Froliche Silvester! Sunshine Trip: Day2

Happy New Years my lovlies!
I'm so excited! While ending things sucks mega for me there's nothing quite as invigorating or exciting than something beginning. New Years is my favorite part of the holiday cycle. Thanksgiving and All Hallows Eve are, by far, my favorite holidays; they just don't fill me with the same kind of buzzing thrum of energy that New Years does.
It's a NEW Year! Perfect, shiny, and fresh with that clean 'out of the dryer' smell. A blank slate for you to scribble with every hope and dream. A new place to meet new people and do new things. Second Chances and rainbows and Unicorns. Hehehehe. Seriously though, it feels like cresting a mountain ridge to see a valley below in all it's glory.
Sure danger and pitfalls lurk below the swaying life of the canopy. That's just part of the adventure; the play of light and shadow that makes life Life. It doesn't really matter, because at the beginning of the new year we are able to really see that light part of life unhindered. I don't know why but it's the one time we really let our hopes fly and our hearts sing for joy at the prospect of the future. We see the possible good instead of the probable bad, and it's so nice.

~*~*~

Sunshine Trip: Day 2

I count the time in the Motel 6 as part of Day 2 because we checked in at something like 1:30 in the morning and didn't get to actually sleep till 3 or so.

We pulled up to the Motel 6, completely done. Jex ran in and got the room and we made a plan. Because when you're on an adventure plans are made, otherwise it's not a proper adventure now is it? We decided that Jex would drive first thing in the morning, Cait would get whatever extra sleep she could in the passenger seat and I'd be on baby duty, catnapping when they did. Cait would drive then finally me. It was a good plan, since we didn't think Jex would fit between the car seats.
We forgot that Motel 6's are all pet friendly. So, Jex was going to sleep in the truck with Nym. I helped Cait with the babies and deposited them in the room so that I could go back and get the overnight bags and diapers. Because Every Single Time we stopped they pooped. I'm not kidding, it was weird, it's like they planned it that way. About the same time as I was walking out the door Cait said something to the effect of : "Wait a minute. Nym can come in the room with us. Jex can sleep in a real bed tonight."
Yay!
I joyfully tell my man. And he gives me this look. I haven't been given this exact look before so I don't know what to call it. Maybe his 'yeah right' face? In any case he doesn't look convinced, but he says he'll try it. We leave the truck set up for sleeping though, as a plan B. Because this is a Grand Adventure, plan B's are necessary... actually it's probably because Jex is the king of planning. For any given circumstance he has at least 3 courses of action, and that's if the event takes him off guard.
Anyparanoia, we get back to the room and what do you know. Gwendol and Kitten are running full speed in circles like some kind of crazy miniature nascar race. Cait has rearranged the room so that they can't pull anything down on their little heads and looks bedraggled. As if in the space of 30 seconds she did all of the moving; which I wouldn't doubt honestly, those kids are quick.
I have no idea how they had so much energy, or where it came from, or why it had to come out. I just wanted to whine: "It's bed time." Curl up onto the bed, pillow, floor, didn't matter and pass out.
Instead I took a shower and tried to sleep. The lights turned off but the babies didn't.
Eventually Jex went out to the truck and slept. I think Cait and I slept, maybe the babies passed out at some point. I just remember being awakened by Gwendol cuddling up next to me and patting my face mostly nicely.
Cait wanted to shower and went to shower, guess what? The light wasn't working. Last night it had worked fine with I showered, when Jex got ready for bed, but now for some unknown reason it wasn't working. Cait however is undaunted by such paltry things as utter and complete darkness. She simply ground her teeth and used her cell phone like a flashlight and took a shower in the mostly dark.
We packed up and got on our way.

Here is where things get blurry for me. I don't quite know what fit into the second and third day, and the fourth day is more of a blur because we drove through the night and stuff. I'll try to recount it truly.

