Jaime - May 2006

SATURDAY, APRIL 29TH, 2006

Plans: Get to bed early. Leave by 5:00am. Take new route to 57. Make sure you have printed the directions first! Get as far as possible today!

Breakfast: On the Road
Lunch: On the Road
Dinner: On the Road

Reality: After loading the suitcase in Rhonda's van last night, all I had to bring over this morning was my overnight bag, laptop, purse, backpack for in the car, and my foot bath. I really need to learn to pack lighter! Because of my plantar fasciitis in both feet, I brought my footbath (I never used it on this trip and only used it once last trip!).

In addition, I could barely close my suitcase or overnight bags! In fact, after the first night's stop, when I took out the capris and t-shirt I was going to wear on the 2nd day of the road and put in the jeans and t-shirt I had been wearing, I could no longer close the overnight bag! And the laptop never even got used! Oh, wait, Rhonda played a game of solitaire in the hotel on the way home! Yeah, that was worth lugging 1,150 miles each way!

The "new route to I-57" we were so excited about was to take Harlem Avenue straight south to 95th Street (about 8 miles), which puts you on I-294 right away (I know most of you have NO idea what I'm taking about - it's just a more direct route to the highway!) Doesn't really cut off much in time (Harlem has a lot of traffic lights) but mileage-wise, it was great! And, actually, because we left at such an un-Godly hour, it actually DID cut off a little time - that and Western Way!

The plan was for me to be at Rhonda's (6 houses away) at 4:45 and we would go pick up Ron, stop at Dunkin' Donuts, and be on our way! Rhonda calls me Friday night after I dropped off the suitcase and says we need to get ice in the morning also, be over at 4:30. OK.

Getting to bed early never happened either... I have 2 teenage daughters who, along with a friend, coerced me (there might have been a gun to my head, you don't know) to play cards until about midnight. I was ready on time though - what did I care, I wasn't driving! Well, I could have, but they ended up doing just fine without me...

I call Rhonda's at 4:25 to say, "Since we have to come this way to pick up Ron, why don't you pick me up behind my house instead of me dragging my stuff over to you and then driving past my house anyway?!?" Except, she didn't answer the phone. So that was the message I left on her machine. I hung up and stood there for a second. Then I started picking up the laptop, purse, backpack, overnight bag, footbath, and jacket. What if she's asleep??? What if I take all this out and stand in the dark alley at 4:30 in the morning and she's still asleep???? Crap. So I walk over to her house.

Yeah, she wasn't asleep - she was loading the car. But I wasn't taking that chance.

We get in the car and she says she returned my call and woke up DD17 - who wasn't happy: A) Rhonda woke her up, and B) I didn't wake her up to say good-bye (I thought we had covered that the night before!) So, basically, she was mad because I didn't wake her up and Rhonda did wake her up. Sounds like a no-win situation to me!

Ice, Ron, bagels and coffee... on the road! Ron drove the first 6 hours - noteworthy only because Judi told us he would be tired after an hour or 2.

Lunch was Wendy's, eaten whilst driving... dinner was Subway, also eaten whilst driving... (that's a fun word - say it)

We make it to Valdosta, GA, and it's still light out! We stop for the night - we've driven 950 miles! Only 200 more to go! There was a reason for the long haul today - Judi and Lauren will be arriving via Magical Express Sunday between 11 and 12. I would like to beat th..., I mean, MEET them (yeah, right).

HIGH: getting as far as we did on the first day!
LOW: nothing, nice quiet day
MEALS EATEN THAT HAD BEEN AVOIDED ON WEIGHT WATCHERS FOR THE LAST 10 WEEKS: 3

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