Sunday, July 13, 2008

Trip in review

The day started off not like any other. At 12:01 am I was wide awake thinking of all the things that I did or didn’t do yet and if I forgot something or needed to remove something to lighten the load. I stayed awake debating on if I should just get up and go check the luggage or stay in bed and make myself go to sleep.

I opted for staying in bed because I had just finished painting my toes in a bright shade of pink and didn’t want to have to redo them. I tossed and turned. Jerome was snoring away.

I’m not sure when I feel asleep but I suddenly woke up to find Jerome with Pork Chop outside. He came inside the house and cooked himself an egg and a bagel and I did the same for myself. Jerome left for work, Pork Chop went back in his crate and I went back to bed.

I was awaken by my alarm clock, jumped up and headed for the shower. I let Pork Chop out one last time, scooted him back to his crate and gave him a treat.

I ended up leaving early and was to work all too early. So early that Richard asked me if I came in early just because of the move. (Our team moved from one floor to another yesterday – but our computers and boxes never made it to our new floor by the time I left yesterday.) Ughhh I hate it when people notice what time I come and go!

I set up my desk to my liking. Putting up pictures and notes, my white board and posters. Everything was just right. I notice it was almost 1pm when I looked up. I had planned to leave at 1:30… but that didn’t happen… 2pm I was out of there. Wishing everyone a great holiday weekend.

I went home, checked the mail and gathered Pork Chops baggage. We were off to drop him off at the Puppy Hotel – his vet and also place where his puppy class was held. Pork Chop is spending a week at the puppy hotel and suite where he will be pampered beyond recognition I would guess. Thankfully the tech told me to call any time I wanted to check in on him. Poor guy… momma misses you!

Then it was off to the grocery store to purchase a bag of ice for the cooler and cash a check that came in the mail the day before for Pampered Chef. Back home I went. I carried all the bags into the garage when I noticed our neighbor across the street leaving. I went to the end of the drive to let her know that we would be out of town to watch over the place and call me if anything goes wrong. She of course said she would.

Then the wait began. I was waiting for Jerome to show up with our rented Mini Van to haul us away… us being the two of us, PST, JST and Tinker. Yup, all of us are heading out of town to Mississippi for his family reunion. This will be Tinkers first extra long trip and first time down South.

When the girls arrived I took a look at both of their extra large suitcases and wondered what could possibly inside of them. Were they packed correctly? Would they all fit? These were all good questions.

I started loading the van, first the pack and play for Tinker, then PST hard sided suitcase that I got her for her graduation a few years ago and then Jerome and my carryon rolly suitcases. JST’s wasn’t fitting. Ughhhh. It was so large and flat vs. wide. We ended up switching out her bag for one of our other ones… everything fit just fine – even though I’m sure she’s upset that we just tossed her stuff into the new fitting suitcase.

And we’re off. I was driving, Jerome was shotgun. Behind me was Tinker and behind Jerome was JST. In the way back was PST and the cooler. We turned back around before we even were a block away double checking to see if the door was locked.

We stopped at Stout to fill our bellies on Wendy’s and stretch our legs. Back into the van we were loosing daylight. I drove until about 10pm when I decided that I should get my night vision checked and we were at a ½ a tank of gas!

Oh… I didn’t tell you… the Mini Van that we picked up had 15 miles on it when we left… yup… BRAND NEW! It even has a DVD player in it for watching movies which everyone did while I was driving for the most part, until everyone fell asleep. It’s funny because I called it a movie on tape since they were watching movies that I hadn’t seen yet and I was making up my own pictures in my head of what was going on.

Anyways… back to the switch. We stopped at a gas station to top off the gas and empty bladders and garbage from the van. Jerome started the drive and I became the co pilot. We were good to go… until we remembered that we didn’t bring any change for the tolls. Shoot. Thank goodness PST knew that her pop would forget the change and brought some with her. The girls fell back to sleep and Jerome and I chatted.

I made us ham and turkey sandwiches with tomatoes and cheese from stuff that I knew wouldn’t last at home. It started to rain… and then we got sleepy. We pulled over to a rest area to go to the bathroom and maybe take a snooze. But since it was still raining when we came back from the bathroom we both felt pretty revived… but then again became sleepy.

It’s time to pull over… and since I’m writing this in the van as we drive it’s 2 miles to the next rest stop where we will be stopping for a brief nap. We’re about 70 miles away from St. Louis.

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