Andrew made that proclamation as we were parking at the B&B after dealing with movers and boxes.
Friday.
Furniture arrived. All seems to be accounted for except a small patio table that I was going to use in the kitchen until an appropriate quaint antique bistro set can be acquired. I thought I was buying a bigger house. Why does it seem like I have MORE stuff and LESS space in this home? The renovations are about 80% complete. The guys will be back next week to finish up. It is going to be wonderful. Even taking a wee break sitting on the couch amongst the chaos of boxes and haphazardly placed furniture, it feels right. It feels like home. We are exhausted. After an early dinner, we will be early to bed once again to start the major unpacking tomorrow. Dad arrives early evening, and all must be "Dad proofed" before leaving for the airport. Glad I put that bathroom downstairs. Just have to clear a path.
Andrew had a blast playing with Ben & Harry next door. They have "cool" toys. Grass is always greener.... He "helped" check off numbers on the bingo paper as the movers brought in items and boxes. We tested the new microwave by making popcorn. The new dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer have all been tested also.
Natasha seems to be settling in nicely. She and the resident ghost has a fun night last night. I was worried leaving her alone for the night. Ghost was good to make introductions yesterday afternoon.
Mom's voice is still raspy and now her throat is getting soar. Andrew is having sneezing fits and runny nose. I'm just becoming narcoleptic. Guess it's time to find the nearest drugstore. Gotta love these old houses. Even the ones recently renovated. Actually, though, there is still tons of dust. Also, it was 70 degrees here today. Lovely day say the natives.
Hope to have great news for ya'll tomorrow after we get the majority of the 100+ boxes unpacked.
nite-nite
Nancy, Andrew, Natasha, & Judy
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wifi Schmifi
Wow, do I have some catching up to do. This'll probably be another long one. When Mom arrived at the hotel on Tuesday, she had laringytis. Wow, I thought. This might be a nice quiet trip. Nope, she still insisted on giving me the history of the trucking industry..... ;)
Tuesday:
Got a bit of a late start because I was still recovering from my nervous breakdown from Sunday evening. We hit the road around 10:00am. The most exciting thing we saw in Missouri was the power of a tornado. Fortunately, the tornado had already past, but the beautiful white Kentucky horse type fence and gorgeous home that went with it wasn't so beautiful and gorgeous anymore. Oh, we did see a public service announcement at the local fireworks outlet. They suggested no smoking inside the building. Things that make ya go hmmmm. We made it as far as just east of Indianapolis. A lovely town called Greenfield. Just beat the Final Four crowds. This day gave us our only inclement weather. A bit of rain. It was nice to wash off all the bug carcasses from the car and *&%$ carrier. That hotel had wifi, but it was a bit weak, and we were beyond exhausted after dinner, so we just hit the hey.
Wednesday:
On the road at a decent hour. Don't really remember. Natasha is becoming quite the escape artist kitty. The travels must have gotten to her because instead of sitting on anyone's lap or on the pillow in the back window, she has taken to sitting on the floor of the car in any comfy spot she can find. On this particular day, however, she had some litter box issues. That's the nicest way I can put it. After the litter box issues, Andrew proceeded to spill his chocolate milkshake. Of course, the lid had come off by this time. At the next rest stop, I cleaned up everything. Including the litter box. Never have I scooped up chocolate shake litter. Not paying much attention to details, just wanting to get the car free of possibly curlding milk, I didn't notice how my activities had decorated my shirt. The only nice one I had packed in my over night bag. This was noticed Wednesday night at dinner. Ah yes, last night's dinner. It was late. We had made it the rest of the way through Indiana, through Ohio, and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way through Pennsylvania. That is a friggen long state!!! We made it to Newburgh, NY and stayed near West Point. I was so hungry by the time the food arrived that I pretty much inhaled it. I thought I had just eaten too fast when I was feeling what I thought was just indigestion. So, thinking this, I took a nice big drink of water. WRONG. Apparently something had lodged itself in my sternum area pipe. What a scary feeling. I thought I was going to vomit right there on the table. That or pass out and die. Luckily, it passed. I was a bit light headed for a while, but have recovered nicely. Oh, back to the driving through the states thing. Geez people are freaks! In Misery, there was some construction on the freeway, and a lane closure a mile or so up the road. EVERYONE decided that as soon as they saw the sign, they had to get over that minute. Not the driver from California. I zoomed on up and merged with the normal every other one rule. The truckers are a bit different in either Indiana or Ohio - they are both so unmemorable. The drivers did the same deal as in Misery except that the truckers made themselves God and drove down the middle of the lane not letting anyone pass. This was like 3 miles until the lane closer!! I drove on the shoulder to go around the honyocks. Boy did that erk them. I got honcked at all the way. HEY! The lane was still open, and no one was driving on it. Sheesh.