On the road again we made it to our next fill up station, and realized that the Horrific Swampworld roads had severed the ropes that held the tarps on over Cait's stuff... and there was a drill hanging from the back of the trailer. Thus I was pulled away from my Huddle House breakfast to help my frustrated man fix the issue. Huddle House isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. No really, I've eaten at Waffle Houses before and they are some shady, shady, places with some questionable food. Not this place, maybe it was the one great Huddle House in all the U.S. but it was actually really yummy. And I didn't feel sick afterwards like I do at Denny's.
At long last we made it to Texas. That would be the entirety of our trip that day, the Great Country of Texas.  We passed the big "Welcome to Texas, the Lone Star State" sign. We passed the huge flags flapping proudly from their massive flag poles. Then we passed this overlarge electronic marquis sign board that read: "Drive Safe. Deaths on Texas roads this year. 2795."
I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or the fact that the babies were actually being ok, but we just about died. "Welcome to Texas, DEATH!" "Hello! Don't Die Here!" We mad bad jokes and giggled and worried and chuckled and it was great. Until we got to Dallas and passed another one of the large electronic signs.
The number was updating itself.
We'd been driving for 3 hours; there were now 2798 deaths on Texas roads. A person an hour. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
You see, humor is a great way to keep your sanity. I don't know why but it's the same with anyone in the line of work that deals intimately with life and death. Whether a soldier, a paramedic, a fire fighter or an immediate family member we all have the same dark humor.
I laughed. I felt afraid and sad, but I laughed.

We saw another wreck that day with the Jaws of Life in use on an SUV. And that night we made it to Druid and Faeriman's home to sleep. Oh Precious Sleep.

The Light Heart Lives Long~

The Sunshine Trip: Day 1

I forgot to mention that on the way up to Sandland we discovered that the Explorer was infested with grey wolf spiders... and we had no turn signals on the trailer... but that's another story that involves the Department of Motor Vehicles, my Brother-in-Law Sir Will, and three of the nine rings of hell.

Any-descent-into-the-unknown, Jex got back from his mission the night before we are to take off toward Sunshine. In the morning it's a mad dash for things forgotten, baby stuff, and keeping Kitten and Gwendol from exploding while the grown-ups (ha!) get everything packed up. Construction Duck decided to continue in his usual conflustering of everything going on and turned on his 360 and play games while the rest of us worked. I'm not mad... I'm disappointed. Another dude would've come in handy when we realized that Cait and I had completely misspacked the trailer.
Yeah.
T-minus 5 minutes to take off and we discover that we didn't distribute the weight properly while we were playing tetris with all of Cait's worldly possessions. Luckily we're all badasses and had the trailer unloaded, reloaded, and secure in a little over one hour. That's 2,000 pounds of crap my friends.

At long last we backed up to the trailer, hooked the badboy on, and were off.

I don't know if you've ever embarked on such an adventure. If you have you'll understand what I'm about to say. Nothing, absolutely nothing, feels quite like pulling out of the driveway at the start of a journey you've never made before. Jex and I had been to the Sunshine State once before for my best buddy Kai's 21st birthday. But that time we left from Texas not the east coast, and we didn't have a 2 year old, a teething 1 year old, a dog, and their mommy with us.

We drove far enough for the world to start losing its color, but not its heat. It was december and I was pumping gas in a tank top. Then again I also lived in places that got, on average, 2-5 feet of snow in the winter.
Not but a few hours into the trip we saw the first of what would be many events. We saw our first wreck. These weren't little fender bender wrecks, no, these were people parts and cars turned into confetti wrecks.
The wreck we saw at this time was a delivery van, crunched like a coke can, the wind shield beside it and crumpled like a shiny sheet of paper. On the road in front of it was a MedEvac Helicopter. Beside it was a Semi with a dented fender. They were carrying a man that had been in the crushed van to the helicopter as we drove by. He was in one piece at least. Other wrecks would leave us wondering later on down the road. (haha! Down the road, hehe, oh shut up I know it was a bad pun)

Even with Kitten's teething screams, and Gwendol's cries of rage that she'd been in her car seat for entirely too long we made it into the night. We contemplated driving through the night. Not only were we nearly 4 hours behind schedule, but we hadn't counted on driving under 70, the trailer was at its weight limit and we were pushing it by going 60.

Then Gwendol woke up... as a Pterodactyl. I'm not kidding. The kid was done, absolutely and 100% finished with her car seat, the car, and everyone in the car.

So we decided that for the sake of life, limb, and sanity to pull into the Motel 6 that wasn't too far down the road. And that was an adventure in of it'self.

~*~     ~*~     ~*~     ~*~      ~*~

Happy Feast of the Birthday my lovely readers!
Tis the Season for all kinds of joy and shinies and all things not on the 'healthy diet' list.
The end of one year and the beginning of the next.

