"Your Bladder or Mine"

It was the last day of July and the preparations for a long drive west were underway. The luggage had been packed, the truck had been cleaned from top to bottom - inside and out. The cooler was cooling with goodies that ranged from sweet pickles for the family, to various flavors of our favorite soda. We had taken a trip to Michigan over the 4th of July to visit family for a couple days and we looked at the 12 hour drive to Michigan, from our home, as a process of conditioning for our 27 hour trek to Nebraska that would commence in less than 12 hours.

 

It had been at least five years since our last driven venture to the west to where my husband was born and raised. We had been anticipating the trip for months, yet fears of truck trouble, limited funds, and teen-age boys that suffer from N.G.F.T.W. or otherwise known as (No girlfriends for two weeks) would somehow put a wrinkle in our plans. What am I hearing, your laughing at the girlfriends comment?...Come on now, we all know those youthful days of young love and the paranoia of wondering if your special someone is really missing you or really can survive without you around for a few days. Let me just say, if it weren't for sleeping most of the trip and the electronic flat boxes, they protect more than the family jewels, their I-phones, I think that we would have had to provide them with oxygen treatments and frequent calls to a therapist. Ok, I'm being overly dramatic, but honestly...I'm relatively close in what I am describing.

 

Now with any trip, there is always the argument of who is the better driver - Mom or Dad. I will be the first to say - Ladies this is the only way to get somewhere if your driving with a car load of men. (See the video below)

 

Ladies....am I right?  Big Cheesy Grin on my face and enjoying a big belly laugh as I watch the video - they had no idea. He He.

 

By 6am, on the first of August, we managed to get ourselves up and into our over the road traveling clothes, but have learned over the years that it was better to look somewhat presentable. The most memorable trip on the road was when we had stopped at a truck stop, we were tired, we had severe pillow hair - for those of us not driving - and we looked as if we had gone without a shower or clean clothes for months, that resulted in a stranger handing us a couple bucks and told us to get some food for our kids. OMG - Too funny.

 

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All the information for our house guest, who would be staying at our home to babysit our cat, was on the counter in case of any emergencies that may arise. The luggage was loaded with the cooler strategically placed for those - on the road needs - while the truck was in motion. Once the blankets and pillows found themselves at our traditional road trip seat locations, we put ourselves in the truck, shut the doors and let the adventure begin. Two minutes down our street a sleepy voice from the back said - "Are we there yet?" My husband and I just looked at one another, the fun was just beginning.

 

We stopped at our local McDonald's to get a bite to eat, and was officially onward at 6:35am - destination - North Platte, Nebraska. We decided to deviate from our typically driven route of 70 and a few other routes that would eventually bring us to some where near Des Moines, Iowa to then get on I-80 for the rest of our journey. This time we chose to stay on 70 as much as we could and then go from Kansas City, Missouri northward to Nebraska. We made it to Rocky Gap, in Cumberland, Maryland, in record time and took a moment to stop and take in the rising of the morning sun. It was at this stop the "I Gotta' Pee" games began.

 

 

 

"Rocky Gap - Rest Stop - Cumberland, MD." 2013

 

Now my husband and I, have literally traveled from west to east and back again, maybe not all at once, yet either way I'm almost positive that our butts have tolerated some serious auto travels in our days and have been on more seat cushions than toilets. But I'm sure that many of you that had traveled long distance by car with your parents or grandparents, when you were kids, remember those curses that were cast upon us when we would complained about the frequent urinary travel habits of our elders. Come on now, I know you are guilty and remember that impatient feeling, as you rolled your eyes thinking - "Holy crap are we ever going to get there".  Well as much and my husband and I wanted to believe all these years we would never be stricken with or by any of those parental curses, I must be honest when I say, we too are not immune and our eye rolling and bad thoughts, as kids, have come back to haunt us. Along with age, back pain, fatigue, and numerous bodily changes - the biggest change in our abilities for our on the road long distance traveling, and something we learned with quickness - we both suffer from - OBC - Questionable bladder control. All those cokes and water bottles that we had consumed along our driven travels to stay awake like we had done years past, no longer stored anywhere near as long in our bladders as they did five years ago - but neither my husband or myself wanted to be the person that would say, "Next rest stop pull over I gotta pee."

Now with my husband I and our bulging bladders, my kids dealt with the sides effects to Boredom -  Braxton hicks man style - AKA - Hunger pains. Before we could stop to do anything to save the treats -  the boys were in full munchies madness mode and any snack items that were in their reach had no hope for surviving to lunch. (It was a good thing I had more hidden in the back with the luggage). All in all the day was filled with your typical long distance drive summer traffic and unique ways that people kill the time to survive the close quarters confinement for hours on end. Our favorite was when I would see a truck stop that said Pilot, I'd say "Pilot", followed by my younger son replying "Subway", as we notice with every Pilot truck stop, it had a subway. But the biggest and most important requirement with any and every drive we make, having our Dairy Queen radar's on. Yes I will admit it, we are Dairy Queen junkies and if you were to total up the number of stops we made just for Dairy Queen, it would average out that we stopped at every other one, from Ohio to Nebraska and back. Even my husband knows, when he is sound asleep, there is a Dairy Queen near by and will immediately wake up - That my friends is no exaggeration.

