Spring Break Galveston - Day 1

The blog will be busy this month.  Friends - it's time for the infamous Hicks Family Vacation.  It's spring break in Kansas and we are, once again, headed out on the road.

This vacation is significant.  It represents one of the last times we will be together as the four of us.  You see, life has a way of changing - and ours is reaching another milestone.  We have a senior in high school.

I am trying not to dwell on that as we go through the familiar rituals of packing, loading the car and taking the ritualistic "ready and loaded" picture.  (The youngest, though compliant, is angry because we made him leave the X-Box at home after trying to sneak it in with his luggage.  The giveaway?  The word "fragile" taped to the outside of his bag....)

As it is, here we go.  And we begin this trip by revisiting one of our favorite locations from our Carlsbad location - Pops in Edmond Oklahoma.  This time, we visit at night so we can see the pop bottle in its complete glory.  And it is fabulous.  Mesmerizing.  If you haven't been to Pops, go.  It's roughly 5 miles to the east of I-35 on Route 66 and it is a sight and wonder to behold.  This rose is worth smelling.



  Can't get the pic to right-size.  You'll
have to turn your computer for full effect.

This time we also ate dinner in the café.  Our party wasn't big enough for a booth  (you have to have 5 or more), but we did get a table right under the pop bottle display where we ate hamburgers and (mom is trying to be healthy) the honey roasted chicken salad.

Before heading out we loaded up on six bottles of Pop From Around the World using the convenient cardboard six-pack carrier located everywhere around the store.  Our collection? 

• Grass Soda: Mowed and Bottled in the USA
• Jones Blue Bubblegum Soda with a cover photo of an iguana from Pamela Jones of Huntsville, AL
• Jones Cream Soda with a cover photo of four-hand guitar picking by Emma Pritchett of Fort Worth, TX
• Grandpa Lundquist's Christmas Soda from Sweden bottled in IL
• Fest's Satsuma Mint Soda from Louisiana
• Jarritos Fruit Punch from El Paso, TX

After dinner it was on to Norman, OK to the Hampton Inn for our first night on the road.  It is good to be traveling with family again!

R.A.L. - Who Do I Represent?

To find out who I represent, I dug out NASFAA's annual report published in October of 2016.

There are 2,936 institutional members of NASFAA.

38.9% of the membership are from non-profit schools.  The next largest group is community colleges at 27.5% and then public institutions at 19%.  For-profit and graduate schools make up the remaining 14.6%.

Small schools (enrollments of 1,000 to 4,999) comprise 45.5% of the membership.  Tiny schools add another 26.7%.  Mid-sized schools represent 14%.  The big guys? The remaining 13.7%.

This research has me relieved.  I work at an institution that represents a large portion of NASFAA's membership.  For perspectives on the rest, I have my friends.

R.A.L. - Job Description

Representative at Large (R.A.L.).  According to the board handbook, my job is to "serve as a representative and advocate of NASFAA to the membership-at-large, and as a conduit for providing feedback from members to the association."

Three nouns:  Representative.  Advocate.  Conduit.

Representative. A person chosen or appointed to act or speak for another or others - a mouthpiece.

Advocate.  A person who publicly supports a particular cause.

Conduit.  A means of transmitting or distributing.

In short - I am to practice the art of communication.  I am a conveyer of messages from sender to receiver.  I am a listener.  I am a translator.  I am an interpreter.  My job is to minimize noise.

Distance Traveled

Distance traveled – a phrase that refers to how much ground an object in motion has covered.  What I love about where I work is that we care about this – distance traveled.  Of course, the normal way to relay this concept is to use the phrase lifetime learning.  But I like to define it in terms of the result – distance traveled.

In many ways, as I look back on this blog, it is about distance traveled.  Journeys begun.  Journeys ended.  And thankfully, a journey in progress.  The further you get from the place the journey started, the more clearly you can see it.  In contrast the future remains firmly in the fog.

In January, a little of the fog parted and more of the past became clear.  I was elected to serve as a Representative at Large on the board of the National Association for Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).  It’s an honor.  It’s humbling.  It’s another real opportunity to travel some distance.  Let’s go!

