Say a prayer: your college-age children are on spring break

It’s spring break season, which means if you have a child away at college, he or she will be stopping by your house for a few hours to say hi.

By say hi, I mean drop off their laundry, eat a home-cooked meal and see which of their high school friends are also in town for a few hours.

About a week later, they’ll return to pick up their laundry.

This all started Friday night, when students from the University of Georgia began trickling back into our neighborhood, most of them on their way to the Gulf of Mexico.

My oldest son, who’s a freshman at UGA, showed up around dinnertime with a college buddy. Bess made a huge dish of macaroni and cheese and I grilled some Italian sausages, which is a pretty basic meal for us. They wolfed everything down and declared it by far the best meal they’ve eaten since Christmas break.

This was flattering in a way, but also discouraging considering we pay $2,000 a semester for our son’s meal plan.

After dinner, our son brought his plate into the kitchen and even walked the dog. You haven’t seen a more pleasant young man than one stopping by his parent’s house on the way to his spring break destination.

This is his way of saying, “I’m a trustworthy person who has carefully followed the wonderful training you gave me for 18 years, and you have nothing to worry about while I’m off for a week somewhere observing spring break. Oh, and here’s my laundry bag – you’ll want to use your legs if you try to lift it. Oh, and can I have some money?”

At midnight, our son and his friend took a bunch of camping gear out to the driveway, and a few minutes later two more pals pulled up in an SUV with a homemade roof rack that appeared to be constructed from PVC pipe.

The rack held crates of equipment piled high, making the already top-heavy vehicle seem like it would topple any minute.

The boys sensed our wariness and assured us they’d carefully planned out the trip and had everything under control.

This prompted my wife to ask me to say a prayer. It went something like this: “Dear God, help them to have fun and also to stay alive.”

Then they drove off into the night.

Oh yeah, I didn’t say where they were headed.

To Yosemite National Park, 36 hours away. This is the son that drove out to Zion National Park in Utah after he graduated from high school last summer.

They left at midnight so they could arrive at an In-N-Out Burger in Dallas by lunchtime. I guess that’s what they’d meant by careful planning.

The four of them drove straight to California, taking turns sleeping, driving and keeping the driver awake.

Early Sunday afternoon, our son texted us that he’d arrived and attached a video of snow blanketing the windshield while he drove.

That night, one of his buddies’ mothers called Bess to say that their campground was closed and they were going to spend the night outside the gate in their vehicle in 13-degree weather. This is not what Mama wanted to hear.

The next morning we learned the campground had closed because heavy snow had caused a tree to fall and kill a woman.

After Bess sent several texts, our son finally replied to say that (1) the campground was opening at noon, and (2) the cell reception was pretty spotty up there and he would see us Saturday night when he stopped by the house again.

And that was that. Absolutely nothing to worry about.

If you have a kid on spring break, or about to, hang in there.

This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Say a prayer: your college-age children are on spring break."