TheBanyanTree: Our Trip

[Julie Anna Teague]

I think you captured it all perfectly, Pam!  So much fun.  And I 
should've taken your hair advice because it didn't look any better, and 
possibly worse, when I got done "redoing" it.  I will add a couple of 
details that Pam left out--the woman knows how to do color-coordinated 
bling.  I'm just saying. For every exclamation point Pam used in her 
post, just replace it with a sparkly purple stone in your mind, and you 
will have an image of the beautiful, sparkly Pam!  And I had a great 
conversation with shy Charlie.  We bonded over exercise modalities. ;)



Quoting Pam Lawley <pamj.lawley at gmail.com>:

> I was excited to get the invitation to a great friend?s surprise birthday
> party in Ohio, and I determined that even though it was a few states away,
> I wanted to be there!!  But when I asked my husband if he wanted to go with
> me, his response was less than thrilled? it had momentarily slipped my
> mind, that the 12-hour travel day would be HIS birthday, and that?s not
> really how he wanted to spend it.  Nor did he want to spend that weekend
> away from the golf course.  But he didn?t want me to have to go alone
> either.  So I turned to my son who just happened to be sitting on the couch
> (he?s usually holed up in his room!) and asked him how he felt about a road
> trip ? and he said he?d go!!
>
>
>
> My son isn?t much for ?road trips?.  They usually involve long hours in a
> vehicle that he has to fold up in, and this trip would be no different!
> He?s tall but mostly torso, and sitting up in my car causes his head to hit
> the roof, and even with the seat pushed all the way back his knees are
> still folded to his chest!  But ? he?s been working two jobs without a
> single 24-hour period off for months and months, and he was just desperate
> enough for ANY excuse to get away ? on mom?s dime!
>
>
>
> Besides hating to ride in my car, he?s really not much of a ?people
> person?, and there he was agreeing to go to a party for somebody he didn?t
> really know, surrounded by people he definitely didn?t know!   But it was
> working for me and I was looking forward to spending a weekend with him!
>
>
>
> He of course, found his own agenda!  He was going, but he was going to milk
> it for all he could!  He told me the next day that, oh-by-the-way!, there
> was a MLB game within an hour of our party destination.  As a baseball fan
> myself, that one was easy to get suckered into, and for whatever the home
> team?s reasons, we were able to get 2nd row seating for cheap ? so we were
> in!
>
>
>
> Meanwhile, he told me he?d like to check out the ?outlets? on our way?
>
>
>
> We left home about 6 o?clock that Friday  morning, a little later than I?d
> hoped, but after I?d given  my husband his birthday presents and wished him
> a good golf game!  J
>
>
>
> Before we were even in the car, my son informed me that he was *hungry*!
> His second job is ?bouncing? at a local bar on the weekends, and he?d
> worked the night before, getting home around 3, ?accidentally? falling
> asleep for a couple of hours, waking me, and then climbing into the car to
> go back to sleep!  But he wanted me to stop for food.  ?Where??  Well, he?d
> think about it.  Which he did with his eyes closed for a couple of hours!
>
>
>
> When I came across some outlets about three hours into our trip, he was
> ready to wake up, shop  and eat!  He?d climbed into the car without
> showering, so when we stopped he asked me if we had any ?hand sanitizer?.
> I had a small bottle so I passed it to him, in the back where he?d been
> laying down.  He started rubbing it all over himself, including in his
> hair!  Since I had ?wet wipes? also, I passed those back as well.  He was
> pulling clothes and toiletries out of his bag as he climbed out to change
> pants and wet his hair (with a bottle of water I found under the seat) and
> dry it with a dirty t-shirt.  Then he used the bottle of water to brush his
> teeth?  I watched in amazement as he got himself ready for shopping, and
> then in horror when I realized that the back of my car looked like his
> bedroom!!
>
>
>
> We stopped in the Coach outlet, and then we were onto Nike and Oakley?
> Turns out that the neat stack of socks he?d made to pack were still sitting
> on his bed and Nike was the only place we knew we?d be able to get more in
> his size!  The shades were just so he?d look ?cool?!  We only shopped in a
> few places, and then it was onto Denny?s for breakfast, and then back on
> the road.
>
>
>
> The day continued on with stops to shop and eat, and that was why the trip
> that the GPS calculated would take us about ten and a half hours ended up
> taking us about sixteen!!    We didn?t hesitate to stop if some store
> sounded inviting, and we ate well and coffee?d up at most gas stops!!
