Road trip and Texts that go buzz in the night

Lewis is still patiently awaiting us.  He is sitting in a storage lot being very brave as we attend to chores.  As previously blogged, we have Matthew cleanup and general business to take care of.

We've had one particular chore that we have been avoiding like the plague.  We have a 10x20 storage room that is loaded with "stuff."  I would say crap but that sounds irresponsible.  We have needed to get this stuff out of the storage room and get it to the house in Florida.  We knew that this chore would be mundane as this would not be our first rodeo in this particular arena.

A few weeks ago, we got an invitation to an event in Maryland.  We wanted to attend but I initially decided that Rob should go and I should stay home with the girls.  The more we talked about it, we decided "what better way to get that mundane chore done that to tie it into getting to see good friends."  Rob was going to the event either way so we decided that we would both go and then get the storage room cleaned out.

We got up early Friday morning.  The girls recognized the lariat advance which, in short, means get up and get moving.  They were zipping all over the house as we loaded the car.  We were on the road by 0456.

POOR PENNY.  THIS WAS ONLY A FEW HOURS INTO THE RIDE.  SHE WAS SURE WE WERE GOING FOR A WALK

MANY HOURS LATER AND I THINK SHE IS ON TO US

We have made this I95 run so many times.  It is long and mindless but it gets us from point A to point B.

905+ MILES AND 14 HOURS LATER.  WE HIT THE DISTRICT AT 5:30 PM.  THAT ADDS TIME TO ANY TRIP IN THIS AREA.

When the map looks like this,

LOTS OF RED AND GETTING WORSE BY THE MINUTE

you take alternate routes and do a little sight seeing.  It made the trip longer by mileage but less frustrating.

The ride was uneventful save the typical I95 mania.  It sometimes seems like a real life version of Mario Kart.

We arrived in Columbia, Maryland at 6:30 or so and  I took the girls for a walk while Rob got us checked in.  The girls were happy to be out of the car and they happily settled into their blankets and food bowls.

Rob and I decided to walk across the street and have our dinner at Olive Garden.  I am not a huge fan of The Garden but it was close.  We went in and asked for a table for two.  The hostess took us back....waaaay back to the furthermost point from the door. that   We were so far back that Rob asked "are we still in Olive Garden?"  That made us laugh.  Our server was very nice and the food was good enough to satisfy us.  The Gluten Free options were much appreciated.

We got back to the room and watched a bit of the World Series.  We were tired from our trip and went to bed early.

I woke up at 12:09 am.  I did not hear anything or need to get up but I woke up.  My phone was on silent but I picked it up and looked at it.  I had 16 texts from Megan.  She had a horrible earache.  She said it hurt so bad that she was in tears.  She'd had an earache a few years ago and we were in Cape Cod and it was the middle of the night.  I had taken a cloth, put some salt in it, heated it and put it on the aching ear.  This had eased the pain until we could get her to urgent care.  Fortunately, Megan remembered this and it helped a bit.  She was on the phone trying to figure out the health system (in the wee morning hours) and she finally made an appointment at a clinic.  Long story short, she has a massive ear infection and the doc told her that her ear drum would probably burst but that it would heal.  Poor kid.  I wish I could be there to help her but I am proud of her for taking care of it.  I did not sleep much after midnight but was happy to hear from her at 0500.  She feels better already and has medicine. 

Adulting is hard and parenting a young adult is also hard.  I am still inclined to want to take care of them but I am proud that they can take care of themselves.

Another great day in this thing we call life.