Journal of a road trip: Day 1

Day 1: Preparing to depart

Yes, there's a lot of preparation involved in leaving the ole' home sweet home for four days. Even though there is some high school sporting event going on in Tyler that has sold out all hotels, my amazingly resourceful husband was able to find a pet friendly hotel at a fairly reasonable price! Good job, honey, item one can be scratched off the list.

Of course there're some errands that need to be taken care of before we hit the road.  Second item on my list: a mani/pedi...so I decide to try out this new place that has a grand opening "deluxe mani/pedi" special.  It's fantastic! I get a paraffin wax treatment that is amazing on my feet.  And after a deluxe manicure, the sweet lady gives me a neck massage while my nails are drying.  I like this new place.  I will become a regular customer.  If they will let me that is, because just as the sweet lady hands me the bill, I realize I have left my wallet at home.  Ok, not to worry. I call home and Marcus reads me the credit card number over the phone. Thankfully, they were ok with this and after a tiny delay with a mix up on the number due to a slight language barrier, the charge went through. "Yes, see you two weeks Mrs. Hattenbach" (she pronounced it "Hat-back") I'm thinking to myself, "yes, such wonderful service and very polite with the card issue, I'll be back" as I get in the car, only to realize I left my brand new travel coffee mug on the counter...jeeze, Lara, get it together.  As I walk in to retrieve yet another forgotten item, I'm sure the sweet lady was now certain I'm a ding-bat..."Ding-bat, Hat-back" is probably my moniker with this salon!

List numbers 3 & 4: a wedding gift for my cousin and new shoes and jeans for Marcus.  We head over to Target for a couple of things.  This starts out innocently enough. We print out the gift registry and head over to housewares.  I'm gonna get them the set of Pyrex on their list!!  For those of you who've read my "drive by shooting" post will certainly see the humor in this particular gift selection, at least I do!

However, we get to the check out line and I'm informed I've picked the wrong set.  The one I picked up was not on the registry.  "That was the only one on the shelf." I tell the check-out lady that I'll just have to go to another Target to get the gift.  I'm sure there's one between Georgetown and Tyler.  During this time, Marcus is slowly growing tired of shopping and is ready to get on the road.  Let me explain here: when he took the wrong set of Pyrex in the cart, I thought he was going to put it back on the shelf and meet me at the front door.  He had been telling me he was ready to "get out of this store" for the last 5 minutes.  Well I wait...and wait....and wait...at the front of the store.  Oh boy, I'm starting to simmer with anger...Did he get lost in electronics?  Where IS HE?  What I didn't know was that he was also waiting for me, back in housewares, to pick out the correct gift.  Well, this little break down in communication causes one MASSIVE blow up between us.  I'll spare the details, but by the time we got home, I packed my stuff in about two minutes and huffed and puffed and declared Lola and I were just fine going by ourselves.  I had remembered to pack her new clothes too, thank you very much.  After some giggling at me storming through the house, my husband was able to calm me down.  We apologized and agreed we were both eager to get this trip underway and probably a little hungry too, since it was now lunch time.  All we had left to do in Georgetown was pick up his pants he had taken up (my sewing skills are about as refined as my cleaning skills.) After a quick trip through Wendy's drive-thru for some much needed french fries, we are northbound on 35 and it's only a couple of hours later than I had planned.  Besides, it's only a 3.5-4 hour drive (depending on who's driving, of course) smooth sailin', right?  Wrong, we get just north of Temple when the car in front of us slams on their brakes. I was driving, so my immediate reaction is to throw my right arm out, almost "clothes lining" my husband right in the throat.  Clearly, all of the strength in my right arm could keep him from flying through the windshield, no problem. After we were out of immediate danger of rear-ending the car in front of us, in turn causing the car behind us to squish the mini-cooper, like a tin can, accordion style, my arm was still outstretched, but instead of protecting Marcus, I'm actually rapidly slapping his stomach in a nervous reaction.  "You can stop slapping my stomach now..." he says as I glance over at him.  However the look on his face is saying "this lady is the looniest toon in the bin!"
"I'm sorry, maybe that was just my coping mechanism during that very traumatic 'almost accident'" I tried to say.  Although, I'm sure he couldn't hear me over his laughter.  I'll point out here that since this "almost accident" every time we've come up to a stop light and he's driving, he now reaches over to rapidly pat my stomach, saying "I'm protecting YOU!"
Unfortunately, there was a very bad accident that closed northbound 35 for several hours.  So, instead of arriving at the hotel around 6 or 7 as planned, and several wrong turns and a couple of shouting matches later, we finally found the hotel and checked in, at 9:30pm.
EGADS...the doors are on the outside!!  "Don't say a word!  This was the VERY LAST room in this town that would allow the dog!  You're just gonna have to deal with it." Marcus says as he opens the room door and immediately goes to check for signs of bed bugs.  This would be the only reason we would forgo the room and sleep in the car all 3 nights.
Alright...I suck it up, help him unload the car and get the dog settled. "Let's just go get something for dinner and get back so we can sleep."  Tomorrow will be a better day............Right?? (To be continued.)