(At what point is a trip so long ago that it falls into the deep recesses of our memory to be left alone and never be told? I suppose since I haven't hit 35 yet, I still recall the events of the trip as if they were almost yesterday.)
Delirious and with a sore ear from jamming my finger into my left ear drum while smashing my right ear into JC's chest to get some semblance of sleep, I wasn't really the most coherent in the morning. I don't recall exactly what time or how we managed to get up. I believe it was the noise of the first people returning back to the house from the hotel. I think JC and I managed to get about four hours of sleep, if that.
Immediately we went outside to finish up the last of the hook-ups and packing. Everyone seemed to be pretty quiet for the most part with the final touches of packing. We pulled out of the driveway and off to the gas station just before 11:30a.m., clearly not the 8:30a.m. that JC and I had hoped.
Day 1 on the road was nothing but an adventure. Caravaning with three large vehicles and one car was definitely enough in and of itself. My phone was constantly ringing with D calling to give updates or ask questions. For the most part, we were all within vision of each other for the entire trip.
The RV had a flat tire, which took a short while to repair. JC and I were in the front of the caravan so we pulled over and watched some of a movie and rested while we waited. We stopped for gas only and whomever was hungry grabbed something to eat. At one truck stop there was a RV/tire repair store so the RV tire was fixed and a few other tires were purchased.
The day ended after about 14 hours of driving. We managed to travel a whopping 750 miles. JC was hoping that we would have made it to Oklahoma before stopping; we made it to Albuquerque. JC drove the majority of the day and just before dusk he decided he was too tired to drive.
Mind you, I have never driven a U-haul or a trailer. And I hate driving at night when I'm in unfamiliar territory due to my depth perception issues from my RK surgery. So, I found myself driving at night, through construction, weaving in and out of construction often very close to the cement barricade wall (the family voted that I was the closest to actually hitting the wall!) in the city. I thought I did fine and imagined that I was driving my compact car! I drove for several hours until we finally stopped.
We stopped at a gas station where D said that we would stop for a couple hours. She was overly excited that we had stopped at a truck stop that had showers so that we could all shower and refresh before continuing onward. JC and I headed to the RV to try to get a few hours of sleep. In the RV was the brother-in-law, grandma, mom, dad, two dogs and the cat. Grandma kept offering to give up her couch in the RV but JC decided he would unbury the back sleep bench. Finally I convinced him that grandma doesn't drive and that we should take the couch and make it into a bed, which he agreed.
Of course all sounded well for the weak, weary and exhausted, right? WRONG.
Not even seconds after laying down, grandma started. She was in the front coach seat and yelled back to dad at the back of the RV about him taking his medications. Then she carried on about this and that and this and that. I seriously wanted to cause her some bodily harm at this point. Five of us were semi-comatose and grandma is carrying on like there is no tomorrow in that overly loud and obnoxious elderly deaf voice. (Yeah, you know the one.)
If that wasn't bad enough, grandma's mangy dog decided my calves were great to walk on. With inches of claws into my calves I was ready to drop kick "Changey", anywhere far away from me. JC kept telling grandma to be quiet and me to relax. Which was exactly what I was trying to do.
At some point, I finally managed to fall asleep. And what happened next? Seriously less than two hours later, D came pounding on the RV door shouting for us to all wake up!
What hellacious nightmare was I in? Besides, my first experience in Arizona and New Mexico included truck stops, gas stations and pictures from a moving U-haul. Can it get any better than that?
1 comment:
Wow. Sounds like a blast. Not!
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