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We saw many sights along our first day of traveling, below are a couple pictures I was able to capture while in route to our destination. We had never seen either of these places before, so it was exciting to see something new. Sorry if they are a bit blurry.

St. Louis Arch

Kansas City Baseball Stadium

One the first day of the drive, my husband and I shared the driving, just about equally. He probably did about two hours more than I had, but we still made great time to get to a more than half way point. At about 8:30 on the first night, my husband had been struggling to stay awake, and was realizing that his pride was trying to win a loosing battle. He had suggested looking for a place to spend the night, but being unfamiliar with the St. Louis area, or any place in Missouri for that matter, I offered my driving services and suggest that he lie down and get some sleep and I would continue on ward, but that idea just wasn't setting well with him and he chose to drive on. By 10:30, he had had enough and pulled over to get a room. Now we all know that you get what you pay for and he spotted a sign that said - "Room's $29.95 a night next four exits."  Something just didn't sit well with me, but I could see he was dreadfully tired and our heated seats were no longer taking care of his back pain, so I didn't add my two cents. The exit off I-70 was somewhat lit up by a TA truck stop location and the hotel that the billboard had indicated four exits back, was tucked back into the darkness on a dead end road about a half mile passed the truck stop.

Immediately I began to have ideas about my upcoming Halloween stories for my blog in October. My radar was screaming and it wasn't because there was a Dairy Queen near by, this was telling me that we were entering an area that had probably been the location of a crime scene many times. He pulled into the parking lot when I noticed a sign that was hand written in marker on a white piece of flat plastic that was bolted to the bottom of the pole of the billboard, that advertised the hotel for people going east bound, that said, no turn-arounds allowed. "Yeah that's because people go in, but they don't come out." I thought to myself. My younger son was the first to speak up and say, "Hey Dad, doesn't Norman Bates live here?" It was obvious that in-spite of my husbands pain and sheer fatigue, he could see that we were not comfortable staying the night in a place where when the lights go out, the green evil eyes of the darkness would appear and our luggage would be whisked away by creatures with a million legs.

It didn't take much convincing to get my husband to get into the back of our Suburban and sleep, and let my boys and I decide to drive through the night or find a place to stop and rest. After my oldest son utilized his phone to find hotels and read any reviews, we made a couple of stops, but again, these hotels gave me that same - Norman Bates kinda feeling - and I continued to drive onward. Eventually we found a comfort Inn hotel just immediately off of exit 125, in a small town called Myersville. The desk clerk was extra helpful and met us with a smile, which is hard to find at 1:30 in the morning. He put us up on the first floor, suite 107, that provided both of my boys their own beds and a king sized bed for my husband and I. He even offered the use of the hot tub all night if my husband needed it to help get his back feeling better. My younger son and I ended up being the ones who took advantage of hot tub, while my husband and oldest son, chose to take advantage of immediate sleep in an - I can spread out horizontal position. After twenty-five minutes of enjoying the soothing feeling on our tired muscles in the hot tub, we decided to follow suit and we too called it a night. With our first day being uneventful, we could have never imagined the growing danger that would find us in North Platte.

To be continued....

 

Making New Memories in an Ever Changing World - Pt. 1

H

ello to all in blogger land. I will say it is great to be back online again, but coming off of a vacation makes it very hard to get back into the swing of things. We've been back in Maryland since August 16th, and I will be the first to fess up and say - Dang that jet lag. I feel almost zombiefied, is that a word? Oh well if it's not, but it explains my sluggish presence both physical and mentally. So where did I go on vacation you ask? Well then let me share my story with you.

It was a place that I had been reminiscing about for the last twenty years - going back to California where I started my military career.  The only thing I had was the memories that I had stored in my mind because for some unknown reason I didn't take to many photographs of my time in California, which has never made any sense to me. I have a video tape of parts of the base, which only has me thinking one thing, my mind was not on the base, it was on the atmosphere and the hot men on the base. Hey I'm a woman, and then I was single and a free agent. After Ron and I got married I had only been there a total of five days with him and we never went on the base together, we spent our time together at his apartment or watching sunsets on the rocky cliff side of Point Mugu State Park. So my base memories are mainly from my days while going to "A" school, but one thing that has changed...I'm not checking the land for hot guys. 

