On a late Sunday evening in January, our hearts sank as we received the news that Mark's brother, Eric, had passed away.
He had not, to our knowledge, been ill, and this news was unexpected and shocking. Thankfully, from what we know, his passing appeared to be peaceful.
Once we got the news that Eric's "Celebration of Life" had been set, we knew we would attend. Our only issue being Eric lived in California, and we do not fly.
Road trip.
Because my little girl is 16, initially I planned on bringing her with us on the road. She doesn't see well these days, and her hearing has seriously gone by the wayside. She gets a bit confused, and I hated to leave her. However, after checking the weather at home and the weather we would be facing, I made the decision to leave her behind. Thank God for wonderful animal loving neighbors who know how much we love ours, because she loves her own just as earnestly.
Not looking forward to being in the car forever, but trying to look on the bright side of things.
We do honestly love spending time together, and we never run out of things to discuss and deliberate.
Although, at times, Mark probably wishes I would. I mean this gave me quite the chance to get him completely caught up on Brigette and Emmanuel Macron as well as the entire Blake Lively/Ryan Reynolds/Justin Baldoni saga. Yay.
Anytime we take a road trip, Mark is THE BEST at preparation. He packed a cooler with hearty, healthy snacks. Cut up cheeses and sausages. Granola. Mixed nuts. A separate cooler held cold waters. He even baked home made cookies. Yay.
First stop: Buc-cees in Luling where Lisa grabbed her diet coke and some "Spicy and Bold" Buc-cee's crackers. Oh, and some pecan pralines. So good!
Mark: Ummm, I packed us some healthy snacks.
Lisa: (with a mouth full of not healthy snacks): Mmm. OK. 🙂
On we drove.
And drove.
And drove.
One thing we were looking forward to: Caliche's.
I knew we would be driving right smack through Las Cruces, and I knew we would stop for our frozen custard! Definitely one of our favorite places when we lived in New Mexico, and we often took the dogs along for their pup cones.
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| Mark's is mango and salted pecans. Lisa's is candied green chiles. |
**To our New Mexico friends, we are SO SORRY we didn't stop for a visit, but we were on a tight time line. Hopefully next time!
On we drove.
And drove.
We wanted to get to the far side of Phoenix where we would stop for the night.
Made it. Yay!
We stopped at two different hotels. No room at the inn.
On we drove.
We stopped in the next town. Two hotels. Both booked for the night.
What the hey? This is a Wednesday night in definitely an off season. Why is everything booked solid?
We never did find out.
We looked at each other, decided there were two of us who could take turns driving and on we drove.
I am sure this part of the drive was quite beautiful, but considering much was done over night ... I missed all that. I mean I DID get West Texas in the day time, so there's that. 🙄🫤😂
Stopped the next morning for a gas/bathroom break and Lisa found some chocolates to add to her snack bag!!
I mean, I know Mark took the time and effort to pack all those healthy snacks, but look at that chocolate!!
On we drove.
We were SO EXCITED to finally make it into California. I mean just look at those gas prices:
😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
As some of you may be aware, Mark does enjoy teaching and sharing little tid bits of information. He does love telling me all about his home state of California. However, as we are driving through the San Joaquin Valley (thankfully during the day because it is beautiful, and it was raining), Mark was finally trying to get some sleep, as I kept exclaiming about the beauty of the valley and over and over again asking. "What's that!? What are they growing there??"
** side note: When Mark drives through Houston, he will drive a bit cautiously. Not slow or anything, but he still doesn't know all the roads or which lanes he needs on the freeways, etc. This is NOT how he drives in California. The first time he took me to San Diego he was flying through those freeways like he was a participant in the Indianapolis 500.
Me: OK, the speed limit through here is 65. Not sure you know that as you are doing 85.
Mark: In California speed limit signs are just suggestions. Nobody really cares. **
Now I do realize I can get distracted.
Me: Whoa, I almost hit the back of that semi.
Mark: I noticed.
Me: Well, I was just trying to see where the "N" is on my dashboard now that I am going North.
Mark: 😒
So Mark does 99% of the driving, and this is the road he lets me drive on:
And yes, I am taking a picture whilst driving as Mark is sleeping ... but don't tell him. And it was the San Joaquin Valley so it was pretty straight, pretty flat and absolutely gorgeous.
We pulled over for these:
The reason for our trip:
Thursday evening a few of Eric's closest friends and family met up at the Spaghetti Warehouse.