Thursday:
We got up in time to get a decent start to the day. Went to the Barne's & Nobles across from the hotel because everyone knows that there is a Starbuck's in Barne's & Nobels. I was the 3rd person in line. The lady in the front thought her iced coffee wasn't chocolatey enough. The barista had to fix that. The next guy got what he ordered. When it came to me, I gave her my order for decaf nonfat latte and venti nonfat sugarfree vanilla latte. She pulls out a plastic cup. I tell her these are hot drinks. She appeared non-plussed. She then asked if I wanted whipped cream. Whipped cream on a latte???? She sets the drink on the counter in the non-melting plastic cup, and I ask "what is that?" She replies she doesn't know, what did I order. I repeated my order and she annoyingly tossed that drink in the garbage, then announced she needed to go get some help. There were about 10 people in line at this time. I turned around and asked if there was another Starbucks around here and was told yes. The "help"arrived and promptly pulled out the barista handbook. The lady who had answered yes to my question said, "follow me. We are outta here." My Starbucks angel led me to a Strobo in a new Target. I ordered my drinks (mom was getting one), thanked my angel, and left the store. A few miles down the road, I took a sip of my beverage. YUCK!!! It was a soap latte! Dear Gawd! Once we got to Connecticut, we stopped at the "Rest Area and Canteen" to pee and get a coffee. Rest area coffee had to be better than a soap latte, right? The machine was broken. Finally, almost out of CT and into Mass, I was able to get a passable cup of coffee.
Mom & Dad's friend Bob Cooke, who lives in Stowe MA, was unavailable for lunch, so we dined on Exxon ice cream and other tasty treats. Within the hour, we were pulling into my driveway!! The workers were still hard at work, and there is still tons to do. The furniture is scheduled to be delivered in the morning. No sleeping in for me. I did a preliminary walk through, had a chat with the contractor, got Natasha settled in Andrew's room, and Mom & I headed for the B&B (who doesn't allow pets) in town. Andrew had already taken it upon himself to run next door to Susan's to play with her boys and their much more fun that I have toys.
We are at the B&B (who's wifi works properly unlike other motels) until Saturday morning. It is an oasis. It has sherry.
We are off to the Chinese place around the corner because we can wok. teehee
Tomorrow is furniture day, so I'll update as I can.
Thanks for sticking with us.
Tuesday:
Got a bit of a late start because I was still recovering from my nervous breakdown from Sunday evening. We hit the road around 10:00am. The most exciting thing we saw in Missouri was the power of a tornado. Fortunately, the tornado had already past, but the beautiful white Kentucky horse type fence and gorgeous home that went with it wasn't so beautiful and gorgeous anymore. Oh, we did see a public service announcement at the local fireworks outlet. They suggested no smoking inside the building. Things that make ya go hmmmm. We made it as far as just east of Indianapolis. A lovely town called Greenfield. Just beat the Final Four crowds. This day gave us our only inclement weather. A bit of rain. It was nice to wash off all the bug carcasses from the car and *&%$ carrier. That hotel had wifi, but it was a bit weak, and we were beyond exhausted after dinner, so we just hit the hey.
