On the Road - Day 4

This is where we woke up bright and early to begin Day 4 of our big adventure. Although the sheets in this hotel were the same as the ones in the prior hotel (pink!) this one seemed nicer. We were, however, awakened in the middle of the night to hear 2 guys arguing. The one was telling the other that he shouldn't drink because he became such a - I'll say "jerk" here, but that's not what he said - and then complaining loudly that the "jerk" had drank the last Henny. The drunk one was trying to use his room key to get into our room!
I guess you can't leave your lights on in a truck any more than you can in a car, because this poor guy left his lights on and his battery was dead. Neither he nor Bill was carrying jumper cables. Huh.

After borrowing some cables from a guy at McDonald's, he asked for a jump. Bill obliged.

Just north of Houston, we came upon a horrible traffic jam. Apparently there had been an accident with a fatality. See these cars crossing the grass to get off the highway??

Bad decision for at least one of them.

We finally made it to the Flying J in Houston, where Bill salivated over this kick-ass truck. Check out that sleeper!

Houston! I'm baacckkk!!

Tee hee...

We went to the Montrose area to unload a guy's stuff. He had just moved from Michigan. Into a second floor apartment. Great. Bill and I toted in all his crap (note to self: when moving, CLEAN your things before packing them....) It was hot and we were dirty. We headed to a hotel next to the agent. We planned to meet Beth and Brad and their families for dinner and needed a shower after our unloading. The shower in this hotel is oddly high. Bonnie: "Gosh, Bill, this shower is oddly high." Bill: "What? You're feeling oddly high???" There's even a sign warning of this.

Look! Bill's head is almost touching the ceiling when he's standing in the shower.

And so NOT almost touching the ceiling when out.

We need to do laundry and took a while trying to find clean clothes, but finally, we met the group at Pappasito's. Mmmmmmm.... My dinner was fabulous! Brad, Tom and I all ordered the meal featured on the cover of the menu. Brad to waiter: "I'll have the cover!"

So was Bill's.

Ford, Lara, and Caroline. Samantha - I told them you wished you were there. Repeatedly! I was sitting at the opposite end of the table and unfortunately didn't get to talk to them very much. I will report they were very nice and all seemed personable. Next time I'll have a kid time, for sure.

It was great to see everyone. Here's Maribel and Brad. Brad is just the same as ever - funny and fun. I didn't get to talk to Maribel as much as I wanted to either, but she and Bill chatted a while.

After dinner, we went out by the big truck. Here's the group - Me, Bill, Tom, Ford, Beth, Caroline, Lara, Brad, and Maribel.

Same group. (Obviously...)

Brad, Bonnie, Beth

And again.

Yet again.

The boys!

Nice pose, kids!

Ha ha... Now that's more like it! Your NC cousins would be so proud!

Maribel and Brad...

Conversating just before we left. It was wonderful to see the family. Can't wait until the WHOLE family can get together. Bill liked everyone very much and repeatedly told me he didn't realize how good looking all the women in the family were! We all couldn't believe it had been so long since we'd gotten together and vowed to do it again much sooner. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for Day 5.

On the Road - Day 3

Bill had 18,000 pounds of household goods to deliver in Waxahachie. It took most of the day. This poor woman was scared that all of her stuff wasn't going to fit in her new home. The truck does look bigger than the house!
Here's Bill folding pads (which, let's face it, is what I did for most of the day.) and blowing me a kiss. Kiss, kiss Bill!

Fortunately, the stuff all fit and we headed toward Houston. Bill was really tired and we decided to stay ithe night n Corsicana.

This is Bill's side of the truck. The driver's side of the truck is an imposing control panel.

In Corsicana, this big empty shopping center had one big Russell Stover outlet in it. Unfortunately, that's about all. Corsicana had an abundance of hotels and no restaurants. So we headed on down the highway to Fairfield, where we checked in to another Days Inn. We walked over to Sam's - a home cookin' restaurant and ate like pigs, waddled back to the hotel and slept like the dead.

Bill and Bonnie On The Road - Day 2

After my truck stop shower we hit the road again. Ah! The open road:)

Pilot has these kick-ass coffee cups that hold like a half gallon of coffe. I had to have me one of those!

South Alabama road signs.

"Welcome to Louisiana". Darn. Missed the sign.

Bill said that's ok, because there's another one right in the middle of this bridge. Get ready!

Darn! Missed the sign again. But here we are crossing the Mississippi River.

Hey Sarah! Wish you were home. We'd stop in and say howdy...

Another night. Another Days Inn. This one is in Lyndale, Texas.

Bill and Bonnie On The Road - Day 1

The kids are up in DC with their dad, and Bill had to go on a trip so I decided to go with him. Jimmy graciously agreed to stay at the house and care for the kitties so I could make the trip. He also took this picture of us just before we left.
I'm such a dork. I

The view heading south.

This is where we spent the night. My first night of sleeping in a truck stop. It was much quieter than I expected. It was kind of fun really. Like camping out!

The next morning, I had my first truck stop shower in this Pilot Travel Center. Surprisingly clean and un-weird feeling.

Charlotte Thaksgiving Day Parade

Chelsea was elected to be East Rutherford High School's Carrousel Princess. This meant she participated in a pageant which was held in Charlotte on Thanksgiving Eve, and also rode a float in the Thanksgiving Day parade. For convenience and fun, Bill and I rode up to Charlotte and stayed at the Marriott in Center City (same place the pageant was held. Boo-yah!). We circled the block several times before we figured out )OK, figured out by calling Samantha) that this circular drive in front in not just valet parking, but also is the entrance to the parking deck.

We stayed on the fifteenth floor. Attended the pageant, which was lovely, then got to sleep. Big day tomorrow.

This is the view looking left out of the hotel window the next morning - Thanksgiving. A little soupy out there.

We were both in the shower when room service knocked. Oops. Food was pretty good. Certainly plentiful. Thus fortified, we headed down to stake out a spot to watch the parade. We went down an hour before it started so we could be in front.

We got a spot sitting on the curb and sat drinking coffee. There was a pretty good crowd there.

Bill - waiting for it to start.

And finally it did. Apparently, last year Charlotte's Thanksgiving Day parade was the fourth largest in the US! And this year was supposed to be even bigger.

This car looked really cool and after I took this pictures, some guy got up on the trunk and stood there juggling.

This guy had some fake legs swinging down the sides of this chicken suit. It struck me really funny and made me laugh and point.

I was enjoying the parade a lot. Then. This happened. This woman in skin-tight pants just pushed through the people behind us and stood on the street. Right. In. Front of me.

She talked loudly and constantly. Eventually she left. But the view on her way out was no better than the view of her ass. No, she wasn't pregnant....

After we could see again, look who came! Why, it's Captain Jack Sparrow!

This group was amazing. One guy actually was rolling this ball down the street by - like walking on it. It was rolling with him on it. It was really something. I bet he was tired by the time he got to the end.

I'll spare you all the pictures I took - clowns, cheerleaders, cops, horses, owls, bands, gymnasts... Sigh. I love a parade. Anyway, finally here came Chelsea's float. There she is behind that blue bow thing wearing a white dress.

Working the crowd. You go girl!

After seeing Chelsea, we'd had enough of the parade - not to mention miles to go before we cold sleep - so we left.