Dennis explained to us the reason we were meeting at this particular restaurant: Eric, for the most part, liked things to be a bit more upscale. A bit classier. ...but he would often find comfort in the Spaghetti Warehouse. It was a guilty pleasure and a secret of his.
I got zero pictures of our gathering. It was a night of catching up, sharing and remembering. A few different times, I thought of grabbing my phone to take a photo, but I honestly didn't want to disturb the moment. I don't think anyone's phone was touched all evening except to bring up a photo of a time or place about which we were discussing. While I have met Mark's family, this was the first time I met these friends. They were so warm and friendly and welcoming; there was an instant connection where we all fell into an absolutely wonderful evening ... which ended too soon.
Friday afternoon was Eric's Memorial, his "Celebration of Life".
To my understanding this was arranged and planned by Claire, with the help of Pam and Judy.
It. Was. Perfect.
As a lifelong bowler, Eric's Memorial was held in a private room at the Country Club Lanes.
As we entered we were greeted by a table with Memorial cards and a another table held a canvas on which to sign in. To leave a message for and/or about Eric.
The bar was serving Eric's signature drink. And, even though it's not MY signature drink, I did have to get one in remembrance.
Eric had the ultimate collection of Barbie and Ken dolls complete with fabulous wardrobes --many of which were designed and sewed by Eric himself. (There will be more stories about this later, but for now just know that there was a fashionably dressed Barbie and Ken on each table.) The centerpieces also consisted of miscellaneous photos of Eric, chocolates, Eric's obituary and a letter Eric had recently written.
Around the room were displays of photos of Eric and one of his favorite art pieces.
Time to begin.
Friends and family were invited up to share their stories. Their memories. There were so many.
Most everyone spoke of his huge smile, twinkling eyes, his one-of-a-kind laugh, his mischievous personality and his absolutely giving spirit.
More than one person mentioned when Eric showed up, you NEVER knew what he had planned or what was about to happen.
One of my favorite stories was a woman sharing when she got married. Wanting to make her celebration special, Eric took everyone outside where he had a surprise. He had those little lanterns where you light a candle, and the lantern lifts up into the night sky. Beautiful. Only the lanterns started heading off into the forest. During a drought. She said she never saw Geiger run so fast in his life. ... to hide back inside the house. 😂😂
She also shared with us that when they bowled, and especially when they went to tournaments, they could not wear basic outfits. Oh, no. Eric would fashion and create their shirts.
This is also one of the MANY ways and places Eric's Barbies came into play. When they would bowl, Eric would bring a Barbie or Ken to represent each bowler. The dolls' outfits matching the bowlers' outfits. As the game progressed, the dolls would be arranged and rearranged according to the outcome of the game.
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| Vonda carrying Eric |
Another couple shared that when they got married, Eric gave them Barbies to represent each of them. Wearing the outfits they were married in complete down to their wedding rings. When this same couple bought a house, Eric made them a model replica of their home including such details down to the shutters. When they bought a jeep, yep, Eric presented them with a model jeep. No life event was too small to celebrate.
What touched me was how so so many different people talked about his giving spirit and making each and every one of them feel so incredibly important ... and special.
If you would like to watch his Memorial, it has been uploaded to YouTube. View it here:
Eric Geiger's Celebration of Life
During the Memorial, we sat at the "Cousin Table", and while, once again, we didn't get out our phones and take many photos, we did manage to capture one of all the cousins.
Claire reserved a few lanes at the bowling alley, and as the Memorial came to an end, a few people did make their way down to do a bit of bowling.
As I mentioned earlier: It. Was. Perfect.
Then it was time for Mark and me to head home.
Before leaving California we knew we wanted to eat at Rubio's. One of our favorite little stops when we are in that state. Sadly, there is no longer a Rubio's in Sacramento. If there was, no telling how many times we would have eaten there. As it was, we had to settle for waiting until we made it to Palm Beach. But finally, Rubio's!
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| Her people left her while they went to place their order. I think she was hoping we might drop some snacks. |
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| Baja fish tacos really are the best! |
I am not sure how many times Mark heard me say, "I am so glad we went. I want to do this trip again when we can take more time. Stop and see the scenery along the way. Take the time to visit."
The trip home was pretty much the same as the trip going... we decided if we could drive it one way without stopping, we could drive it the other way without stopping.
Pros: We didn't have to unpack the car and/or luggage just for one night. We didn't have to pay for a hotel just for a few hours sleep.
Cons: Sitting in our vehicle FOREVER.
We did make it home, and we were extremely exhausted, but so happy that we were able to make the trip.
Until next time, California.
RIP Eric. So so many people loved you and are absolutely heartbroken.