>
>
>
> Our final stop that night was to a mall, and then dinner.  I called the
> hotel to ensure them that we would be arriving eventually, and we piled
> back into the car for the final leg.  It was late, it was dark, and I was
> just a tad tired.  I love a good road trip, and I love driving, but I?m
> finding nowadays that I?d just as soon drive in daylight!
>
>
>
> The boy of course, went right to sleep sitting beside me.  I?d gotten off
> the interstate and onto a two-lane road, and I swear I thought those last
> two hours would never go by!!  About an hour into this last painful leg,
> the boy woke up ? not tired and cranky, not curious as to our location ?
> looked over at me and said, ?You?re such a trooper.?
>
>
>
> My son has a dry sense of humor and a very straight face.  But he can be so
> friggin funny sometimes ? and this was one of those times!   The very last
> thing I expected was a compliment on my ability to just keep driving, and I
> started laughing, and laughed until I was wiping away tears!!
>
>
>
> Anyway, I drove.  I *love* to drive, especially on an interstate where I
> can go faster!  (Sadly, I am so not a ?scenic country roads? kinda chick?)
> I?ve driven the (an?) autobahn in Italy and got it up to about 145
> ?klicks?, but that was as fast as I could go? It just seemed TOO fast to be
> able to react!!  So, while I like to go fast, I don?t like to go TOO fast.
> If you want to go faster, go on with your bad self.  Just stay out of my
> way!  J  I guess I just want my own lane to go my own speed?
>
>
>
> <sigh>  The problem ? in my humble opinion! ? seems to be that nowadays,
> nobody knows the rules of the road!!!  Slower traffic should be in the
> right lane (for those of us in the USA)!!!  If somebody comes up behind
> you, get over!!!   Yeah, they might be going too fast, but it?s THEIR
> ticket to get!  No, I?m not talking wildly reckless driving, weaving in and
> out of lanes, I?m just talking going faster.  And people get in the left
> lane and poke along at speeds UNDER the limit!!
>
>
>
> It?s a control thing with me, I realize that.  Some jerk is controlling my
> speed by sitting in front of me crawling along (especially if I can?t go
> around the other way!!), and it just makes me nutz!!
>
>
>
> Anyway, it?s not like I like a road trip to speed really fast.  I want to
> set my cruise seven or eight miles over the limit, and I don?t want to have
> to brake.  Is that SO much to ask!?!?  ;)
>
>
>
> But I couldn?t do it in the mountains of West Virginia?  The posted limit
> was 70 mph.  WT?!?!  Around those curves and up and down those hills ?
> SEVENTY!?!?  I was askeered to go that fast, let alone a few miles
> over!!!!!!  Holy crap!!!  I was ?white-knuckling? it the whole way!  Going
> around some of those turns felt like I was pulling a few ?Gs? ? it was
> crazy!!  I didn?t dare set the cruise, so I found my speed sometimes
> drifting way lower than the limit!  (But not to worry ? I was in the right
> lane!!!!)
>
>
>
> We finally got to our hotel about eleven that night, and I?m sure I?ve
> never been so happy to see a place in my life!  Okay, maybe I?m
> exaggerating ? but I was *so* tired!  We got up to our rooms and started
> spreading out our ?stuff?.  Alright, my son started ?spreading out?!  I?ve
> travelled frequently for work through the years, and in my what I?ve
> analyzed of myself to be a ?need to please?, I make sure to only use one
> towel and leave it hanging, and only one trashcan, and that everything that
> should be IN the trashcan, is!  I work hard to ensure that the staff have
> as little work as possible in my room so that when they leave they say,
> ?Wow!  What a nice guest!?.  Yes, it?s a sickness!  My son?s reply to all
> this?  ?That?s what they get paid for!?  Brat!
>
>
>
> I?d suggested that we might be able to get up Saturday and do ?something?
> before the party, but to my son?s disappointment, that didn?t happen.
> Once we?d gotten up, showered, dressed and eaten, there was only a little
> bit of time before my friend Julie was arriving!  *I* was antsy with
> excitement!  While we?d driven up from North Carolina, she was coming from
> Indiana, and we were meeting up to drive to the party location.
>
>
>
> When she called to tell me she was in the garage waiting to take the
> elevator to the lobby, I was standing in the lobby right in front of the
> elevator!!!  She?s one of those friends I?ve met ?on line?, and while we
> are drastically different in our lives and lifestyles, she is a hero of
> mine and someone I love dearly!!  I?m well aware that it was only through
> the magic of modern technology that our paths crossed ?and heck!, the same
> is true of the friend whose birthday we were there to celebrate! ? and it?s
> one of those things in life I am most grateful for!  She has taught me so
> much about this world, and myself!