Now don't get me wrong, I still think men look great in their Seabee uniforms, but there is only one man for me and it doesn't matter that he no longer wears his uniform now. I remember vividly what he looked like in his original solid green Seabee Uniform and it always takes my breath away.  Then when I stop to day dream about what he'd look like in it now, well let’s just say there is not enough cold water in Maryland to cool the burn. *Wink*.  Ok, ok, I can't think and write when my mind starts driving down gutter alley, so let me get back to my story. Now the average person with a normal mentality knows that after twenty years, 9 out of 10 times, nothing stays the same. I'd like to think of myself as average, but normal - hum???? I had it all done up beautiful in my mind what the day would be like when we would once again be stepping off the plane in LA. The only thing that was missing from my unrealistic thoughts was dancing bears, balloons and Bob Barker from the Price is Right. Yes, I know he's retired, I'm not that far gone. Smile. For some dumbass reason, I honestly believed that when I left Port Hueneme on July 3, 1991, all would stay the way I had left it. Can anyone please tell me WHAT THE HELL WAS I ON? Talk about crazy thinking as if I was living in the land of glittery rainbows and unicorns.

It was a wonderful feeling to know that this time I was returning with my family. Everything was going smoothly.  We found a great place for my truck in the long term parking lot, the bus was very prompt to get us to the terminal, and the line for security was almost as quick as our trip to Estes Park in November of 2011. As we waited to board our flight, my oldest son had gotten to meet one of the actors from Nitro Circus - Hubert Rollin; I think I got that right, who was traveling out to LA on the same plane as ours.  I can't even explain the amount of disappoint both of my sons felt when a seat they had hope he would fill next to them was taken by a lady that could only say a few words in English - "You have sanitizer, baby puke on me." My oldest son was relieved to know that he was not the one in the middle, his younger brother was, and would have to smell her unique perfume for the next four hours and forty-five minutes. I guess it was a blessing that he was prepared to keep his mind occupied while my oldest son chose to sleep.

I was so excited that I was going to get to show them where their mom and dad had gone to school to become Seabees. I couldn't wait to take them on the base to show them all the places I had gone when I lived there and show them all things I had seen as well. As the plane made its decent into LA, all looked as it did when I flew in for the very first time twenty years ago; which had me even more excited for a grand adventure. 

It wasn't until we got off the plane, the horror started. When I used to fly to California, I would travel American or Delta Airlines and both had a much larger terminal and if I recall correctly is also part of the main terminal. This time we flew Southwest, so the moment I stepped off the plane my world was not what I had remembered or had tried to envision. Where were all the people dressed in a multitude of colors in outfits from far off lands? Where was the striking blue carpets and marble floors? Where were the escalators that went on for miles and miles? It was nowhere to be found. I was feeling lost, confused, and completely out of my comfort zone, but I didn't let on to my family that I was in the midst of a pending panic attack. I knew they could sense that I was distraught and somewhat nervous, but they never said anything other than, let’s go get our luggage.

The location where we picked up our luggage was small, congested and very dark feeling. They had me sit down with our carry-on items until our bags arrived. I was in a daze and this picture below is how my mind felt. (That is my husband with the glasses hanging off his t-shirt and my younger son with the red hair waiting for our things). How they remained so cool, I'll never know as my husband dislikes large crowds.

I smiled at people who I recognized from our plane and continued to take in as much of my surroundings as I could. My reasons for this - someday I am sure there will be a next time for my travels to California and I won't feel so lost, however I immediately felt myself building a new set of blueprints in my mind, but this time I would make sure I'd have big bold letters that would say - Subject to change over the course of time. Smile.  We gathered up our luggage and made the trek outside to locate the shuttle that would take us to our rental car. This too was something new to me, as I got a better deal with a company outside of the terminal than I would have gotten with Budget or Dollar Rental, two companies I had preferred years before. My kids were amazed by the noticeable difference in the temperature - a bright sunny day that was no more than 78 degrees and dry. It was heavenly. In about an hour, maybe less, we found ourselves and our luggage venturing off in our 2012 Nissan Altima (My husband’s favorite rental car) making our way onto the highway heading towards PCH (Pacific Coast Highway Route 1) on our way to Port Hueneme/Oxnard. We were on our way back to a part of our lives, for my husband and I, when we were both single and at that moment I could hear in my subconscious a voice saying - "My dear daughter, nothing stays the same."

It was at this same moment I feared my choice to come back. I worried that maybe what I thought was a great life that my husband and I have together would be tested by memories that would instill regret by choices we have made. I know it sounds crazy, but life can be crazy and we all deal with it differently. I also knew I was going back to a place that also harbored a few bad memories for me, during my single days, and I was scared to know that it was time to face the truth and let go of events beyond my control. I needed to learn that what took place It was in the past and this time I was going to leave the past behind to move forward to make new memories with my family and that is just what I chose to do, but never in my wildest imagination did I ever think our family vacation would take some of the twists and turns that it did. The best way to describe it would be blending an episode of - When Vacations Attack with a big pile of Disneyland Magic.  It was indeed an adventure that we filled with new memories and I can't wait to share the rest of my story with you.

So join me tomorrow as my story continues and I introduce you to "Big Toe" and his pool buddies and why a tennis court has netting on a chainlink fence.  Look out Clark Griswold - You've got nothing on "Big Toe."  Until tomorrow - Blog ya later.