oriented around Alexa's cleanliness habits. Once I was able to sort out with here the dirty dishes and utensils found under the seat from the actual dirty clothes that were everywhere else, we would have had a productive day. But, then again, that was yesterday.

Sandra and Alexa spent the day at the apartment and apparently "Got it all done". Myself, I cracked open my Software Development Environment and "Coded Like The Wind". It must've been months since I did anything like this, and was having a quite Cathartic day.

It was around 5pm when Sandra got back. Throughout the day, the Cable News channel was vectored in on the newest national crisis, and low-and-behold, Georgia and the Southeast was directly in their target. Apparently, some days back a Russian Criminal group was able to implement a "Ransomware" attack on an Oil Pipeline company which delivers fuel to the Southeast. So far, Georgia is running out of gasoline fast and this is a potential dark cloud hovering over our plans to hit Hilton-Head at the end of the week.

So far 42% of gas-stations are dry in this state...we're keeping an eye on it; but certainly par for the course.

Ahhhh, first decent night’s sleep in a while. No Rush, no Agenda, and we woke up on our own time. All things great considering. We checked out of the hotel, and started our walk through the University. That was, until, Sandra looks over at me from her Phone and says something to the effect "You won't believe this!". I pretty much believe anything is possible, but if you know Sandra, she's not a fan of Science Fiction and the suspension of disbelief. When she starts the phrase as she did, I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with Aliens or Game Of Thrones, and I'm more inclined to believe she has something more worldly to offer.

Sure enough, if one imagines a bad situation, doesn't it usually manifest? Through no fault of our own, the place we were to check ourselves and family through the days of graduation, was double-booked, and apparently we were the ones without a seat in the cake dance. Perfect! We're homeless in Athens and the family heading out this way for the graduation are homeless too; only they don't know it. Shush, Let's not tell them.

Sandra goes into James Bond mode, and she's got a license to kill at this point. The phone calls with HotelsCom started at Noon, and like a good UGA Bulldog, she was not going to let up on the culprits until this homeless situation was fixed. I, like a good husband, disappeared into the shadows whilst I listened for Navy language hoping to catch words I have not heard of. Who knows, I can save them for later. It certainly was a cage match worth seeing from afar. Like watching a fisherman bring in the big Tuna with delicate Tugs and Runs. After 5 hours of jumping between different agents and waiting for various remedies, she reached a deal with the company where they made it all good, and covered the difference of cost from our original booking. Ultimately, we were staying in the same hotel we checked out earlier in the day, and our guests get their own rooms to boot when they arrived! A solid win from the girl sporting a big red "S" on her chest.

Once we were checked in, we finally got to sport the town for dinner at the old haunt we've been before (The Five Bar). We were feeling pretty relaxed at that point; and I was just glad I was able to do my part in the homeless matter.

Once back at the hotel, we did a night-cap at the bar with a nice shot of Lagavulin and Brandy. It was off to sleep afterward as everything was smooth and back in order....or was it?

It was 3:30am on my alarm when it went off. Wasn't really a surprise really, as I usually fade in and out on nights before travel. Ultimately, I was not the smart one, as Sandra set hers for 3:45am. What I could've done with that extra 15 minutes is any ones guess...But the ones I suspect who evolved--usually pick slumber.

As typical in the Cashen/Williams family; the Plane leaves at 6am and we arrive at the airport at 5:15am. Just enough time for me already to need a change of shirts; and slip a stink eye to my wife who has no Swiss or German heritage; she probably never owned a watch in her life. To my surprise, we made the flight, and thus all was back in order...except...what? Our destination is Atlanta, but our first stop is Seattle?!? Now, come on, I may not have been a B-Student in Geography, but I do know when we're flying in the opposite direction that increases distance; and effectively "Time". Sandra reassured me that leaving Seattle to Atlanta was faster than leaving Boise (which is 500 miles closer). Did I miss something in Mr. Stansky’s physics class where optimal time travel is capable only on Alaska Airlines, and somehow Delta, United and American airlines have been doing it wrong for decades. I was skeptical...but still very tired.

For the record, I don't know what occurred between Oregon and Arkansas, but some hours later I woke up in Atlanta from sleeping most of the way (in the upright position BTW). I gazed over at Sandra, and she said "see, told you". Damn! That was quite the hat trick.

Once in Atlanta, we did what all Altlantans do...look for a Lyft ride and pray for sunshine. We're not "Newbies" and have scheduled rides before, so don't go assuming these middle-aged parents of a graduating daughter can't get it done. All you do is click a destination and follow the little Pac-mans on your phone util the winner arrives to take you to your destination. We chose "Christopher"! A solid name and one you can trust. Surprisingly, as we watched "Christopher" loop around us a couple of times, we never were able to actually show up in right in front of us, even though the phone-app said HE DID. I don't remember how we found out, but ultimately, we discovered we’re on the wrong level at the airport. There’s another level?!? Funny, I thought we we're standing on solid ground with the sun above us and only dirt below. However, once we got directions to Dante's 2nd level of hell, AKA Atlanta's Hartsfield Subterranean Alternate Transportation Pickup; we were connected with "Christopher". A nice guy with a sporty little KIA that was going to navigate us out of 5 O’clock traffic and into the peaceful serene town of Athens.

It all started awesome. I didn't have to wear that stupid COVID mask in the car for two hours, and he was willing to keep the windows rolled down so we could experience the refreshing air at 65 miles on the freeway. At least he was playing Jazz...for a while. When we hit halfway, the Jazz turned into Eminem and some other Alternative Rap artists which I was able to feel through the speakers thumping through the back seat. But Hey, The covid-mask was off...Nothing was going to spoil this drive.

We arrived at Athens and a usually reasonable hour (7pm or so). We checked into the hotel and met Alexa nearby for dinner on top of a building where the sun was setting and all was copacetic again. Forgot how the day started, as the way it ended was pretty darn relaxing. Then...who could've seen the squall forming up the next day.