>
>
>
> Anyway ? the doors opened and she was there, and I think we both
> squealed!!  It was a moment of pure, unadulterated joy!!  J
>
>
>
> I dragged her to our room, reintroduced her to my son (it?d been about ten
> years since they?d last laid eyes on each other!), and we got her hair put
> up to her satisfaction (I?d seen pictures of her newest ?do? and loved it,
> her, not so much!), and then we were on the road.
>
>
>
> Because she was leaving earlier to make the (six hour!) drive back home
> that day, we decided we?d take both our vehicles, and she would follow me.
> We knew where we were (the hotel), and the birthday girl?s daughter had
> sent directions to her house ? from some road.  We just didn?t know how to
> get from the hotel to that road.  I asked the chick at the desk for
> directions, and after some conferring with others on her part, she wrote
> down a few turns that would get us where we needed to be.
>
>
>
> Not.  Looking for the second turn, we immediately knew we were in the wrong
> place, driving through a neighborhood.  We stopped and I went back to
> discuss it with her, and a nice man out with his boys came over and gave us
> new directions.   Meanwhile Julie plugged the party house address into her
> GPS.
>
>
>
> Now, one might wonder why we didn?t just do this to begin with, but we were
> being directed to a neighboring park (to park!) that was close to the
> house, but NOT the house.  (It was a surprise and all?)  We figured then if
> we could find the house, perhaps we could work backwards and find the
> park.  Julie?s GPS took us to a different neighborhood, but we still
> weren?t there!  We stopped, conferred, and then decided to plug the address
> into my more-recently-updated GPS and see what happened!   Finally, the
> right address!!  And lo-and-behold ? THERE was the park!  If we could only
> just drive down that hill and across the soccer field we?d be there!
>
>
>
> Then my son thought to pull up some cool tracking app on his iPhone that
> would ?hopefully! ? show us where we were, and the roads to get us around,
> and then back to the park.  By the time it loaded up though, we were on
> roads and seeing markers that were written in the original directions and
> even though I saw the turn, he said, ?no! not yet!?, and I drove on by
> while Julie turned in!  Haaaahahaa!!
>
>
>
> We did a u-turn and finally managed to get to exactly where we needed to
> be? original directions, two people, two GPSs and a phone app later!  We
> parked, crossed the soccer field, walked up some steps and into the house
> to introduce ourselves to friends and family who had never met us in our
> lives!!  (Have I mentioned how much I love modern technology?!?!)
>
>
>
> The party was a *huge* success, and the party girl who hates parties, LOVED
> the love and attention, and a great time was had by all!!  Great food,
> wonderful laughs, yummy cake, funny gifts, and a tearfully surprised
> birthday chick!!  Definitely worth the trip!!!
>
>
>
> And I was so proud of my son.  He was sociable and chatted with folks and
> didn?t even once ask ? ?can we go now?!?.   Second nature to some us, hard
> work to others who are almost painfully shy!  We took photos, gave our
> hugs, and then we were on our way!
>
>
>
> We tossed around the idea of visiting the Football Hall of Fame that was
> close by, but the internet-on-the-phone revealed that we would be too
> late.  So we decided to find a toy store!  Somewhere along the way, this
> trip for a birthday party morphed into an occasion to have fun and make
> memories for my son?s own upcoming 21st birthday!  (He has no desire to
> celebrate {as so many kids do} by going out and having his first ?official?
> drink ? he works as a bouncer at a bar thankyouverymuch, and he just has
> little desire to make himself silly with alcohol.  Whatever.)
>
>
>
> So I was pretty much up for any fun thing he wanted to do, or any ?toy? he
> may have wanted.  And what he wanted was a giant Lego Star Wars set.  Okay,
> so I did have limits!  I agreed to a smaller set, but then he was torn
> between in and something else he really wanted that he?d found on line
> earlier.  He was ?hemming? and ?hawing? trying to make a decision, and I
> said something like, ?you?ll never walk away from that? and he took that as
> a challenge and put it down and we walked out!
>
>
>
> He did really want it but he was torn, so we sat in the car making deals
> and laughing about it all!!  I have serious issues with the price of movie
> theatre tickets.  I always have!  In my fifty-some years of life, I have
> seen less than a dozen movies in a theatre.  I?ve always felt that I was
> getting ripped off somehow.  Yeah, I know, it?s another sickness of mine!
> I can blow money frivolously six ways to Sunday, but there?s just something
> about a theatre!!  Except if I?m on ?vacation?, and this trip classified
> itself as just that.  I had told him we could go see a movie.