Deep South - Final Stretch

Oscar Wilde, author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest is full of good advice along the lines of “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken,” and “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”  One of my all-ti

Oscar Wilde

me and often-quoted favorites of his is, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”  And so it was, on the way home that we broke two of the Hicks rules.

We left the condo by the agreed upon time of 10:00 a.m. and then proceeded to weave our way out of Louisiana via a “scenic byway.” Our purpose was to avoid I-10 and I-12 at all costs and we did accomplish that goal.  Unfortunately, our little “alternative route” added another hour to our drive because we happened to jag where we should have jogged on one of the myriad of turns I plotted through the Louisiana plantation country. 

Allow me to again say that driving through Mississippi and Louisiana is not for the navigational novice.  I had an atlas, a state map given to me by an elderly woman at the visitor’s center and my cell phone with Google maps and I was checking all three constantly to ensure we were on track.  GPS is not helpful because it seems, at times and maybe just for fun, the locals intentionally change the road signs – adding numbers and even towns that don’t exist on maps anywhere.  I’m convinced this is purely to confuse the tourists.  Much in the same way stop signs in small towns are just for out-of-towners. 

Google maps was my best resource – that is, when I had a signal.  I found myself quickly checking Google maps to memorize the quickest, best route when I had a good signal.  Then I filled in with the atlas and the ridiculously unhelpful state map when my signal failed me.  Finally, we ended up back on the Interstate at Alexandria, Louisiana and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of heavy rain and flash flood warnings that extended the entire way to Shreveport.

By the time we reached Alexandria, we were so far behind schedule that we broke one of our rules – the one about stopping every two hours.  Hunkering down, we pushed through the storm and the

northeast part of Texas stopping only when absolutely necessary and to quickly chow down on a hamburger at the Whataburger in Marshall.  We finally made it to our McAllister destination just before 7:00 p.m. and crawled out of the car to our room grateful the day was over. 

Isaac wanted to swim so he and I spent about an hour more of quality time in the hotel’s recently vacated indoor pool.  None of us was speaking much, the toll of the day and the push to our destination working itself out in various ways.  When we finally woke up the next morning – Ross and I had a little difficulty moving properly.  Too much time sitting in one position had atrophied our limbs.  These are things that one

Dos Margaritas, Henryetta, OK

simply cannot recover from easily the older that one gets.  Consequently, we broke another one of our rules….we didn’t go to church.

Once we finally managed to work a little limberness back into our arms and legs, we got back in the car for the final drive home.  To make up for church absence, Ross found a local radio station covering a local service and we listened to that.  This time, after the immediate and intimate reminder of WHY we stop every two hours to stretch, we stopped every two hours to get out, walk around and stretch a bit.  The stops weren’t sexy – mostly truck stops and gas stations – but we did manage to have a relaxing lunch at Dos Margueritas in Henryetta, Oklahoma.  Great service, wonderful food.  We got home around 4:00 p.m., just in time to unpack, settle in and catch the KU vs. WSU game on TV.



Spring Break 2015: A Job Well Done

Another successful vacation on the books.  As we grow closer to having one in college, I am thankful that the boys still enjoy taking a time out each year to hang with their mother and father.  We always vote at the end of our vacations on our favorite parts of the trip.  My favorite location of the trip was definitely the cabin in the woods and the activity I enjoyed the most was the tour in the swamp with Coerte.  Sam's favorite location was the houseboat and couldn't decide if the swamp tour or hanging out on Ship Island was more fun.  Isaac's favorite location was the houseboat and his favorite moment was holding a baby alligator in his hand.  Ross' favorite location was the condo on the beach and said, "It was a brilliant vacation from beginning to end."  High praise indeed.  Spring Break 2015 has ended.  Time to begin dreaming for Spring Break 2016. 

