One down, two to go
We survived Thanksgiving. Just barely.
Insane as we are, we decided to do a whirlwind trip of the south. We left Lakeville around 1 p.m. on Wednesday and arrived in Wilmington, N.C., around 3 a.m. Thursday. My mother was awake to greet us, unsurprisingly.
Surprisingly, we only slept until 8. I think I had too much caffeine on the trip down. James slept for the last four hours or so, so I guess he just had enough sleep. My aunt, Pat, cooked an amazing dinner and we stuffed ourselves.
We then went for a walk to try to find some turtles to feed. We did eventually find turtles, but they must have had their own Thanksgiving dinner because they weren’t interested in our bread. It was 70 degrees and sunny. A slight wind picked up as the sun went down and my “southern” mother complained about how cold it was.
The next day James and I were up early to hit some of the Black Friday sales. We got my birthday present, a Bulova watch, for half price. I also go some shoes and a new purse. James got a fleece that he intends to wear under his puff vest in place of a true winter jacket. He also got a new hard drive and a selection of winter beer.
Dad took us to Pottery Plus, where he works, and I got decorations for our mantel. Dad complains about coming home from work covered in glitter, but as it was my first true holiday shopping of the season, I would have been happy to roll around in the stuff.
We also stopped to pick up some giant pine cones. I have visions of a forest of green glitter pine cone trees.
Saturday we left bright and early for Virginia, James’s family and another turkey dinner. James’s brother and his family were able to join us, so James spent most of the time trying to charm his 2-year-old nephew. (I love it when James looks at me and says, “Let’s get one.” We know we’re a few years away from that, but it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.)
I fell asleep while James was playing Wii with his brother and sister. I drooled all over my arm and the chair I was sleeping in, but I don’t think anyone noticed me wiping the slobber from my face.
Another early morning and another round of goodbyes and we were on the road. We were making good time and hoping to get home early when we hit traffic on 95, north of Baltimore.
And I mean, we hit traffic. A bus changed lanes, which prompted a pickup truck to change lanes, which took up all the cushion space between us and traffic.The front of my car crumpled. I said afterward that it did exactly what it was supposed to do: the crumple zone took the impact and we were unharmed.
We pulled off the highway and spent about 30 minutes trying to find somebody who was open who could look at the car and tell us whether we could drive it another several hundred miles. We finally found a PepBoys, but the man there wouldn’t commit to anything.
We finally decided to risk it. As James said, even if we break down, we’ll at least be a little closer to home.
We made it. It was a very tense eight hours or so as we searched for alternate routes to avoid as much traffic as possible. We were worried about overheating if the radiator was cracked.
My car is now sitting at the auto body shop, waiting for the insurance adjustor. This was $500 I really wasn’t planning to spend, but it’s a small price to pay for getting home safely.
Reason number 154 why I love James: He can hold it together when I can’t.
