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Friday, June 19, 2009

Rewinding Part 2 It's a Trip


A thrilling story of exotic travel on a budget, family bliss and regional food.....

We got on the road yesterday at about 7:20pm. We endured/enjoyed the typical travel drama. Garbo issues the warning that she's "not feeling well." Mama (that's still me, dang it) manages to handle the news with her usual lack of grace.

"This is why I wanted to travel alone." The words just hang in the air. MathMan, who had balked at my idea of going by myself when I initially announced that idea, played peacemaker by suggesting a stop at the CVS for chewable Dramamine for Garbo, beef jerky for The Actor/Ninja and chocolate for me.

MathMan is wise.

Fueled by Chic Fil-A because we had a gift card and a coupon for a free kids meal that Garbo and I could split (we are, after all, frugal travelers), we navigated our way through Cartersville and onto I75 North, pointed towards our destination of Rising Sun, Indiana.

At about the fiftieth mile, Mathman was tossing Rolos into my mouth. By mile sixty, I was asking if we were there yet. Around about mile seventy-two, we'd already heard the Miley Cyrus song The Climb twice. By mile ninety, the Actor/Ninja had announced, yet again, that the Jonas Brothers are talentless goombahs invented by Disney, except he didn't use those tidy terms.

By mile one-hundred, MathMan and I had re-asserted our dominance over the radio and were dancing and singing and moving to the groove when somebody turned around.......

Finally, before we become totally weary travelers, we pulled off in Clinton, Tennessee, not quite half-way, but north of Knoxville. We bypassed the Holiday Inn properties and chose the Country Inn and Suites instead. I can't leave the Toyota by the roadside, but I can choose not to patronize a hotel. (boycott reference)

I'll let you know how the free breakfast is. So far the place is clean, pleasant and a good space for us. The bed gets a thumbs down for being too firm. And I discovered that The Actor/Ninja who slept in the double bed opposite the one I shared with MathMan (Garbo slept on the foldout sofa in the living room area) talks in his sleep. And his sleeping patterns mirror mine. MathMan, as he tells it, fell asleep during the first episode on the Rosemary & Thyme dvd we brought along. He also fell asleep during the second and third. The Actor and I were still wide awake until somewhere in the third when we conked out around 2am. Ah, the joys of being hyper.

This morning we make the second half of our journey to the place of my beginnings. We'll stop in Lawrenceburg for food (I've already declared that we should stop for lunch before we make our presence known so that no family member feels compelled to offer "lunchmeat" at their house.) We may be traveling on a budget, but I don't go to the place of my birth for boiled ham on white bread with Miracle Whip. Oh,no.

We'll have Frish's Big Boy or Skyline Chili or we'll have nothing at all.

Tonight is the reunion. I really am looking forward to it. I know that some of you would rather chew glass than revisit your past, but for me, this is going home and that's not so bad in small doses. I'm rather happy to re-connect with the people with whom I shared my youth. Maybe it's because it was such a small school or maybe it's precisely because I don't get back there very often, but every once in a while, it's good for me to know that as rootless as I am now, there was once a place that I really called home*.



Oh, yes, the Royal Pains love to see their parents sing this and seat-dance. The shame and horror made them go all quiet.

*Let's see what I'm saying on the way back. Heh.

25 comments:

  1. Are you there yet? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

    By the way, I totally agree with eating before you get there. My mother used to make our sandwiches (balogna, or as we pronounced it baloney) with Miracle Whip. I still can't stand the stuff.

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  2. Oh Lisa, the family road trip......I'll be thinking of you as I take mine in July.
    I hope you have a great time tonight at the reunion. I am sure they will be thrilled to see you!

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  3. Hey, I love Miracle Whip. Miracle Whip was an exotic condiment in my youth. My mother, obviously influenced by her mother who emigrated from a Nordic country, made (and based on what my kids tell me from visits with Grandma, still makes) bologna and butter sandwiches.

    Hope the reunion is fun. I think one reason I've never been keen on going to my own is the people I hung out with the most in high school were either a grade ahead of me or a grade behind. Think it was the result of the school bus route we were on.