Deep South - Day 8

The morning started early today because we had to catch a 9:00 a.m. ferry to Ship Island.  Our condo, located in the Sea Breeze Condominium complex, was in beautiful Biloxi, Mississippi - just

Capt. Pete

north of Beauvoir on Beach Boulevard.  (Beauvoir is Jefferson Davis' retirement home and - get this - Presidential library.)  The ferry leaves from Gulfport, which is the next town over from Biloxi.  The ferry, Capt. Pete, has been making the trip back and forth to the island since the 1950s when the original Captain Pete Skrmetta and his wife started the business.  In the spring they complete one trip in the morning from 9:00 to 2:30 p.m.  On the weekends and in the summer, they run two trips – one in the morning and one beginning at noon and departing at 5:00 p.m.

Smile Sam

It was a beautiful day to visit the island – but unfortunately there was no breeze.  I say unfortunately because without a breeze, the gnats had nothing to else to occupy their time but dive bombing the ears, eyes, nose and exposed parts of the humans around them.  Consider one exchange I overheard on the beach:

“These gnats are killing me!” yelled an elderly gentleman wading in the Gulf surf.  A young mother of two responded helpfully, “Would you like some bug spray?”

“I have some,” he replied.  “I think they like it.”   We could empathize.



Isaac and the Louisiana State Bird

The 50-minute boat ride through the Mississippi Sound was awesome because of one thing – dolphins.  The captain pointed them out over the intercom when he would spot them and we found ourselves running (ok....walking fast) from side to side of the boat hoping to catch a glimpse.  At one point, he noted that there were two dolphins frolicking in the front.  We quickly ran to the bow of the clipper.  There they were goofing around and waiting for a good sized crowd to gather. 

When enough of us were in the front watching, they dove directly under the boat, one on each side of the prow and rode the water, belly up for a good 5-6 minutes.  I

Walking in the Gulf of Mexico

found myself standing directly above the one on the port side.  The dolphin was literally four feet below me.  It was one of those moments in life you know instinctively you will never get back, so you enjoy it to the fullest while it is happening.  You also forget to take pictures.  When it was over, I couldn’t help myself, “That was SO cool!” I said loudly.  A sentiment that was quickly echoed by the 7 or 8 people standing around me.  Together we had witnessed something very special.

West Ship Island is a about a city block in width and contains a white sandy beach on both sides.  The water on the far side of the island is the Gulf of Mexico.  The island and it's partners provide a protective barrier for the town of Biloxi and Gulfport.  The entire string of islands separate and buffer the Biloxi shore from

Post Dolphin Sighting

the Gulf creating in between the peaceful waters of the Mississippi Sound.  West Ship Island is also part of a string of Islands owned by the National Park Service.  Together they are known as Gulf Islands National Seashore.  Two of the islands - East and West Ship Island - were once one large island until Hurricane Camille cut them in half in 1969.  Hurricane Katrina came along and made the cut more permanent.
The islands are also home to several cool critters.  Besides the dolphins, we spotted at least ten manta rays playing in the shallower waters by the beach on the Sound side.  There were also two star fish tossing about in the wake of the boat as it docked.  On

Time to Eat

the gulf side, Ross and I spotted three crabs doing their best to hide from us and the gulls flying around the beach from above.  Two of them played peek-a-boo with us for a while as they scuttled in an out of their sandy dens.  The best critter moment, though, was when the boys were playing in the water.  Ross and I watched as two dolphins surfaced and played not 10 yards from where the boys were standing.  The boys had no idea.  And we weren’t quick enough to get a picture.  Another one of those memories to file away in the “once in a lifetime” category.

The crew of the boat were great and from all walks of life.  We got to know Minnesota Steve who was introduced to us at the ticket window.  I was standing with the boys getting our tickets when he walked into the booth and announced happily to the lady helping me, “Another day where I haven’t

Fort Massachusetts

had to use Algebra even once!”

“Shhhhhh,” I quickly rejoined.  “I’m sure you use Algebra every day, right?”

He looked up, noticing me and my companions for the first time.  “Riiiiiight,” he said, “I don’t know what I was thinking.  I use Algebra all the time.”  After that, Minnesota Steve was part of the family.

