There’s nothing like a road trip to clear your head and get some heavy duty thinking under your belt.

The Web mistress and I made a mad dash to points west last week. I haven’t been on a massive road trip in a while. It just doesn’t seem to be a possibility when you’re chained to a Macintosh computer in the weekly newspaper grind.

Due to some hard work by The Manning Times’ gang, Carol and I were able to take a whole week off and we went on a 2,400-mile trek to visit family from Alabama to Texas.

I’ll share some of my rambling thoughts I had.

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After the resounding success of the Clarendon County Relay for Life last year, I heard comments about the amount of money leaving the county to go in the American Cancer Society coffers.

The main motivator for our journey was to visit Carol’s father who was (and still is) undergoing cancer treatment.

Seeing Carol’s father tired and in pain from the treatments make the Relay efforts seem like not enough.

The first time I met Carol’s father, Dr. Fred Inman, he sewed my big toe back on after I nearly cut it off in a swimming accident.

I didn’t get to know him better until a couple of years later when, much to the dismay of Carol’s mom, I began dating his daughter.

Doc Inman is a caring, compassionate, soft-spoken, stalwart of the community. He made house calls long after it was never heard of. He took care of the community from birth to death. He never refused anyone’s need for care regardless of race, creed, color, wealth (or lack of wealth).

It was a different scenario for me to see him as a patient as opposed to being the Doc.

I left Carol in Arkansas to care for her Mom and Dad and made a quick visit to see my Mom and brother-in-law and sister in Dallas. I had a good six hours of alone time and many thoughts passed through my pea-sized brain.

Cancer weighed heavy on my mind. I thought about all the people in Clarendon County who have been touched by this devastating disease. I thought about watching all the survivors walk the first laps at the relay and thinking about all the people I knew who have battled this disease.

I wish I had the answer. I wish I had the cure. I know I won’t share the concern about the amount of money leaving Clarendon County to battle this disease. However much we raise, it’s not enough.

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Our first stop of our journey was to spend the night with youngest son, Joe, at his home in Auburn, Alabama. Joe is college student and occupying a manufactured home we own in the shadows of Auburn University.

Carol and I were amazed by the transformation in our “Baby Joseph.”

We were entertained, fed and had every need taken care of. It was almost like being at a five-star resort.

One of the kids Joe grew up with (and we helped raise) spent the evening with us.

We hadn’t seen Jay Moncrief since he and Joe were in the seventh grade. It was quite entertaining to see this man-child and relive the old times and hear about the adventures of our son and his college buddy.

Joe was very gracious and gave up his full-sized bed for Carol and I to sleep in.

As we were driving to Arkansas the next day, we agreed we had a great time but admitted we were not full-sized people. We’re definitely king-sized folks now.

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One other rambling thought … anyone who can’t appreciate living in Clarendon County needs to spend a couple of days driving in Dallas.

In the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area there is more than an abundance of 12 lanes of motorized maniacs sharing the love 24 hours a day.

After a few hours braving the Dallas freeways, the few moments I had to wait for the traffic to clear at the Country Corner Monday morning seemed refreshing.