Wednesday:
On the road at a decent hour. Don't really remember. Natasha is becoming quite the escape artist kitty. The travels must have gotten to her because instead of sitting on anyone's lap or on the pillow in the back window, she has taken to sitting on the floor of the car in any comfy spot she can find. On this particular day, however, she had some litter box issues. That's the nicest way I can put it. After the litter box issues, Andrew proceeded to spill his chocolate milkshake. Of course, the lid had come off by this time. At the next rest stop, I cleaned up everything. Including the litter box. Never have I scooped up chocolate shake litter. Not paying much attention to details, just wanting to get the car free of possibly curlding milk, I didn't notice how my activities had decorated my shirt. The only nice one I had packed in my over night bag. This was noticed Wednesday night at dinner. Ah yes, last night's dinner. It was late. We had made it the rest of the way through Indiana, through Ohio, and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way through Pennsylvania. That is a friggen long state!!! We made it to Newburgh, NY and stayed near West Point. I was so hungry by the time the food arrived that I pretty much inhaled it. I thought I had just eaten too fast when I was feeling what I thought was just indigestion. So, thinking this, I took a nice big drink of water. WRONG. Apparently something had lodged itself in my sternum area pipe. What a scary feeling. I thought I was going to vomit right there on the table. That or pass out and die. Luckily, it passed. I was a bit light headed for a while, but have recovered nicely. Oh, back to the driving through the states thing. Geez people are freaks! In Misery, there was some construction on the freeway, and a lane closure a mile or so up the road. EVERYONE decided that as soon as they saw the sign, they had to get over that minute. Not the driver from California. I zoomed on up and merged with the normal every other one rule. The truckers are a bit different in either Indiana or Ohio - they are both so unmemorable. The drivers did the same deal as in Misery except that the truckers made themselves God and drove down the middle of the lane not letting anyone pass. This was like 3 miles until the lane closer!! I drove on the shoulder to go around the honyocks. Boy did that erk them. I got honcked at all the way. HEY! The lane was still open, and no one was driving on it. Sheesh.
Thursday:
We got up in time to get a decent start to the day. Went to the Barne's & Nobles across from the hotel because everyone knows that there is a Starbuck's in Barne's & Nobels. I was the 3rd person in line. The lady in the front thought her iced coffee wasn't chocolatey enough. The barista had to fix that. The next guy got what he ordered. When it came to me, I gave her my order for decaf nonfat latte and venti nonfat sugarfree vanilla latte. She pulls out a plastic cup. I tell her these are hot drinks. She appeared non-plussed. She then asked if I wanted whipped cream. Whipped cream on a latte???? She sets the drink on the counter in the non-melting plastic cup, and I ask "what is that?" She replies she doesn't know, what did I order. I repeated my order and she annoyingly tossed that drink in the garbage, then announced she needed to go get some help. There were about 10 people in line at this time. I turned around and asked if there was another Starbucks around here and was told yes. The "help"arrived and promptly pulled out the barista handbook. The lady who had answered yes to my question said, "follow me. We are outta here." My Starbucks angel led me to a Strobo in a new Target. I ordered my drinks (mom was getting one), thanked my angel, and left the store. A few miles down the road, I took a sip of my beverage. YUCK!!! It was a soap latte! Dear Gawd! Once we got to Connecticut, we stopped at the "Rest Area and Canteen" to pee and get a coffee. Rest area coffee had to be better than a soap latte, right? The machine was broken. Finally, almost out of CT and into Mass, I was able to get a passable cup of coffee.
Mom & Dad's friend Bob Cooke, who lives in Stowe MA, was unavailable for lunch, so we dined on Exxon ice cream and other tasty treats. Within the hour, we were pulling into my driveway!! The workers were still hard at work, and there is still tons to do. The furniture is scheduled to be delivered in the morning. No sleeping in for me. I did a preliminary walk through, had a chat with the contractor, got Natasha settled in Andrew's room, and Mom & I headed for the B&B (who doesn't allow pets) in town. Andrew had already taken it upon himself to run next door to Susan's to play with her boys and their much more fun that I have toys.
We are at the B&B (who's wifi works properly unlike other motels) until Saturday morning. It is an oasis. It has sherry.
We are off to the Chinese place around the corner because we can wok. teehee
Tomorrow is furniture day, so I'll update as I can.
Thanks for sticking with us.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Becoming Zen
This is take two of this blog. Apparently clicking "Publish Post" before clicking "Save as Draft" doesn't save it if the server goes down exactly at the time of posting.
