Ready for a cross-country road trip

The next two weeks will be quite busy for me with plenty of travel, including a flight to the West Coast, a 2,900-mile drive back to Bloomsburg and then a flight to the Rocky Mountain Region. Next week, I will be flying to Washington to meet my wife, Robbie.

As I mentioned in May, she has been involved in a National Science Foundation program with two of her colleagues from Central Washington University and 12 students from universities around the country. The two-month program is focused on water resource management in northwest China and included a four-week research trip to China, where the American students and faculty collaborated with Chinese colleagues. BU students are encouraged to apply for this unique international program, which will continue for at least the next two summers.

Robbie and I will visit our former hometown, Ellensburg, to pick up one of our horses — a 6-year-old, gray, quarter horse mare, Ariel, to bring back to Bloomsburg with us. Before we leave, Robbie and I will make sure we have a blues burger at The Tav and buy some of our favorite Washington red wines. Also, it will be nice to spend a couple of days with my son, Andrew, who is a senior anthropology major at Central university.

As we head home, we will spend three nights on the road with planned stops in Montana, South Dakota and Indiana. We made reservations for Ariel at equine motels and stock companies each night, as we will stay in nearby motels. We have never transported one of our three horses on a 2,900-mile trip across the country. It should be quite an adventure.

In Bloomsburg, Ariel will join our two geldings that came with us when we arrived early last year. Yes, we get great pleasure and relaxation from trail riding in beautiful central Pennsylvania. So far, our favorite rides have been in the state game lands adjacent to Red Roof Farm, where we board our horses just north of Jerseytown.

Alas, there will be no time to ride until next month as the following week I will be attending an annual PASSHE planning retreat before flying to Denver to meet some BU alumni.