I'm Back

Well, I’m back and writing from Walkersville, MD. I’ve been here since Friday afternoon, about 1:30; and the drive was a bitch with a capital BITCH. I only had two kids with me at any given time because they took turns riding with their dad in the moving truck. I did mention that we were picking him up at the airport on Wednesday so he could rent the moving truck and drive it back here for us, right? Well, if I didn’t before, I just mentioned it now. Anyway, the drive here wasn’t all that great, as I’ve already said. Paul was leading and, even though he said he was only driving 70mph I knew it was a lot faster because I was doing 75 at times and couldn’t keep up with him. That was fine during the day but when it got dark it was a BITCH (again). I was unfamiliar with the roads and couldn’t take not knowing what was ahead of me. He tried to stay just ahead of me but that didn’t help.

See, driving through Ohio at night it unbelievably shitty. It’s nothing but pitch black on either side of the two-lane highway so all you can see is the vehicle in front of you for like five hours straight. It was hypnotizing, I shit you not. I was about to fall asleep and told him so. Then he tells me, via cell phone naturally, that we were just about out of Ohio (he was using GPS). Great. We hit West Virginia and were immediately in the mountains. If there is one thing worse than driving through Ohio at night, it’s driving through the mountains any time. That’s just my opinion; some of you may feel differently and guess what? I don’t care!!! We were just entering WV and I already said I was tired since we’d been driving from 10:30 Thursday morning and it was somewhere in the vicinity of 1:00a.m. That’s 14 ½ hours, right? I think so if my Kindergarten math serves me.

Okay, back to the story. We just entered WV and the first thing I see is a yellow caution sign depicting a truck on a down slope and under that it says “5% downgrade next 2 miles.” That was it; I started to panic. Not only couldn’t I see because it was so dark, but I was extremely tired and I’m really afraid of driving through the mountains – especially on the downgrades. I flashed my headlights at Paul because my cell wouldn’t work in the mountains and it was almost out of power anyway. He called mine and I yelled at him to pull off the road. He did, we stayed in a Super 8 Motel for the night and started fresh in the morning. Not fun.

The first thing I asked him was how much longer we’d be in the mountains. He said we only had another 245 miles to Ellen’s house and would probably be in the mountains for about an hour-and-a-half. I really don’t like the mountains. No, it isn’t fun; no, it isn’t beautiful (I wouldn’t know, actually because I’m too afraid to look sideways); no, it’s isn’t exciting. I’m terrified of heights and when I’m driving in the mountains I get a very bad sensation of falling because all that’s around is valley space. Guess what? Those valleys are hundreds of miles DOWN. Not fun for me. Anyway, we weren’t in the mountains for that short of time; we were in them for almost six hours. I actually called Ellen at one point, as soon as we crossed into Maryland from WV, screaming, “WHEN THE FUCK DO THESE MOUNTAINS END!!!???” She Mapquested the town I told her we were near and she said we probably had another hour. Are you fucking kidding me? So I gritted my teeth and finished the trip. The people in MO will never see me in person again unless a) they come to visit me, or b) I can find a way to drive back there where I don’t run into the Appalachian Mountains or any other mountains along the way. I won’t ever drive through them again. Never.

So we arrived, she and her son, Sonny, had pizza waiting for us and Paul’s girlfriend was on the way to pick up him and the kids. The kids are staying with Paul for a couple of weeks’ vacation. Girlfriend gets here and they head out for some fun with dad. They’ve been calling me and updating me on what they’re doing. It’s nothing real exciting so far, just going in Grandma’s pool and playing in the yard. I’m betting Paul is waiting until his girlfriend has a day off from work so she can accompany him and the kids to an attraction of some sort. See, Paul can’t spend any time with his kids on his own so the beach, the aquarium, the museum, etc., have to be delayed until Paul has a grown-up to go with them. It’s sad but true. Whatever; the kids are having fun; but I’m still betting they’ll be back here with Mom by the end of next week. We’ll see.

So Ellen, Sonny and I have unloaded most of my stuff from the moving truck and put it in storage; the rest awaits us for unloading into the house tomorrow. We got lazy today and didn’t do anything but go out for all-you-can-eat crabs and crab legs. YUM!! Tomorrow we’re back on track getting me settled and we’ll even begin some of the administrative shit I have to do – get a bank account, get the kids registered for school, sign up for Social Services, and all the rest. We’ll get it all done so that, if the kids do come back early, we won’t have to drag them around town all day, every day. We will get it all done, though. We’ll just take it one step and one day at a time. Before you know it, I’ll be set up as a Maryland resident and will be ready to start my exciting new life here. The kids are excited too but I’m sure will be anxious when they get back. We’ll all be fine in the end and this new adventure will take us to bigger and better places; and I’ll get to put my degree to some great use. I can’t wait!! I’ll keep you updated as things progress. I’m sure there will be some happenings that we can all laugh at as I work through the system. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted. It’s good to be back, though; and I hope you all had a great few days without me.

Until next time…peace to all.