Sunday started off innocuously enough. We slept somewhat late and enjoyed a leisurely morning. We were to meet Bill, Hannah, & Zach at Perkins for brunch, but apparently my childhood & youth are being stripped away from me because it is now closed. We all still had a delightful lunch at another dining establishment. After lunch we headed to Super Target for car shoes for Andrew and sinus drugs for Carol. Yes, it is a Super Target. There is a Starbucks inside!!! Upon returning to the hotel, Andrew insisted on going to the pool. A wonderful heated indoor pool. There were two other boys that day and they played well together. Andrew is as tall as the 8 year old. After the amphibious afternoon, we headed over to Douglas's for an early delicious dinner. Andrew stayed there while I took Carol to the airport so that she could return to civilization. Upon returning to Douglas's, I heard "the noise." I trepidly opened the sunroof cover and much to my wondering should appear, but my bathrobe, oh dear! Cursing, I pulled over to the shoulder of the freeway to assess the damage. Looking in my rearview mirror, I didn't see any evidence of Nancy litter, so maybe it'll be ok. Attempting to get out of my car and climb up on the seat in the gale force winds was another joyous experience. Luckily only the front latch came undone this time. I unlocked, rearranged, closed, tried to lock, tried to unlock, slammed the fricken thing so that it would unlock so that I could lock it. Finally, after much bruised hands, it seemed as secure as it was going to get. I drove 45 miles an hour back to the house crying the whole way. When I pulled into the driveway, I called Carol, and she helped calm me down. What an angel she is. Yes you are! By the time Douglas came out to see why I was still in the car, I was composed enough to explain and ask my baby brother for help. We took a surf coffin strap and wrapped it around for the drive back to the hotel. Upon which all I heard then was the fwap fwap fwap of the strap. Yeah, that settles the nerves right down....
Monday, we slept late again and then Andrew had the pool all to himself that morning. After Amphib #2, we headed to Douglas's work to trade cars. I was NOT going to chance creating the worlds first convertible CRV again going to the airport to pick up Mom. Have I mentioned Kansas has been experiencing a horrible wind storm these past few days? Yeah. Mom's flight was ontime, Starbucks was great, and Natalie was properly surprised and happy to see Grandma and cousin Andrew pick her up at school. Crazy, lunatic Aunt Nancy was still in the car where the wind wasn't blowing. We ran by the grocery store to pick up eats for that night's festivities as the house. The cousins played wonderfully while Douglas & I took everything out of the *&%$ carrier and back area, tightened and readjusted where necessary, and repacked. I was able to scale down a bit from the frantic packing of Friday morning. Sure, Douglas has to send a few things to me, but hey, we gained an inch of room in the car, and hopefully the carrier will behave. We used both bungy straps this time to make sure it stays closed. Of course there is now a new noise and everyone knows how much I love repetitive noises.
We are all doing well and so is Carol.
We head out again this morning hoping not to catch the rain storms currently in the east. Depending on weather, we should make it as far as Ohio, or maybe just Indiana. No rush. No worries. Just Zen.
Sunday started off innocuously enough. We slept somewhat late and enjoyed a leisurely morning. We were to meet Bill, Hannah, & Zach at Perkins for brunch, but apparently my childhood & youth are being stripped away from me because it is now closed. We all still had a delightful lunch at another dining establishment. After lunch we headed to Super Target for car shoes for Andrew and sinus drugs for Carol. Yes, it is a Super Target. There is a Starbucks inside!!! Upon returning to the hotel, Andrew insisted on going to the pool. A wonderful heated indoor pool. There were two other boys that day and they played well together. Andrew is as tall as the 8 year old. After the amphibious afternoon, we headed over to Douglas's for an early delicious dinner. Andrew stayed there while I took Carol to the airport so that she could return to civilization. Upon returning to Douglas's, I heard "the noise." I trepidly opened the sunroof cover and much to my wondering should appear, but my bathrobe, oh dear! Cursing, I pulled over to the shoulder of the freeway to assess the damage. Looking in my rearview mirror, I didn't see any evidence of Nancy litter, so maybe it'll be ok. Attempting to get out of my car and climb up on the seat in the gale force winds was another joyous experience. Luckily only the front latch came undone this time. I unlocked, rearranged, closed, tried to lock, tried to unlock, slammed the fricken thing so that it would unlock so that I could lock it. Finally, after much bruised hands, it seemed as secure as it was going to get. I drove 45 miles an hour back to the house crying the whole way. When I pulled into the driveway, I called Carol, and she helped calm me down. What an angel she is. Yes you are! By the time Douglas came out to see why I was still in the car, I was composed enough to explain and ask my baby brother for help. We took a surf coffin strap and wrapped it around for the drive back to the hotel. Upon which all I heard then was the fwap fwap fwap of the strap. Yeah, that settles the nerves right down....
