I have to take a momentarily break from my China blogging to tell you about my latest adventure. I came home from China on Monday. Tuesday I had tickets to a play downtown, Wednesday we had new carpet installed in all four bedrooms. Thursday was spent recovering from the new carpet installation. Friday was spent doing housework. Early Saturday morning, still fighting jet lag, I started the (normally) ten hour drive to my parents house. It is the stopping point on the way to my son's college.
I have not been thinking about taking my son back to college. I like him home. He worked 40+ hours each week during the summer. He spent a great deal of time fishing and another enormous chunk of time in his room away from his family, but still, he was home and at least ate dinner with us. I like him home. This week really snuck up on me and perhaps thinking about his return to college is what made my jet lag hang on and made me feel horrible. Perhaps I had separation anxiety stress, not jet lag. I like my son home.
Anyway, we loaded up his new van (a hand me down from my grandma) that has had a BUNCH of work on it. (My grandma only drove about 500 miles in the last year. We drove it 5 hours the day we brought it home.) Now we expected (and hoped and prayed) it would make the journey ahead of us. I also loaded up my car with his sisters and brother and we headed out.
We encountered car trouble four hours into the trip. MY CAR! A piece on the bottom of the car (parallel to the hood, with the engine in between) broke loose and was dragging on the highway. The noise was horrible. I pulled to the shoulder and my son followed me. He was incredible. He climbed under the car and investigated. We decided to try and patch up the problem with zip ties and duct tape (in my son's car) until lunch. We stopped earlier than planned for lunch as the patch job didn't hold. My son stopped at the dollar store and bought some bungee cords and crawled onto the ground in Wendy's parking lot, temporarily fixing the car. It held until we arrived to my parents house. It took just short of 12 hours.
We spent the next day relaxing at my parents house, and my dad inspected my car and fixed it better than the bungee cord patch as he had tools and ramps.
Monday morning we all woke early again to make the what I thought was a four hour journey to my son's college. My GPS kept freaking out, losing the satellite. My son, who is new to using a GPS had to be the leader of our caravan. His route took us a very different way than we have previously driven. It took five hours.
We had a quick lunch and then dropped my son off at his dorm. He did not want us to help him unload his car. So, we headed back to my parents. My daughter looked up driving directions on her phone. Thank goodness for technology.
About an hour into the drive, there was a dead cat on the road. I tried to have my tires straddle the dead cat, but nope, I hit it square on. YIKES! My five year old asked what happened and I carefully explained that I had run over a dead cat. He said "I hope it was an ugly cat." Apparently, ugly cats are OK to run over. My five year old also informed us that Shell gas stations sell clams. (Per the signage).
I had purchased a DVD player for the car ride to keep my little guy entertained. Unfortunately, along with the GPS losing satellites, the plug stopped working, so I was really without a GPS and now without entertainment for the little guy. It was a LONG ride back to my parents.
My dad checked out the plug when we arrived back to his house. I just blew the fuse. So, for the record, my car, two breakdowns (and it's the dependable car) and son's car (the iffy ride) no troubles.
Tuesday morning, we woke early again and started towards home. We planned to stop to eat at Noodles (a rare treat as we don't have one near us) and at an outlet store along the way as my husband is out of town and the dog was at the kennel. We thought it would be about a 12 hour journey.
The GPS was still acting up. My daughter rocked at reading an old fashioned map. Two thumbs up for her public school education! When the GPS did work, I liked to play this game with it...I see what the estimated time of arrival is, and I try to take minutes off it. It's a game of great fun. I was totally rocking at the game. I had taken off a whopping 11 minutes of the original ETA, even after a stop at a rest area, when we hit construction. We hit construction two times before we were at the halfway point of the trip, before we stopped at Noodles. ugh.
We finally made it to Noodles. We ordered and then waited, and waited for our food. When I saw three other orders served, we asked if they had forgotten us. Yep, they had. Not a fun time.
We got back in the car and headed to the outlet store. Unfortunately, there was a fatal accident on the highway. The highway closed. It took 45 minutes to drive 3 miles. By the time we reached the store, we were all a bit snippy and not really in the mood. We hit up the McDonald's drive thru and ate dinner in the car.
I stopped for gas two hours from home...had driven 491.9 miles on one tank! My girls were getting bored in the car and started making life lessons for each other. It was hilarious and informative. My fourteen year old didn't think so. She thought we were pointing out all her shortcomings. Instead, we were just trying to give some helpful life lessons.
The road trip was more than I bargained for, but so are most days. That's what keeps life interesting. I did prove to be a champion KEMPS player (card game daughter taught me) and a winner at the slug bug calling game. My kids were delighted to have 78 truckers honk at the them (note to self, pack ear plugs for the cheering that erupts after the horn blasts). I laughed at the road sign that read "No Trucks on Shoulder." I wonder how many Chinese tourists take photos of that sign. It would translate much differently than the way we read it. But, the bottom line is that my son made it safely to school and we made it safely home. The craziness that happened in between is the stuff that makes good stories. The trip home took 14 hours.
Younger daughter's life lessons for older daughter:
-Try being nicer.
-Smile
-Delete my friends from your facebook
-Be nice to me in high school.
Older daughter's life lessons for younger daughter:
-Boys are dumb
-Don't be in a rush to grow up
-You should wear the makeup, don't let the makeup wear you
-Don't show the good China (A.K.A. if you wouldn't show your grandpa, keep it covered)
-Real men like smart girls
-Talk to your momma
What would I add? Life is a journey, expect the unexpected and enjoy.
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