Are We There Yet?

8:00 a.m. OK, this is it! We are officially on the road. Everything we own in the whole world is on 6 wheels. Our car looks a little forlorn to me, relegated to the back of the bus as it were. I feel sorry for it! We've got snacks, water, magazines (ok, I've got magazines), CDs with a portable player, toilet paper (why, I'm not sure) & various other necessities in the cab of the truck with us. It's a cozy little home, but I wish it came with massaging seats b/c in a few days (or hours), we're probably going to need it!

9:00 a.m. Houston, we have a problem. So, we're now pulled over on the shoulder of the Florida Turnpike with a broken serpentine belt - ironically, the exact same thing that happened to our car a few weeks ago. The red battery light came on, so we had enough warning to know that something was up. U-Haul provides an emergency hotline number, so we called & now we're waiting for Luke Skywalker to come & rescue us. John says they should be able to fix it quickly once they get here, but it's already 10:00 a.m. & we're still waiting for someone to arrive. I hope they get here soon b/c I have to pee (thanks Starbucks) & a toilet is one of the few things we don't have packed in the back of this sucker. I'm not going to consider this little delay an omen of things to come - just as something that falls in the 'Shit Happens' category.

10:30 a.m. Still no sign of our rescuer & I couldn't hold it anymore. I just used the back of the truck as my own private bathroom & my used Starbucks cup became a toilet (I now realize why we've got toilet paper up front, but I wish I hadn't left it up front)! It was a much better option than going at the side of the road b/c a) nobody could see; & b) I'm pretty sure if I squatted where we're parked right now, an alligator might pop up to bite me in the ass. No thanks!

11:30 a.m. Back on the road. Thanks Mr. Mechanic! I think we handled that situation pretty well. Only one swear word was used.

9:52 p.m. Florida - check. Georgia - check. Serpentine belt still serpentin-ing - check. We've reached Tennessee & we've stopped for the night. We're staying at a Comfort Inn that feels wonderful after a sticky day in the truck. We decided to drive with the windows down instead of running the air conditioning so that we might save a bit on gas. I like driving with the windows down, but it makes for one grimy person! I've had a shower though & now I feel much better. The shower in here is totally cool! The rod curves outward in an arc shape, so when you're in the shower, it feels much bigger b/c of the extra space at the top. We may have to incorporate this at our house!

I'm so happy to be clean & lying on our big bed, watching TV. Since Bright House turned off our cable early, it feels very strange that we haven't seen any TV since Friday. We could have missed some very important stuff going on in the world! But, now I see that all we missed is the birth of the Jolie-Pitt baby. Ya, very important stuff.

We have crossed into a new time zone - central time. I forgot about that part of the trip! Or, more to the point, didn't think about it at all - like we'd just switch to the 3 hour difference all at once when we reached Oregon! Anyway, it made it feel like we got back 1 of the 2 hours we lost this morning while waiting for the truck to get fixed.

I made a discovery about myself tonight...staying in a hotel makes me feel rich! I love that I can leave my wet towel on the floor & that I don't have to put the bathmat back on the edge of the tub; I can use all of the moisturizer in the little hotel bottle if I feel like it; I don't have to make the bed in the morning & I don't have any chores to do. I can just relax & as John said, "Paris Hilton-out" for the night. I can be lazy & messy & not have to worry about the consequences! What a great feeling. All we have to do now is sleep, get up tomorrow morning, enjoy our complimentary breakfast & do some more driving. So far, this is a great adventure!

Later,
PortlandGirl