Monday, we slept late again and then Andrew had the pool all to himself that morning. After Amphib #2, we headed to Douglas's work to trade cars. I was NOT going to chance creating the worlds first convertible CRV again going to the airport to pick up Mom. Have I mentioned Kansas has been experiencing a horrible wind storm these past few days? Yeah. Mom's flight was ontime, Starbucks was great, and Natalie was properly surprised and happy to see Grandma and cousin Andrew pick her up at school. Crazy, lunatic Aunt Nancy was still in the car where the wind wasn't blowing. We ran by the grocery store to pick up eats for that night's festivities as the house. The cousins played wonderfully while Douglas & I took everything out of the *&%$ carrier and back area, tightened and readjusted where necessary, and repacked. I was able to scale down a bit from the frantic packing of Friday morning. Sure, Douglas has to send a few things to me, but hey, we gained an inch of room in the car, and hopefully the carrier will behave. We used both bungy straps this time to make sure it stays closed. Of course there is now a new noise and everyone knows how much I love repetitive noises.
We are all doing well and so is Carol.
We head out again this morning hoping not to catch the rain storms currently in the east. Depending on weather, we should make it as far as Ohio, or maybe just Indiana. No rush. No worries. Just Zen.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
It Isn't Rocket Surgery, You Know
"Andrew, how is Natasha doing? I don't know, I don't speak cat!"
Hey folks. It's Sunday morning and a beautiful one in KC.
The trip started off well. After the fright of the randomly opening car top carrier, I've since almost broken my wrists slamming it shut to make sure it's secure. It's held its load so far. The drive up the 15/215 to the 40 was uneventful. We didn't know it at the time, but the last known Starbucks west of Albuquerque is somewhere in Riverside California. Wish we had known that. Funny sign when we got on the 40 heading east. "Wilmington, NC 2554 miles." Not sure why. Maybe that is where I-40 ends.
Driving through Arizona was well, pretty boring. Saw some changing landscape, but hey, it's central Arizona. No Starbucks. OH! We did have excitement at the Dairy Queen where we stopped for lunch and to pay $3.02/gallon for gas. There seemed to be a white trash Stepford wives convention there. Further on down the road, at another gas/potty stop, Carol was able to get her weight, lucky numbers, and fortune told from a machine in that bathroom. Fortune read, "Don't worry, have faith."
We made it to Gallup New Mexico Friday night. Stayed in what Gallup, or Best Western, considers a non-smoking room. YICK! It was disgusting. We all woke up with horrible sinus issues. After a mediocre breakfast of oily eggs, greasy bacon, and actually, according to Andrew & Carol, good pancakes, we headed down to the Hampton Inn, where we should've stayed and snuck in Natasha, and picked up a directory. I asked the lady at the front desk where I could get some good coffee. She made the funniest face and said, "Not around here." I said, "so, it's Albuquerque then?" She laughed and agreed. We headed the nearly 140 miles for our caffeine fix. Mom had provided us with the locations of 2 Strobos, so Carol called one of them as we neared town. Barista Chris was our saviour and directed us straight to them. Radio Shack happened to be in the same parking lot as coffee. That story is the battery on the DVD player went kaput about the time we hit the 40. Andrew was stuck listening to Sirius satalite, reading his books, doing his Leap Frog book things, playing with Natasha, etc. He hasn't wanted to play any road trip car games yet. After dinner, we decided to whip out the car adapter for the DVD player. It wouldn't fit in the lighter plug. We pondered, compared it to other adapters, tried to plug it into the 2-way plug, etc. Carol, who was driving, couldn't investigate, so it was up to me. Short story long, back to Radio Shack. We walked in, and I asked if they had an adapter that would fit. They were perlexed because adapters are universal in size. Carol mentioned it looks like there is a cover or something on it. Gee, guess what. There is a protective cover on the dern (keeping this family friendly) thing. Who does that?? Our story is, hey it was dark. Carol, our resident physicist/engineer (don't get to play that card often) was driving and is absolving herself of all responsibility the night before. Now we just have to find the remote.