He pulled out his lunch cooler while we were eating and shared some of his chips with the boys.  His wife thinks they are too spicy, but he likes them.  And, he ended up leading our 1:00 p.m. tour of Fort Massachusetts – the ancient fort built by the French and used during the revolutionary and civil wars.  Steve was a retired postal worker who spent a little time in retirement working for the national park service before heading to Biloxi and Ship Island Excursions.  He gave a great tour.



The Ride Home

It was a beautiful, partly cloudy day on the island and we were very glad that we went on a Friday.  Rumor had it that they were expecting 1,000 people on the island that Saturday.  We toured with about 30.  Even with the spf 30 sunscreen – all of us had a sunburn on some parts of our bodies by the end of the day, so we rode back in the boat snack bar listening to the fans and the drone of the motor and lulling ourselves into a nice, easy sleep.

We were all silent driving the short way back to the condo.  We were all a little sun drowsy and by this time of our trip - had experienced plenty of togetherness.  I believe the saying is “fish and family start to stink after three days.”  We were going on nine. 

Turns out the best thing about our condo (at least that afternoon) was the three TVs.  When we

Sea Breeze Living Room

returned to our oasis to cool down after our excursion, the boys disappeared into their shared bedroom where they set up a picnic of snacks and drinks and messed with the WiFi and gladiator movies on AMC.  Ross headed to the master bedroom and the basketball game.  And that left the living room for me and a documentary on Judy Garland.  I’m pretty sure we all took a little nap.

Sea Breeze Condominiums is directly on the beach.  And when I say directly – I mean directly.  Every apartment has an unobstructed view of the Mississippi Sound.  When we surfaced again after going our separate ways – Ross and I, sans shoes and socks, went down to the second floor where the condo stairway connected directly to the white sand and surf.  We spent the next 45 minutes walking the beach, wading out to sandbars and watching the evening tide.  We offered it as a family excursion, but the boys weren’t interested.  They'd had enough of nature that afternoon.

We agreed – another good day to cap off a successful vacation.

Deep South - Day 7

So after a pretty good day out in the swamp, it was time to pack up The Houseboat and head for classier parts.  The Houseboat was a good place to stay – another tip from VRBO.  For me, it had a nice collection of chick flicks that I had not seen in a while.  For the boys….duh….the boat has five

fishing poles, a tackle box and a “step outside the door and fish.”  For Ross, there was a hot tub with a great view of the night sky and some neighboring gators who weren’t shy about swimming up to the boat (although the biggest one spotted turned out to be a tree with a bunch of turtles hitching a ride on its gently floating trunk).

But.  It was time to head to NOLA and the Gulf.  As I was settling into navigating, I suddenly remembered something my tweenage ears heard during my earlier trips to the area – complaints about the roads.  To be frank, there are no direct routes anywhere in the Atchafalaya Basin.  The map has the scattered appearance of roads that have been haphazardly planned; roads that follow channels cut into the swamp deep enough to carry barges and spider webs of back roads leading to

small communities, side of the road dives and clusters of trailers and homes.  And then, there is Highway 90 and I-10.  This is, of course, where you find anyone and everyone else in Louisiana trying to get from place to place.  Literally.  Everyone.

Traffic. Is. Everywhere.  Semis. Are. Everywhere.  So much so that on I-10, semis are limited to driving in the right-hand lane leaving you and everyone else fighting for position in the left-hand lane hoping that when your exit arrives there is a gap in the semis big enough to let you through.  This is how we drove to New Orleans.  We should have just put the car in neutral and allowed the traffic to carry us the entire way – we would have saved a little gas.

Somehow, we arrived in downtown New Orleans.  Out of desperation, we dipped down off of the weaving, winding elevated highways onto Poydras Street.  New Orleans proper is thankfully laid out in a properly gridded albeit one-way network of streets that are well marked and easy to maneuver.  Slowly directing our path to Magazine Street and the World War II museum, we had to jockey to make it to the designated parking area.  With relief, we donned our tourist gear.

