I'm back from our regular summer vacation, and I think I need another one. We always a good time, but, let's just put it this way, would you want to spend 20 hours in a van with 4 screaming boys? But now it's time to get back to work, back to business, and back to talking about myself because that's what I do here. Well, not just about myself. It's also time for another Sunshine Summit!

-Summer Vacation
This year was the smoothest, most efficient summer vacation we've had since moving to Arizona. My wife started planning the hotels back in January and this year we've finally found the best hotel that suits our needs. As a family of 4, we just have to have a suite with a full living room and kitchen in order to keep our sanity.
The drive back to Texas was seriously the smoothest it's ever been. When we drive to Texas, we actually do it all in a single trip without any overnight stays. My wife and I just keep switching drivers while the other rests. This year we went for a little different plan. I drove in the big cities and overnight, and she drove the open roads during the day. This actually left us with a pretty even spread of time. I actually stopped to take a nap at some rest stops a couple times, but I never got so tired that I felt like we were in danger, which has happened in the past. Other than that we stopped for major meals and kept on trucking.
We did all the same things we always do. We visited our families. My stepmom insisted we all go to Peter Piper Pizza. We went to the Texas State Aquarium. We drove around to see what things have changed. It's the same things we do every year, but this year seemed must less stressful. Maybe it's because we are in such a good place financially this time. For the first time ever, we actually didn't come home broke. In fact, we actually came back with extra money left over.
It's taken nearly 10 years, but we've finally gotten our family vacation dialed in. In a couple more years we wont even need to pack a diaper bag. here's looking forward to next year's vacation going just as smooth.


-Recommended Listening-

Sunshine Summit 2.0
https://www.sunshineandpowercuts.com/sunshinesummit2018/

The Sunshine Summit, created by Heather from the Sunshine and Powercuts Podcast, is a week long event made up of live streams celebrating connections and friendship from August 11th to the 17th (12th to the 18th for you people living in the future.) This time around it is also marking the 1 year anniversary of the podcast. I am fortunate, more accurately, lucky enough to be joining Heather on the actual anniversary of the podcast. Besides myself, returning guests include: Alysa Lucas, Bandrew Scott, and Stargate Pioneer. Joining in this time are also Derek Graziano, Rhett Hall, Anthony & Stephanie Conte, Lonein Lara, Suzy Buttress, Logan Naugle, Lisa & Sam, and Luke "Newsreel."


-Jackass Of The Week-
Whoever Designed the Freeways In Texas Cities
Instead of pulling up a story from the news to make rip into, I'm just gonna go with a serious gripe I have with my vacation back to Texas every year. The design of the freeway systems in the major cities in Texas is utterly retarded. Never mind that they are perpetually under construction with no real progress or signs of any actual improvements over the last 8 years. Scratch that. Make it 20 years. The freeway systems and roads themselves make no logical sense. Frequently, ramps exiting the freeway lead directly into ramps entering the freeway with less than a quarter mile of space for the cross traffic to avoid crashing into each other. Oh and the on-ramps themselves have such short merge lanes that many times cars have to stop on the ramps or in the travel lanes of the freeway to allow cars to enter and merge into traffic or avoid collisions.
Add to that the fact that all of the freeways have active businesses and shopping areas running along them and use the frontage roads as major streets. And of course these businesses are all the ones that you are trying to get to: grocery stores, gas stations, shopping malls, hotels. So when you are trying to get in and out of these businesses you are having to fight with all of the traffic trying to get on and off the freeway. On top of all of that, the cities are designed in a way that practically forces you into using those freeways to get anywhere because of how the cities are laid out. Of course the roads themselves aren't actually capable of handling the heavy load of traffic and so you may spend hours on the road and maybe only move 2 miles. I all but refuse to drive at certain times of the day while I'm visiting my dad. It's not worth the stress. Oh, and did I mention just about every road is in need of repair and cleanup?



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