I'd like to know how you all are planning on spending this time.

Jex and I are running the Christmas Gauntlet with his family this year. Why is it a Gauntlet? 6 houses in 9 hours. That's why it's a Gauntlet. Jex's parents are divorced, his grandparents are divorced, and we have some of his step-dad's family to visit too. It's crazy.

Till next time.
~The light heart lives long

There and Back again or the Sunshine Trip: Day 0

The day before we were to drive Cait, Kitten, and Gwedel across our massive country to Sunshine we decided to try and get some stuff done. Test packing the Explorer and the Trailer seemed to be the most logical things to attend. We had two stupid car seats, a cooler for baby and grownup foods, and space for a cute plotthound lab mix to consider; not to mention the 3 awkward adults that had to cram between the car seats as we rotated drivers.

Don't know what a plotthound is? Look at this sweety.

This isn't Nymnym but it's close to what she looks like, she's got a more lab shaped head and I think her brindle is prettier.


Cait and I thought that we could get everything on the trailer. HA! And I say that in the nicest way that you can cough out that sound. Ha! There is a rule that I forgot, how I forgot this with all the times that I've picked up and moved on to the next adventure baffles me. It is simply this: your crap will expand.
Less simply put; all that stuff that fits neatly (or not so neatly) in your home will suddenly gain it's mass three times over when you pack it. That small stack of boxes sitting innocuously in the living room waiting to be sailed over the land and or sea will multiply like tribbles as you move them from the living room to the moving truck. You're shoes will have babies, your books will gain holiday weight, and your furniture will grow awkward edges and generally change shape.

I'm not kidding. It happens every time. Those few things ultimately take up far too much room somehow. Maybe it's our brains tricking us, or some bad divine joke as small penance for all those white lies we tell. It doesn't change the fact that it is and it's fracking annoying.

So while Cait and I are haranguing boxes and baby cribs and tables that are heavier than a Kaeber the Construction Duck decides it's a grand idea to throw a little going away party for Cait and the babies.
Oh right, Cait was living with the Construction Duck for a while till she could get out to her beloved.
Which means we have to split time between what we need to be doing and what we'd rather be doing (i.e. Drinking good Irish rum and chatting with the great people Cait's leaving in Sandland).

We ended up deciding to pack that night after everyone left. "That's a terrible Idea Ashes!" I can hear you all thinking. But I assure you that it was a great idea. Why? Because everyone else has babies that's why. When you have a 3 year old you're not hanging around for 4 hours or more very many places. There's bed time to keep.
We didn't count on the super rad chick Tasha being there, or at least I didn't. Then we underestimated the powers of distraction that gave the Construction Duck his name.  You see, the Construction Duck has Jew Magic of the most powerful kind. He can distract you from anything and everything and somehow does this most all the time. We don't know how he does it, he doesn't even know how he does it, but that's why he's the Construction Duck and we love him anyways.
Once every one took off to make it home for 'bedtime' we started to load things up. Then the Construction Duck pulled out Star Trek the newest motion picture with Chris Pine and the most attractive dude on screen... Karl Urban... dude's hot yo.
Anysmokingactorgoodness, he was deliberately working against us. I know that we got really tired trying to fight the magic. I'm not sure we prevailed. But at some point we got the trailer loaded, we thought, really really well.

Then it was bed time for us. For at Odark30 we would be up and going on the path to the other side of North America.

~The light heart lives long.

There and Back Again.

While walking back to our hotel room from the grocery store (you see I had forgotten my stockings for Jex's Unit Christmas Party and my make up) along a paved and curving jogging trail I heard the sound of skittering leaves. I glanced over my shoulder to see the little fallen leaves dancing and twirling lamely in my walking wake. So, of course, I had to stick my arms out and run as fast as I could while looking over my shoulder at the little wake I was leaving as the leaves that mostly covered the jogging trail jumped and flipped and sailed about.

I felt like a ninja.


The light heart lives long~ <3 p="p">


P.S. My lovlies!
Jex and I helped our beloved friend Cait and her babies move literally from Sandland on the East Coast to Sunshine on the West Coast. And we did it all in 4 days. Then we had to come back.
I will regale you all with the story, writing out one day at a time, soon. For now though I've got a speeding ticket to deal with, and we're not home yet, and a few other things that need my attention so my world doesn't absolutely explode (yay for christmas time...).