Road Trip: The Beginning Half

Oh, boy! Pulling away from the house I had spent most of my years growing up in, with my closest family members standing in the driveway (not many dry eyes to be found) was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. Leaving all of my wonderful friends and a great employer I've worked with for over a decade, basically tearing my 30 year old roots from the cozy, warm surroundings they have always known... this decision took me years to reach. But, this was exactly why it was time for me to do just that.

Bill and I began our trip out west together on December 27th. We started out a bit later in the evening than I had anticipated and, of course, we had a couple of last minute stops and goodbyes to say before we started. My best friend Claudette, for instance. I almost had to beg her to come over to give me a hug before we left. She and I knew parting ways would be a tough one for both of us. I wanted to avoid the 'Until Next Time' farewell as much as she did, but I think I would have felt worse without it. My next challenge is getting her to relocate out to Los Angeles!

Being that we started rather late, Bill and I only drove for about 5 hours the first night. We had been so busy in the previous days getting everything in order to make the trip, we were still in Ohio by the time exhaustion hit. After quite a few phone calls, we found a cheap room in Piqua, OH. Oh yeah, when I say 'cheap', I mean 'CHEAP'. The rental office was drive thru only and the attendant may have known a total 10 words of English. We were almost surprised when he handed over a notched metal key for the door to the room. When was the last time you received an actual key and not a magnetic key card? I can't even remember... oh yeah, wait... Piqua, Ohio.

The first room he gave us had a broken and loose door jam someone must have kicked in at one point in time. The chain lock wasn't looking very promising, either. We also happened to be transporting Bill's 'baby'--his computer monitor--and couldn't leave it in the car overnight. If it wasn't safe for the monitor, it wasn't safe enough for us. We were able to get the room exchanged for another, which, unsurprisingly, was not really any better than the previous. The door worked well enough, as far as we could tell, but upon further inspection of the room we began having second thoughts. Too bad for us... the room was non-refundable. We could either hightail it out of there--eat the $40, try to find another room at 3 o'clock in the morning and pay for another night--or suck it up--strip the bed and cover it with everything we owned, stand on towels in the cold shower and try not to touch anything. Considering this was still the first 6 hours of our road trip, we decided to look on the bright side, grin & bear it, laugh and make light of a nasty situation, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. I can definitely say we learned our lesson after that room. For a one night stay, saving a few bucks would not necessarily be the deciding factor in the future. Eh, we survived, didn't we? No known diseases, yet.

Day number two took us out of Ohio--(Thank all that is goodness!)--and into Indiana. Not far off our route, we made a stop at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indie 500! Left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn... Bill is also a Nascar fan. (Yawn.) The track was actually pretty GIGANTIC! There was a museum and a track tour (for nominal fees...) in which they actually took you out onto the track in a bus. It probably would have been cool, but we really wanted to get a chunk of driving done. We did, however, take a walk through the gift shop, where we found Bill's Christmas present from me--a limited edition Danica Patrick, MatchBox-sized replica race car. Oooohhh... Well, he liked it:) That makes me happy!

Bill did most of the driving. He insisted on driving all the way to Texas; wanted me to 'just relax'. Okay. Fine by me:) I was able to read my book, take pictures, control the radio, try to help with the navigating (Sorry, Bill. Everyone knows my nickname is Columbus, for obvious reasons.) and most importantly, be entertaining company for the driver! (Very proud of myself...I didn't fall asleep once during 'Company Duty'!) This leg of the trip took us through Louisville, Kentucky and on into Tennessee. We stayed in downtown Nashville one night and walked around the city a little bit. From almost every doorway we found a droning country twang, an art show exhibit or some little tourist-y shop. We parked on Gay St. down by the river across from the Tennessee Titans stadium. When we came back to the car we found a parking ticket under the windshield wiper:( Honestly, this was our closest and only run-in with the authorities our entire trip! Woo-hoo! And, after 6000+ miles, no issues with the car, either! (Although, I still need to get the oil changed since the trip:/ whoops!)

The next state we found ourselves in would be Arkansas. For those of you who don't know, Bill lost something very close to him last time he was in Arkansas. He was actually heading back to Michigan from Texas when his car decided to take a vacation in the lovely city of Arkadelphia, AR. Bill was basically stranded in a hotel room with all of his belongings for a few days figuring out how to make it the rest of the way home. Eventually he made it back to me in Michigan, many Waffle House visits and one stop in Graceland later. For old times sake, poetic or corny as it may be, we found the same hotel and stayed for the night.

The next day brought us through Texarkana (AR or TX, not sure?), which, in turn, brought us into Texas, the largest state in the union. And, yes, if you haven't heard, everything IS bigger in Texas! Which is why this story will have to be continued...