Saturday was a great day for seeing things. We saw several moose crossing signs. Well, it looked like the moose was just standing around. The deer were leaping in the deer crossing signs. We made it through Texas and Oklahoma in about 2 hours - thank God. Back road highway 54 is great for getting in and out of those 2 states as quickly as possible. Now we know why folks don't seem too concerned about going to Iraq. . . We were blessed with little traffic on that 2-lane highway. No one joined me in my rousing rendition of "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" when we crossed the Kansas state line. Perhaps they were too busy looking at the folks washing their barbeques at the car wash, trying to find Dorothy's house in Liberal, and the Dalton Gang hideout in Meade. Good thing there was a huge sign at the intersection in town pointing the way to the hideout. Lots and lots of cows. Cargill cattle care/feeding. This stumped us. Is there cow day care? There were two distinct sections for the cows. Is one for the full day program for working parents, and the other free range (fewer cows) for the richer or part time cows? Then we saw another sign for Cattle Pens. Now, are these for writing on or with? Ok, so maybe city girls shouldn't be reading signs and billboards in western Kansas. When Andrew asked for about the ten zillionth time "where are we?" and was told "the middle of nowhere" he retorted "no, not the middle of nowhere, there's a gas station." The best billboard we did see was upon entering Wichita. Carol's friend Sue had looked up a couple of Starbucks locations along the 54 in Wichita. I was about ready to call one when we saw this white signage with a halo afixed and Carol heard angels singing. "You know it's been awhile. Exit West St and turn left." It was beautiful! Yes, Strobo has it's own billboard. They know the most recent one for the folks traveling Highway 54 was in Albuquerque. After our much needed fix, we decided to head the remaining 175 miles into Kansas City. Carol called the hotel where I had made a reservation for Sunday and Monday nights to see if there was a room for Saturday night. Yep. We rolled into the hotel around 12:30 Sunday morning. I have wifi in the room, and life is good. Oh and for the record, Nextel scored zero on reception in very, very remote areas against Verizon. . .
Natasha has become a lap kitty. Her new favorite place, before she discovered Andrew's Thomas the Tank Engine pillow in the backback window, was on my lap. She also spent some time on Carol's lap. She has been a really good cat.
Off to brunch with Uncle Bill and hopefully a kid or two.
Thanks for sticking with this long-winded prose.
Hey folks. It's Sunday morning and a beautiful one in KC.
The trip started off well. After the fright of the randomly opening car top carrier, I've since almost broken my wrists slamming it shut to make sure it's secure. It's held its load so far. The drive up the 15/215 to the 40 was uneventful. We didn't know it at the time, but the last known Starbucks west of Albuquerque is somewhere in Riverside California. Wish we had known that. Funny sign when we got on the 40 heading east. "Wilmington, NC 2554 miles." Not sure why. Maybe that is where I-40 ends.
Driving through Arizona was well, pretty boring. Saw some changing landscape, but hey, it's central Arizona. No Starbucks. OH! We did have excitement at the Dairy Queen where we stopped for lunch and to pay $3.02/gallon for gas. There seemed to be a white trash Stepford wives convention there. Further on down the road, at another gas/potty stop, Carol was able to get her weight, lucky numbers, and fortune told from a machine in that bathroom. Fortune read, "Don't worry, have faith."
