Mom & Dad Travel Squad

Not too long ago I posted a piece about how my folks followed me around the Midwest to my high school and college track and cross country meets.

In the same piece I mentioned that we followed Ann around north Georgia for her high school track and cross country meets.

In a similar fashion we also followed John around Georgia and the southeast to his swim meets. The summer recreation league swimming was easy because all of those meets were within Gwinnett County. His high school swimming did not tax us too badly as all the meets were in the metropolitan Atlanta area. It was the Dynamo Swim Club meets and the University of Virginia meets that were taxing.

The swim club meets often started on a Thursday evening and did not end until Sunday night. The logistics of travel, food, and lodging took a significant amount of time and energy. As stroke and turn officials we were required to show up an hour early for the morning session, and again for the evening session, and when all the other parents left after their child’s last swim, Jean and I were standing on deck until the last heat of the last event. I don’t mean to whine, but, yeah, that got to be pretty annoying.

The College meets were one-day meets except for the ACC Championship and the NCAA Championship, but the distances we traveled were so much greater. All too often we’d only get to talk to John for a couple minutes after the meet. We didn’t get much quality time with our son for our travel dollars.

I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of the towns that Jean and I traveled to in support of John’s swimming. These are the ones that come to mind with just a little effort. I may have missed a couple. Yes, I know Long Island isn’t a city, but I can’t remember the name of the dadgum place. He wasn’t happy with his swim there anyway, so why remember it?

Gainesville, GA
Gainesville, FL
Auburn, AL
Savannah, GA
Augusta, GA
Athens, GA
College Park, MD
Minneapolis, MN
Long Island, NY
Knoxville, TN
Clemson, SC
Louisville, KY
Columbia, SC
Durham, NC
Chapel Hill, NC
Long Beach, CA
Omaha, NE
Charlotte, NC
Charlottesville, VA
Atlanta, GA