Road Trip!

Everyone,

Alternate title: I have enough Billy Joel on my ipod to last me from Ohio to the Maryland border.

A week ago yesterday I talked to my good friend and cousin in law who lives in Ohio. Her family came to see us in August and we had the best time! Her girls are 5 and 3 and got along smashingly with Butterfly.

Since then, life has changed drastically for them. No details here but my cousin and cousin in law are getting a divorce and she is moving to Colorado. I'm sad for them because it's a rough time. I'm also sad that I will be loosing my closest family! Ohio is 6 hours away from here.

So, during my talk with L, my cousin in law, she mentioned that she was feeling overwhelmed and not prepared for her move, etc. She didn't think she had enough time to get everything done before the truck came to pick up her stuff. I heard, "You need to go help her." clear as a bell in my head. Once I was off the phone with her, I turned to Juice (who was still home from work) and talked it all over. The next afternoon I was headed to Ohio without the kids and Juice. Let me tell you, I was ecstatic about having 6 whole hours in the car by myself. Juice was awesome and stayed home with the kids.

So, off I go in the car through Maryland and into West Virginia. By now it is getting dark and raining. I started climbing the little hills that they call mountains here and it got foggy. And dark. Wow is West Virginia ever dark at night! Around 7pm I got hungry and decided I wanted a salad and a sit down restaurant. I haven't been to one of those by myself in awhile! The signs on the side of the road lied though. I took the exit headed for some Cracker Barrel thinking of my last road trip to Utah. This exit was the University of West Virginia exit. I drove around for about 20 minutes looking for that stupid restaurant and couldn't find it at all. I found a lot of pizza joints and the stadium but nothing else. I went back to the freeway and kept an eye out for something to eat.

West Virginia is a lot like Wyoming with nothing much going on in the state. Plus it was super dark and I didn't feel like stopping in any old tiny town. I entered Pennsylvania. It got lighter for some reason and I kept going. By this time I was tired of the candy I had brought to munch on and I wanted actual food. Anything would do but there was nothing besides McD's. Yuck.

Then it got darker and I was back in West Virginia. Wow. This time in West Virginia I found a Cracker Barrel and had my salad.

Straight on to Ohio and my cousin's house from there. They did close the freeway right in front of me. Thank goodness for my GPS and it's little "recalculating" voice. Otherwise I'd still be driving around Columbus trying to figure out where to go.

I got in around 11pm and went right to bed. Someone stole a car in the middle of the night (car alarm driving off in the distance) and I wondered if it was mine but not enough to get out of bed and check.

In the morning I was able to help get two cute girls ready for school and talk to L about what she wanted to do that day. She had to take her older girl to the dentist for a filling so I spent the morning sorting through her papers on her kitchen table and boxing up the rest of her china. Only a few minutes back from the dentist and the school called. Apparently the Novocain hadn't worn off and she bit through her tongue big time. Off to the hospital for L and back to boxes for me. I moved furniture around, cleaned under and around things and kind of ran out of things to do.

No stitches needed for the little girl but she did stay home from school the rest of the day and we boxed up the toys and the craft stuff. I guess Columbus does trick or treating a few days before Halloween so we spent the evening doing that. It was so much fun to be with these girls and their mom! They all had a great time and I practiced my french braiding skills on their beautiful hair.

After a fun filled night of candy, we took the girls home and packed a few things up. We told ourselves we would go to be early but ended up talking until midnight or so. Good thing too because her youngest daughter threw up about that time. I helped get the dirty stuff off the bed while she washed her off. I know how stressful it can be to deal with this as the only parent and I wanted to be as helpful as I could.

We didn't get up as early as we wanted to on Friday but up in time to get her youngest daughter off to preschool. Her oldest one was staying home because of her tongue and she watched tv while we packed up everything else and moved some furniture down from upstairs. I had to leave by 11am that day to make it home for our trunk or treat but I think what L had left to do was manageable.

I'm excited for if and when we end up in Colorado to be close to this family again. I'm sad that they are having such a hard time and I wish only the best for them.

On the way home, I put on my road trip music of Billy Joel and listened to it from Columbus to the Maryland border. Who knew I had so much?! Also, I had fun taking some random pictures in the car while driving (bad driver, I know, but I just turned the camera on and pointed it in the general direction of what I wanted to see) and enjoyed being by myself for another 6 hours.

I missed my family but it was such a great break from them for me. I'm not sure who was happier to see me, the kids or Juice when I walked in. They survived with a lot of screaming and crying and mac and cheese to eat. But they did it!

I hope the move goes well L and love you guys!

Safire