We made it to Gallup New Mexico Friday night. Stayed in what Gallup, or Best Western, considers a non-smoking room. YICK! It was disgusting. We all woke up with horrible sinus issues. After a mediocre breakfast of oily eggs, greasy bacon, and actually, according to Andrew & Carol, good pancakes, we headed down to the Hampton Inn, where we should've stayed and snuck in Natasha, and picked up a directory. I asked the lady at the front desk where I could get some good coffee. She made the funniest face and said, "Not around here." I said, "so, it's Albuquerque then?" She laughed and agreed. We headed the nearly 140 miles for our caffeine fix. Mom had provided us with the locations of 2 Strobos, so Carol called one of them as we neared town. Barista Chris was our saviour and directed us straight to them. Radio Shack happened to be in the same parking lot as coffee. That story is the battery on the DVD player went kaput about the time we hit the 40. Andrew was stuck listening to Sirius satalite, reading his books, doing his Leap Frog book things, playing with Natasha, etc. He hasn't wanted to play any road trip car games yet. After dinner, we decided to whip out the car adapter for the DVD player. It wouldn't fit in the lighter plug. We pondered, compared it to other adapters, tried to plug it into the 2-way plug, etc. Carol, who was driving, couldn't investigate, so it was up to me. Short story long, back to Radio Shack. We walked in, and I asked if they had an adapter that would fit. They were perlexed because adapters are universal in size. Carol mentioned it looks like there is a cover or something on it. Gee, guess what. There is a protective cover on the dern (keeping this family friendly) thing. Who does that?? Our story is, hey it was dark. Carol, our resident physicist/engineer (don't get to play that card often) was driving and is absolving herself of all responsibility the night before. Now we just have to find the remote.
Saturday was a great day for seeing things. We saw several moose crossing signs. Well, it looked like the moose was just standing around. The deer were leaping in the deer crossing signs. We made it through Texas and Oklahoma in about 2 hours - thank God. Back road highway 54 is great for getting in and out of those 2 states as quickly as possible. Now we know why folks don't seem too concerned about going to Iraq. . . We were blessed with little traffic on that 2-lane highway. No one joined me in my rousing rendition of "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" when we crossed the Kansas state line. Perhaps they were too busy looking at the folks washing their barbeques at the car wash, trying to find Dorothy's house in Liberal, and the Dalton Gang hideout in Meade. Good thing there was a huge sign at the intersection in town pointing the way to the hideout. Lots and lots of cows. Cargill cattle care/feeding. This stumped us. Is there cow day care? There were two distinct sections for the cows. Is one for the full day program for working parents, and the other free range (fewer cows) for the richer or part time cows? Then we saw another sign for Cattle Pens. Now, are these for writing on or with? Ok, so maybe city girls shouldn't be reading signs and billboards in western Kansas. When Andrew asked for about the ten zillionth time "where are we?" and was told "the middle of nowhere" he retorted "no, not the middle of nowhere, there's a gas station." The best billboard we did see was upon entering Wichita. Carol's friend Sue had looked up a couple of Starbucks locations along the 54 in Wichita. I was about ready to call one when we saw this white signage with a halo afixed and Carol heard angels singing. "You know it's been awhile. Exit West St and turn left." It was beautiful! Yes, Strobo has it's own billboard. They know the most recent one for the folks traveling Highway 54 was in Albuquerque. After our much needed fix, we decided to head the remaining 175 miles into Kansas City. Carol called the hotel where I had made a reservation for Sunday and Monday nights to see if there was a room for Saturday night. Yep. We rolled into the hotel around 12:30 Sunday morning. I have wifi in the room, and life is good. Oh and for the record, Nextel scored zero on reception in very, very remote areas against Verizon. . .
Natasha has become a lap kitty. Her new favorite place, before she discovered Andrew's Thomas the Tank Engine pillow in the backback window, was on my lap. She also spent some time on Carol's lap. She has been a really good cat.
Off to brunch with Uncle Bill and hopefully a kid or two.
Thanks for sticking with this long-winded prose.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
The night before
so tired from packing. need to sleep. went to make a quick visit to a friend close by, and glad I did. The stupid car top carrier blew open on the freeway. Sheesh. Well, if that's the worse thing that happens on this trip.....
nite nite.
nite nite.
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