It all started last Friday when we got up early and set off, excited for a road trip, to go and pick up my cousin Kay from Nashville. We got 10 miles before the transmission went on my car. We recently got new car insurance and they had persuaded us to drop AAA in favor of their break-down service. Stupid mistake (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing). The roadside assistance sent a tow-truck with 1 passenger seat and when I called them back the operator told me to send my car with the truck and call a cab for the family. When I explained that we were stranded on the side of a major freeway she told me that they weren't a cab service and hung up on me. Throughout all this a state trooper had been with us and he took charge. He sent the first tow truck driver away empty handed, called us a new one, parked behind us so if anyone hit they'd hit his car first, and was just amazing (I have emailed his county office to say how wonderful he was). Finally a second tow-truck driver came and towed us to a mechanic and my neighbor Dave picked us up from there and brought us home.
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| Shortest road trip ever: 10 miles. But it did take 3 hours. |
Some friends of ours in Nashville offered to go and get her & bring Kay to us. They had been planning on coming up to see their daughter at some point and saw it as a good opportunity. Only thing was, they were stuck in a tornado warning in Nashville and poor Kay was sat in a bathtub, with cushions on her head, tornado sirens going off all around her. It didn't help that she was staying in an AirB&B place with a creepy man. What must she have thought of her visit at this point.
They all finally rolled into town at 3am Saturday morning and collapsed into bed. The sleeping arrangements were as such: me & Craig on cot/couch in the basement, Nashville friends in our bed, Kay in Jack's bed, Danny in his bed, Jack on a cot in Danny's room, Bethany & Brandon (friend's niece and nephew) on sofa bed in the living room. Yep, we housed nine people for the weekend. Consider also that my kitchen is torn apart and I had a full week of laundry and cleaning that I hadn't done because I was planning on escaping to Nashville for the weekend. Sigh.
On Saturday we smiled and made the best of it: went for a hike, took the kids swimming, and just kept everyone jollying along.
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| Hiking buddies |
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| 4 kids in the whirlpool |
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| Me and Danny |
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| Painting Easter Eggs |
Our Nashville fiends left early Sunday afternoon so I took Kay to Hocking Hills for a hike, which felt good.
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| Hocking Hills |
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| Drive-in Movie |
Monday to today we went to work and ALSO to COSI, Jeni's Ice Cream, the doctors (Jack's feet hurt), the dentist (my 6-month teeth cleaning), shoe shopping, food shopping, Whetstone Park, to dinner at The Rusty Bucket, and finally to the airport today to drop Kay off. We were both sad. She's an amazing woman and I'm going to miss her madly. She's moving from Tulum in Mexico to the Philippines, so who knows when I'll see her again. Thankfully we have Facebook and Instagram and all those other ways to communicate daily. I also want to adopt her cat but no idea how I'd do that.
One last thing. I'm able to travel right now because my fabulous neighbors are letting me drive their car. My car is having a $2,600 transmission rebuilt right now. Ack!
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