Nature called and woke me at 3. That’s AM. Lately I wake up at 4 am, so I just figured I’d go back to sleep after. Of course Heather Too needed to go outside as well. And equally of course, she got as far as the first blades of grass, verified that they were indeed wet and cold, and turned right around and came back in. I wasn’t going to bother to argue with her, just climbed back in bed.
Did I sleep? Of course not. While the car was mostly packed, it still needed our last bits of stuff still in use before we left.Toothbrush, dog dishes once emptied, a bag of dirty clothes from the night before, etc. It was al organized, but those final touches were just enough to keep me awake. I know better than to argue with my awakened self.
We’d had company the day before, final bonfire of the summer, at least for me. Steve may have more until his plane leaves. One expected guest couldn’t make it, and I had a sizable box of videos - yes, VHS - that now needed to be dropped off with her on the way down. I’d checked out the map already so I knew the way to her house, and we’d discussed my timing before she’d need to leave for work. I decided to be just a bit later, while still on time, so I could collect a farewell hug from my son before he slipped out the door to go to work. Steve of course stayed up, not just from his sleep patterns but to make sure I didn’t sleep past 4 and give me his hug too.
Tricky me, once time to get in the car, I put a leash on Heather Too and dragged her into the (cold, wet) grass in the front yard along the driveway and she was finally persuaded she might as well make the most of the opportunity. At last! I firmly believe in the saying "an empty dog is a good dog!"
5 AM is still full on dark, but the full moon was still up and the streetlights on. We were rolling! That good mood lasted about 4 miles down the road. I suddenly realized I wanted to say bye-for-now emotionally to the area as I drove through, but it was still to dark to see more than a couple feet past the shoulder, so I pretty much had to imagine what I was driving past. That was the part which made it bittersweet. That plus heading down earlier than I wanted, before my self-assigned tasks were complete, fully aware of the regrowth in many of the places I’d worked on that I’d have to tackle again next year. I hope the stump killer, used after the process started, would be successful in killing where it was used, and could complete the job next year.
While I was mulling all this over, pretty much wallowing for the first 4 miles down the road, I did manage to see a doe start out into my lane from the shoulder and suddenly turn around and head back into the grass and bushes. Now that’s a good way to start a trip! Forget the dismals and just drive, girl. Only something like 675 miles to go today.
The sun was up, drifting between clouds, when I arrived at my first stop, dropping off the videos. There I got my best hug of the day, and that’s after the first two pretty good ones at home. Just for good measure, we made it two nice long ones before we both had to be on our way for our different days.
By the time I left the cities behind and was out in the country again, rolling on cruise control down I 35, it had warmed up enough I could stop defogging the windshield. Very humid start to the day.
It only took me twelve hours to clear the Kansas turnpike at El Dorado. There were a couple gas stops, a coffee (2nd cup) stop, and a few rest stops with dog walking and re-watering. Oh yeah, one McDonalds ice cream cone mid afternoon as a pick-me-up. Didn’t need a nap, so I’ll probably hit the hay early. This means it doesn’t really matter that the only TV control that works is the on/off, and what’s on possibly appeals to fairly slow teenagers. Possibly. Not only that but the wifi comes with a warning that I have to agree to all their terms and conditions and even after that it’s still just not secure. So I’m not going online to check weather, emails, and what not. I can write this on my internal word processing software rather than the blogs, and paste it in tomorrow. (Note: delays until after home and unpacked.)
These were not the first of the frustrations. My car decided to wait until I was on the turnpike and had just passed the last possible place to get gas before lighting up the symbol that says “Feed me or else!” The exit to town was still a ways off but as soon as I saw the El Dorado exit I took it. However…
My map search of the day before showed a heavy commercial zone immediately after getting off and paying your toll. This road led through lots of countryside. Eventually there was a school. A few houses. Another school. Wooded lots and fields. Finally, now that I’m trying not to panic, there’s a Caseys up ahead. Cool - kill two birds. Gas up and get info. Turns out what the map didn’t show, and the signs didn’t make clear, possibly because I was busy changing lanes and speeds with construction zones several times, is that there are actually two exits for El Dorado. I needed the second one. So I follow directions through town to my turn and another two miles further to the motel. I know, because it was on the map (how trusting!) that I’ll pass a Burger King just before I reach the motel, and there’s a McDonalds on the other side of the street if I’ve gone too far. So first thing I pass is the Micky D’s on my side just before the motel, and the Burger King is up and across where the McDonald's is supposed to be.
Sigh….
Good thing I brought a book. Not the kindle, but a real, hard copy paperback book. The dog is already bored enough that after sleeping all but about an hour of the ride down, and then only to look out the window or take a brief walk, she’s curled up on the footstool that comes with the chair I’m sitting in to write this. When you first enter the room, it looks cozy, tucked back in the corner with a cushion in the back. Of course the cushion is so deep there’s only enough seat left to perch on, so that had to go away. The the footstool is a bit too high and too flat, nothing like a comfy recliner, so my feet instead are on the floor. The dog gets the footstool.
I’m pretty sure she can hop up on the always-too-high-platform bed in the room that seems to be an inescapable fad in the motel industry these days. I’m willing to bet even at that height it’s still not enough to discourage any, say, bedbugs that might inhabit the room. After all, I’ve seen them crawling across the ceiling when we were infested back when! But it’s enough to discourage me. I can't wait to get back home to a properly low bed again.
There was a recent walkabout with the dog. It produced even better results than the expected ones. First, I ran into the lady from the front desk, and she fixed the TV! There’s a little lump of a doohickey on the end of a tiny wire that is the connection to Cox. It had fallen behind the desk the TV sits on. Now that it’s on said desk, I can watch something different than whatever that awful program was.
Oh, and we had musical accompaniment on our walkabout. Cicadas. The grassy dog area is huge. and as we had a long walk, I pinpointed where the sound came from. It’s across the grassy area, over the trucker’s parking lot, across the street and other field and in a thick line of trees! Even with the wind coming from behind me and toward them, they were L.O.U.D!
But hey, I was up early, so forget the TV. Snooze time, early start tomorrow.
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