A Christmas Rendezvous!

    Wow! What a Christmas get away! What
a great time.
     A group of us headed north on Interstate
81 yesterday. We were headed for Binghamton
New York to share a bit of Christmas with
good friends who live in the Syracuse area.
     We go north...they come south....and we
meet at a Cracker Barrel that's generally in
the "middle."
      I've got to give "The Empire State"
credit! There's a Visitor's Welcome Center
along the Interstate that you might not
want to leave!
      The restrooms are spotless. And those
new high powered hand dryers feel like
they're strong enough to replace a jet engine
on a fighter plane!
       There are leather lounge chairs soft
enough to support a deep sleeper, a "Kids
section" to keep the little ones occupied,
Free Wi-Fi service (no password needed),
and flyer's on virtually every attraction
available in every section of the state!
        There are, of course, plenty of
vending machines too.
         If I'm every stranded in a snowstorm
(and that has happened to me twice) I'd
like it to be there!
         We moved along to our rendezvous.
         The Cracker Barrel is a favorite
spot. My buddy knows most of the
waitresses there by name. In fact he
even remembers some of their children's
names.
        I've told you about this friend
before. He loves to take pictures. In
fact he takes between 75,000 and
100,000 photos each year!!!!
        That's why I nearly had a heart
attack when he aimed his camera my
way and suddenly reported...."My
memory card is full.....I didn't bring
a spare!"
        We called it "unbelievable." I
believe I heard his wife use the phrase
"Miracle!"
       Would there be no "Christmas
meeting pictures!?" No portrait of
all these friends together?
        Oh ye of little faith!
        Some time back.....and not very
far back...my friend discovered the
"Delete switch" on his camera. He
used in on few shots he knew he didn't
need and...saved his own day!
      )Of course he'll probably get a
new card and go back to the places
where he took the now deleted scenes
to re-shoot them!)
        So our memories will be preserved
somewhere in that stack of 100,000
pictures from the year 2011.
         We'll get a copy. But it will have
to be pretty good to replace that vision
in my mind of my buddy realizing his
camera chip was full!
          Hope you've got plenty of
holiday memories and that all of your
NEWS is good!