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  4. Thanks for the boycott link! Have a GOOD time at your reunion. Don't drink too much. Don't laugh til your beverage comes out your nose. Be proud of Math Man and your kiddos. BTW, is Chloe keeping the home fires burning?

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  5. Of course you will be travelling through all the Storms - so be careful. Frisch's Big Boy Rocks!! You know how I love that tubby little guy and his sandwich!! Enough to buy a dozen and freeze them, whenever I am near the restaurants. Be safe...and keep singing!

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  6. We did the overnight 24 hr straight from Buffalo to Ft. Lauderdale back in December. The only way people should do that is if there is a western caribbean cruise waiting for them when they get there. The Daytona racetrack rednecks in the Denny's parking lot at breakfast time glaring at my Obama sticker and NY plates quickly reminded me that we were below that thar Mason Dixon thing.

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  7. Road trips, gotta love em.
    We drive to NY from MN every year, or "Up Nort" or down to Iowa. We have it down to a science. But the kids insist on actually growing, so leg room is becoming an issue. I swear I've stayed in every roadside hotel from here to the east coast.

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  8. *Let's see what I'm saying on the way back. Heh.

    As long as it's not a video of you and Mathman signing that song because then we'd have to file a formal protest.

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  9. Oh I love a good road trip. We will be travelling from Nashville to Kansas City for my daughter's wedding next week. Beef jerky, loud music, fountain sodas and stopping every fifteen minutes for someone to pee.

    What a blast!!!

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  10. Simultaneous road trips!! I'm sitting in the parking lot of Lambeau field with the dogs while G and DS1 and DS2 tour the pro shop and probably try to get down on the field. Have a blast tonight. Can't wait to meet you in a month!!
    NFH

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  11. Here's how I travel - I get in, turn the ignition on and drive until I have to stop and get gas. After I fill up, I pee. Then, I repeat this process.

    Here's how my wife travels. She gets in, starts the car, forgets something and has to run back in the house. Usually not having gassed up the night before we have to stop for gas. While stopped, she has to buy drinks, and triple check the kids have gone to the bathroom. Fifty miles down the road, she or one of the kids will insist they have to go to the bathroom. We stop. They pee, then take a look around the rest area, usually buying another soft drink that fills the bladder faster than you can drink it.

    Are you getting clear picture here?

    Have a safe trip, and a great time. I hope one of your classmates has the guts to show up dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice, Lucky Strike cigarette and all.

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  12. You people were in TN? I knew something was up, I felt a disturbance in the force. Would it have killed you to drive 90 miles east of Knoxville to say hi to Sparky and me on your way up there? ;o)

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  13. I'm always up for Chick Fil-A, coupons or not. And here's a question: Why do people of the Midwest love Miracle Whip? (Please do explain those other food references; the ones referring to what you DO want to eat.)

    The name "Wild Cherry" just sounds dirty to me. Party on, Class of 84!

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  14. Good call on the boiled ham.

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  15. As you know I'm not going to my tenth, but it seems to me as though your high school wasn't as stratified and divided as mine was. Perhaps class size makes all the difference in the world.

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  16. Are you kidding?! I love going to my class reunion: the cool kids are losers, the losers are cool, the jocks are fat and bald, the cheerleaders are bitter...

    Oh yeah and I'm still catnip.

    Good times, all.

    Regards,

    Tengrain

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  17. And a good had was timed by all..

    Take it easy out there and back.

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  18. wishing you and yours a great weekend

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  19. Sounds like a cool road trip! I was in those same times! Class of 1983! I remember those songs! What's the boycott about. Union stuff? And good for you for sticking with it!

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  20. Road trips are always fun but I can't wait for the post about the reunion

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  21. Would to do a road trip through the US with that kind of music, preferably in a '72 Bel Air

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  22. You supported a MN-based company that employs a handful of my friends. :) Yay, you!

    I can't wait to read your reunion post. I pretty much live in my hometown (not my idea) and I skipped my 10 year reunion. But inspired by your attitude, MAYBE I will attend my 20th.

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  23. I won't go to my 25th next summer and you can't make me!

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And then you say....

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