He's Off!

I was feeling rather overwhelmed a couple of weeks ago. There is quite a lot to do when sending a child off to college for the first time. We took Travis up to Mizzou on Sunday. The trip was eventful. Wow. Because of a closed highway (I guess I'm glad they are inspecting those bridges after all....) we had a bit of a detour in which our three-vehicle party was separated. I am, however, using the term "vehicle" a bit loosely. Trav was driving his car with Annie, Holly was driving me in mine, and Hubby was on the Harley with Thing 1. As we were about five miles from a designated meeting spot, in a downpour, we got a call from Travis saying he was already there and waiting for us. About the time I processed that information, we drove by an underpass full of motorcyclists. Apparently Hubby wasn't the only one who believed the weather forecast predicting a small chance of rain much later in the day. I spied Hubby and The Thing amidst the leather and helmets and we stopped and picked up a very wet and cold boy. Hubby took advantage of a lull in the rain and came behind us. Unfortunately, he didn't make it to the next destination, my Sister's house, before the monsoon hit. Poor guy was soaked through to the skivvies by the time we arrived. We were thankful we had Trav's ENTIRE CLOSET packed (his idea, I assure you) so Hubby could change clothes. We were also thankful Sister has a heavy-duty drier to handle the soggy mess.

The refreshed and now dry crew departed for the final destination, The Dorm. God showed us grace by allowing the rain to depart and we unloaded in dry weather. We took load after load into the room, dropping everything where we stood, anticipating we would help The Big Boy arrange it. You can imagine my amazement when he said, "Just leave it. I'll sort it out and put it away later." Dragging my jaw along with me, we exited and headed to run a couple of errands and eat. Holly had to get back for school the next day, so we made a fairly quick departure to get Hubby and Holly back on the road. The Things and I stayed another couple of days to help out and visit Sister.

The Big Boy is sharing a dorm with one of his best friends. They have done a good job of organizing their room. I think they are kind of excited about being on their own. Although I want to know how things are going and what he is experiencing, I'm refraining from calling for now. Far be it from me to be one of those hovering "helicopter parents". I did that the first 18 years. Now it's time to back off and watch from a little farther out. That is a difficult task for a control freak like me.