>
>
>
> We just had to agree on one?  *I* wanted to see Titanic in 3D, he
> absolutely hated the movie and did NOT want to see that one.  So I started
> with deals and bribes, trying to get him to agree with me.  We finally
> settled on something that I would buy him if he would go.  I can?t tell you
> what it was because I?ve forgotten and he has never come back and reminded
> me!!!  I just know that we laughed and laughed and I wiped away tears
> before it was all settled!!  Then we went to the movies, I paid something
> obscene for tickets, we donned our 3D glasses, and I was entertained again
> with Rose and Jack!
>
>
>
> And then it was back to the hotel, and sleep!  The baseball game was an
> hour more north, and it started at one.  The park opened at eleven and he
> wanted to be there then to watch batting practice.  I told him we?d need to
> be checked out and on the road by about 9:30.  But when we got up the next
> morning, he again suggested the Hall of Fame.  He said it probably wouldn?t
> take more than an hour to tour, and if we were there when they opened at
> nine, an hour looking wouldn?t put us that much farther behind and he could
> still see some batting practice.
>
>
>
> I hate to sound rude, but we were not very impressed with the Hall of
> Fame.  They are actually under construction to enlarge the joint, and I
> think they?re overdue!  Football in the USA of HUGE ? millions and millions
> of dollars flying around the sport.  But he HOF was so? outdated?  In this
> fast-paced world of technology, it?s just so? so? 70?s!  Cardboard photos
> that are peeling around the edges? ?Push-the-button? displays that are out
> of order? I guess one could say that we were kind of bored with it?  The
> busts themselves were cool to see ? but really nothing worth the
> twenty-plus dollars each to get in!!  Not sure where the NFL is spending
> all that money, but it wasn?t there!
>
>
>
> Oh well ? we went and have the magnet to prove it!  J
>
>
>
> And then we were off to the baseball game!!!  Ya-hoo!!  Major League
> Baseball in the flesh!!  Two teams we didn?t really care a lick about ? but
> real live baseball!!!  It was cold and windy and dreary and overcast.  We
> had jackets, but once we?d entered the park, we realized that we were going
> to freeze to death sitting there!!
>
>
>
> So, these two huge baseball fans with THREE different sized blankets in the
> car, went into a gift shop and frivolously blew a wad on another one ?
> decorated with a team that wasn?t our favorite!  THAT is how I like to blow
> money!!  :D
>
>
>
> We enjoyed the game?  We sat under our over-priced blanket eating WAY
> over-priced ballpark food and watched strike outs and home runs with the
> home team fans!!  Well worth the trip!
>
>
>
> According to the GSP, because we?d added another hour north to the trip, it
> would take us about eleven and a half hours to get home.  Because I was
> *SO* nervous about the mountains in the dark, I told him that we *really*
> needed to be on the road by four.  Surely they could play a game in three
> hours?!!?  (Noting that just the night before we left home this same team
> played a game that went SIXTEEN innings!!!!)  But at the top of the 9th,
> with the home team ahead and only three outs to go, we decided it was a
> done deal and we could leave.
>
>
>
> We stopped at the restrooms on our way out and saw on the overhead TVs that
> the home team had made an awful error and the game might just drag on, but
> as we walked toward the car we heard a loud roar and figured that they?d
> just won.  (We checked on line later ? they had!!)
>
>
>
> And so we hit the road at about 3:30.  We got gas and I got coffee, and
> then the stops were few!  I figured I could stop when it was dark!!  Didn?t
> want to waste daylight if I didn?t have to!  I kept up with the traffic on
> the straightaways going a little faster than I would have on cruise, but it
> got it got us to the mountains with more daylight in front of us.  Not a
> lot, but enough!
>
>
>
> And, after all my angst, I found that the mountains weren?t nearly as
> treacherous the second time!  I still didn?t use the cruise, but I found it
> a little easier to at least do the speed limit!!  And while I also feared
> being tired around midnight, I had no problems staying awake or seeing, and
> we pulled up in our driveway right at 3 o?clock the next morning!
> Easy-peasy!!
>
>
>
> I got a few hours sleep and went into work late ? and a new week started
> and our trip was done.  I?d found myself ?writing? in my head during the
> drive.  I didn?t have the radio on much so I wouldn?t have to hassle with
> finding new stations, and I was perfectly content to entertain my brain
> while the boy slept!  I wrote colorfully and smoothly during the drive!  My
> words came alive and reader could feel the pull of the Gs!!
>
>
>
> But then, back home in front of my laptop ? nothing!  It was such a fun few
> days and we had so many laughs, I just wanted to put it on paper!!  I
> wanted to recreate every minute and every laugh and every memory.  Alas -
> this is what I got!!  (I really should carry a portable recorder around
> with me!)
>
>
> Pam
>




Julie

~O
<I~ love to run
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