Final assessment: we enjoyed the museum.  It is touted as one of the best museums in the country.  We would agree.  The best exhibit for Ross and I was the overview of the entire war and its battles at one of the very first points in the museum.   There are several interactive aspects of the museum including one that has become semi-normal in national quality museums.  At the ticket booth we were given a set of “dog tags.”  The tags contained a number and website.  We then stepped aboard a train where we picked a soldier to follow throughout the museum.  We were told we could collect the soldier’s story as well as other images that would be stored to our online account as we toured.

This was a highlight for the boys.  My solder, a navy pilot, died in the war and went missing in action until 1993 when the wreckage of his plane and his burned personal effects and bones were

discovered and shipped back to the states to be buried in Arlington Cemetery.  Sam’s soldier had the best story – he and three others bluffed a town full of German soldiers into surrender by telling them that they were an advance unit of the American forces.  Ross registered as a war correspondent, but the lines at the interactive kiosks were so long – he didn’t want to wait to hear his information.

We, of course, bought the “full package” which included an interactive submarine experience and the 4D movie, Beyond All Boundaries.  The submarine experience is ominously called FINAL MISSION: The USS Tang Experience.  So basically, you know you are going down at the end of the 11 minute show.  Like the larger museum, as you stand in line to go in, you are given a soldier and a battle station.  The Hicks family manned the radar.  Our job was to pinpoint enemy ships to sink.  We did our best – although the boys got the gist of what we were supposed to do just a tad bit quicker than mom and dad.  We learned after the sub was inevitably sunk that only 9 of the 80 sailors on board survived the experience.  Ross’ sailor was one of the 9.  The rest of us didn’t make it.

Beyond All Boundaries is a movie that took five years to make and features several well-known voices including most notably the narrator – Tom Hanks.  The movie was great – we kind of wished the tank and airplane sequences would go on a little longer because your leather seat vibrated in a massage chair kind of way.  The film did a nice job of explaining the importance of the conflict and its pivotal role in world history.  It’s worth the expense to see it, if only to experience a snow storm in the middle of an eighty degree day.

I do feel I need to go back to see the museum again on a day when there aren’t so many people.  Most of the folks attending that day were older; I assumed veterans of the war themselves or

children and direct descendants of veterans.  There was a woman in a wheel chair who stopped at an exhibit showing letters that soldiers wrote to their loved ones back home – touching the glass in a heartbreaking way.  There was a room full of elderly folks – silent – all eyes trained on a brutal video showing the landing at Omaha Beach and memorializing the thousands of soldiers killed on the D-Day beaches.  There was an elderly man having difficulty in the Soda Shop maneuvering his motorized chair through a cluster of teenage patrons.

In essence, I was unable to focus on the exhibits because of the real life drama occurring directly in front of me.  Instead of reading or listening, I found myself wondering how these exhibits played to people who experienced real loss as a result of that war.  The total death tally for the war was 75,000,000.  There are at least as many families, sweethearts, mothers, fathers and siblings directly affected by the human sacrifice.  How many of those were right before my eyes and to whom I owed deference, silence and respect.

Rips on the Lake

We finished the movie about the same time the museum closed, so we hopped in our car and took a deep breath.  Time to head back up on I-10.  This time, we went north to Mandeville.  We visited partly as a nod to my cousins who lived there for several years and partly so we could travel the Pontchartrain Causeway – the world’s longest bridge over a body of water.  When you are that close to a superlative, you have to partake.

We ate dinner in Mandeville at Rips on the Lake which is on the

Lake Ponchartrain

shores of Lake Ponchartrain.  I pulled my restaurant trick at this spot and had the waiter pick my dinner.  While the boys dabbled in stuffed crab and fried whatever – I consumed a terrific Blackened Grouper, grilled vegies and potatoes.  We ate on the porch, enjoyed the sun, sipped tea, talked about basketball with the waiter and had a leisurely, pleasant meal.  When finished, it was time to hop back in the car and head to our final VRBO stay – The Biloxi Condo.