Roadtrip to Texas

Yes, ROAD TRIP. Lord, what were we thinkin'? Close your eyes and picture this ... a new Red (although it's more rust than red) Jeep Commander, Tamara driving, Baba in the front passenger seat, Sasha in a car seat behind Tamara with suitcases and bags piled up next to him and ... two Boxers in the third row. Yes, it's quite a picture isn't it?

I've been planning to get to Texas for a visit for a while now and just haven't been able to work it in. We decided to drive due to Nathan travel schedule and not wanting the four-legged babiess to have to be in the kennel any more than necessary (expensive, they always come back in worse shape than they arrived, etc.). So, Baba flew up to Chicago on Friday and we departed early Saturday morning.

A couple of things about going somewhere for a month ... first, when you tell people about your trip they think that you're crazy. A month trip involves either trying to take enough stuff for a month or deciding that you can wash often and take a minimal amount of stuff (I chose the latter). Yes, there is a third option that is to just bring a credit card and buy anything you need but we're not in the right socioeconomic strata yet for that and malls are just not prevalent in Cat Spring, Texas. So, in one suitcase, I managed to pack all of Sasha and my clothes. Impressive really. A month long trip also requires a higher level of organization than a normal trip. First, you need a list or lists as the case may be to make sure you've got all the essentials. With a toddler and two dogs, this list is very broad and many times unrelated. You also need to be a packing wizard. You need to have a plan on what items can stay stowed until the destination and which items you'll need at rest areas and the hotel.

Our first day was a short day (lesson learned: make the second day the shortest day) of about 9 hours. We stayed in a little town called Hayti. Now, Mom assures me that they named this town because they grow some hay and thought it would be a clever play on Haiti. Hmmm ... after trying to order pizza from one of the locals, I'm not sure that's the case.

The hotel. First, the manager / owner was the nicest man and the rate was $79. That being said, the room seemed to have some design challenges. The bathroom was interesting. The door would scrape the toilet as it closed. The toilet lid would scrape the toilet paper as you were opening or closing the lid. If the toilet had been moved towards the shower six inches, this wouldn't have been a challenge but alas. The shower (which didn't look clean and made me glad I had brought my flip flops) didn't drain so at some point you were standing in a foot of soapy water.

The room had two full size beds and a crib. We decided to just all go to bed at 7:30 p.m. so that Sasha would go to sleep. Snickers curled up next to me on my bed where she continued to get closer until I reached a boiling point. Blake roamed the room and finally at 2:30 a.m. decided to come up on my bed. He's not a good sleeping friend, and I say this with a lot of love, as he started trying to give me a bath (obviously sensing that standing in dirty water hadn't gotten me as clean as I needed to be). He then decided that laying on me would be a good idea (70 pounds of boxer laying on you is not very comfortable even if you get little smoochies every once in a while). And, he wrapped up the morning by laying on the pillow next to mine and breathing on my shoulder. All very relaxing let me tell you.

We headed out the next day for what I think may be one of the longest days of my life. In Texarkana, I announced that this wasn't too bad to drive. I had spoken too soon. Mom had purchased a map in Arkansas and they gave the driving times from Texarkana to Houston as 5.3 hours. Mom assured me that it wasn't that long - the map must be wrong. I will tell you that the map was indeed wrong. It underestimated the drive time by a couple of hours. I will also tell you that after driving two full days with a circus on wheels, the drive from Dallas to Cat Spring is intolerably long. I think I was 'done' just outside of Dallas. Sasha burst into tears yelling 'bed, bed' just outside of Bryan when he woke up and discovered that he was still sitting in car seat. Obviously we were fools for keeping him in his seat and not providing him a bed to sleep in. He then started saying 'Baba's house' as if it were a magical mythical place like Camelot that perhaps didn't exist.

And, the best part ... we get to do this again at the end of the month. Pray for us.