Rambling On

8/28/08 10:30AM

Well, so much for leaving on Thursday or Friday. I got home from my last day at Footlocker, and my husband says, “OK, get your stuff loaded, let’s go.” So we pulled out a little ahead of schedule. But, then, I guess I should have expected it. Neither of us is much good at waiting. We got all the way to Clinton, Missouri, and stopped for the night.

As usual, he’s driving, and I’m navigating. He gets a little nervous about some of the routes I pick, ever since the trip we took to Branson where I routed us onto forest service trails for a shortcut through a state park, but we weren’t in a big truck and he wanted the shortest route. It’s a good thing we were in his little 4-wheel drive that trip, ‘cause some of those little dirt roads were pretty rough. We didn’t get lost then, and we’re doing pretty good on this trip, too.

We’re still in Missouri, somewhere east of Springfield on US-63 as I write this. It feels good to be back on the road, falling back into old patterns. I’m remembering things that I haven’t thought about in two years – like odd numbered highways run north and south, even numbers are east and west.

In our hurry to leave, we forgot some stuff, like our CB radio, my raincoat, a lot of little odds and ends that make life easier on the road, but nothing we can’t replace. The biggest headache I’m having right now is that I can’t get my broadband PC card to connect to the internet. We’ll probably have to stop in Memphis, where I know for certain that I’ll have Verizon coverage, and call tech support. Again. For the third time. I’m not quite at the ‘ready to pull my hair out and froth at the mouth’ stage, but if I can’t get it up and running by tonight I probably will be.

The number one reason internet access is so important right now – Hurricane Gustav. We’re heading down to Gulf Shores, Alabama to see my parents before we get back to trucking, and it looks like we might be getting there just in time to evacuate.

On the plus side, I ought to be able get some interesting photos out of the deal.

Oh, and for the record, gas out here in Middle of Nowhere, Missouri is $3.39 a gallon.