Road trip

Good morning! Actually, it is a great morning! Last night, we made it home around 8:30 and I walked around the house being so grateful to be home.

It was a wonderful moment. With the travel, sleeping in strange beds, and meals that are loaded with carbs and sugar, I am so happy....really happy...sincerely happy. Plus, we are all under one roof which makes me elated.


With that said, I am still in a haze. I set my alarm on my tablet for 5:30 am yesterday morning with the idea that we would leave at 6a. However, my tablet was still on eastern standard time, so I actually pulled the big guy out of bed at 4:30 am. It didn't matter, he really did not notice. He lumbered to the front seat of the car and went back to sleep.

The car's gas gauge was on 1/8 tank, so I figured that I would hit a gas station on the highway....wrong...very wrong....we are in the midwest....corn fields.....long tireless highways....no where to find gas or rest rooms. And so, I drove white knuckled down the highway until I found a gas station that opened at 9:30 am. Yikes....on fumes, I finally found another one that was opened. But I believe that as I was running on empty, I promised God that I would join the convent, priesthood, and live a life of complete simplicity if He got me to a gas station before running out of gas. It's the simple things, right?



I am sure that God was laughing, because there is no Catholic order of religious who would take me even if I begged.

The road trip continued as I drove and drove and drove and drove some more. Yes, the big guy was supposed to help to drive, yet as he slumbered and slept, I had the vision of driving him as a young boy in the back seat of my Volvo and decided that he was still a little cutie as he slept with his big blue blankie on him.

After a breakfast at Panera, we moved on....through Illinois.....Indiana...Ohiooooooo......yep, we stayed on the same road and stopped for gas and snacks.

He finally woke up in West Virginia as I stopped at another Panera for a quick bite, but he broke the traveling companion code of conduct. As we entered WVa, I began to sing John Denver's Rocky Mountain High.....You know how it goes..."Almost heaven....West Virginia......"

As I destroyed the melody with my singing, he taped it with the cell phone and posted it on Snapchat....then he sent it to his posse.....all I could hear from that point was his cell phone buzzing with comments, which I am pretty sure were uncomplimentary as I gazed at my reflection in the car mirror as my hair was standing out straight as if I put my finger in a light socket....sunglasses smudged, and a huge zit on my face....the voice...well, my voice sounds like a cross between Janice Joplin and Bob Dylan...yeah, that bad. Glad that I could give a bunch of guys a laugh or ten...

 

After Panera, I gave him money to buy snacks for the rest of the trip....he came out of the gas station with Tasty Kake chocolate donuts, a monster drink, and a huge Reeses peanut butter cup. Secretly, I was pleased....however, I did the mom-thing..."really....no bananas? No apples? No Skittles?" Sheesh....

Then he took the wheel. First, I had him hand over the cell phone. No texting and driving with me in the car...uh uh....no way. I could tell that it was killing him as I heard buzz, buzz, buzz.....He drove like a mad man. I needed a blind fold and a cigarette as he handled the car like Dale Ernhardt Jr.....let me tell ya....the next stop, I was going to take over despite losing the feeling in my right leg after driving for 7 straight hours. "Pull over...I feel great....you go back to sleep....you're tired...."

Now I am back at the wheel and on the Pa turnpike...I can taste it....see it.....glass of wine....pizza....pretzels...a salad or five! My own bed and pillows....yes...we were getting closer and closer...my leg started to seize again and we needed to resuscitate it by pounding on it...."Don't die....don't let me down...come on...you can do it...." Yep, we got off the turnpike and had 15 minutes left to home...I could smell my Dove soap now....do I see a chilled glass of pinot grigio on the counter or is it a mirage? Then it happened....  the car began to make noise...oh no...not now....we are so close.....

As we stopped, we could not figure out what the noise was, but how could we? His father cannot even change a light bulb....me? Well, I cannot figure out how to change the batteries in the tv remote control. We were doomed. So we did what any other mechanically inept person would do.....continued to drive with the noise and held our breath so that we would make it home. I did not want to send a prayer up to heaven since God already helped me out with the gas station thing at 5 am. That was a huge miracle....asking for two would be a bit selfish, don't you think?



We made it home...looked around for Diva (Whaaaaahhhh!)....ate pizza, drank a large...really large glass of wine and went to bed. As I laid my head on my wonderful pillow, I could hear the door to the house closing with Tink's car starting up. The big kid went off the high school to throw his weighted balls...it never ends, and now, we begin.....again...a new story...new chapter in the story of a kid, a baseball, and a dream....

And now, I am off to the food cupboard to volunteer. So glad to be home....I am never leaving again...until the next game....



Peace!