2 of the 41,000,000

Danielle and I are going to be 2 out of an estimated 41 million people who are going to be traveling 50 miles or more next week for Thanksgiving. We are going to be going down to South Carolina to see my Dad and his wife. It should be a fun time. Hopefully we have good weather on the way down, although there is a little part of me that hopes for bad weather (it makes the trip fun).

We're going to have a bunch of new music to listen to (although D and I are notorious for....GASP....having conversations while we drive long distances). In addition to having three full CD's of Christmas music (compliments of Aaron), Danielle downloaded the new Casting Crowns Christmas CD and Sara Groves' new Christmas CD. So we're set music-wise for the trip. I'm wondering if we'll even listen to them, though? We might have too much to talk about.

Another great thing about this trip is that is going to be HALF the cost of the exact same trip that we took just three months ago over Labor Day weekend. Consider that gas, at that time, was about $4/gallon. I heard on the news this morning that the national average of gas will fall below $2/gallon by Thanksgiving. Checking the trusty gasbuddy.com, I see that there are places along our journey that are currently selling gas as low as $1.69/gallon. In the same news report this morning, they said that it is entirely possible that we could see $1.00/gallon gas by midwinter. ONE DOLLAR PER GALLON?? I can't even fathom that. I mean, I've seen it before, but ask me two months ago if that was possible ever again, and I definitely would have said no.

It's strange, because I understand that the country (and the world) is suffering through really bad economic times right now. But for somebody who has nothing invested in the stock market or any other kinds of investments, I actually feel really good about the way things are right now. With gas so low, it's beginning to affect prices on other things too...which is awesome news. Is it bad that I am actually feeling hopeful in this time that so many people are struggling?

Well, I'm going to sign off. But, before I do, I realize that my love for all things winter is a little too obvious to those who know me well. Even here on this blog, I have been talking quite a bit as of late about the weather. But this blog isn't a weather blog, and I know that I must talk about other things once in a while. So today, I'm not going to talk about how AccuWeather says we're supposed to get another 18.5" of snow by Sunday.