5:30 a.m…..Alarm goes off.  Take a shower, wash my hair, forgot my towel!  If I walk dripping wet across the tile floor, will Bill slip and fall when he gets up?  Can’t risk that!  How long does it take to drip dry?

6:30 a.m….Bill is packing the car.  What a great packer he is!

Can’t believe what all is in there….table, 4 chairs, waffle iron, art supplies, clothes for 7 weeks, books, quilt, kitchen stuff, cooler, golf clubs, camera, …

7:30 a.m….Uh Oh!  Forgot the toaster oven! Bill is not pleased.

8:00 a.m….Guess it can sit on top til we drop off the trash bag at the dumpster and make some room.  ( Wait a minute….is that illegal?)

8:30 a.m…..We’re off!  Only 30 minutes late.  As I was leaving my wonderful kitchen, I began to picture the new little kitchen I would be occupying in the condo in Montana for the next month.  I looked at my cross sitting on the counter…

Should I take it?  Could I possibly fit in one more thing?  I threw it in the bag.  It will make the new kitchen feel like home!

10:30 a.m….We have been on the road 30 minutes.  I have eaten half of our snacks for today!

3:00 p.m….Stopped in Junction, Texas for a break.  My cell phone tumbled out of an open pocket of my purse and took a nose dive into the toilet.  I heard the awful noise, “ker plunk!”  I quickly retrieved it and ran it up and down through the fierce blowing of the hand dryer on the wall in the bathroom.  It apparently died.

3:15 p.m….However, the cell phone started buzzing and continued a loud buzz like a bug trying to die a long slow death.  I kept trying to revive it by madly punching buttons here and there.  After about 15 minutes the screen started fading into view every so often as if the phone were taking faint gasping breaths.  On the screen was a bulb thermometer, colored red almost to the top.  The phone was struggling to tell me something…(words on the screen), ” You can’t use your phone right now…Trying to cool down!”  Apparently I not only drowned it, but fried it as well.

3:30 p.m….Suddenly it dawned on me as I laughingly shouted to Bill, “This is like one of my Dad’s trips!” (Honestly, it was ALWAYS an adventure, and something ALWAYS went wrong).  Bill shook his head, some expression that resembled a “yes” and an “oh no” nod all at the same time.  The nod spoke, “Yes, this is definitely your Dad” and, “Oh no, is the rest of the trip going to be like this?”  I held the phone up to the air conditioning vent to try and help the “cool down” process. The loud buzzing noise continued.

3:42 p.m….The noise stopped.  My phone is dead.  I wanted to take a photo of it showing that thermometer in one of its last fleeting breaths.  But Bill would not let me touch his phone!

3:43 p.m….Hummmm……Good thing I brought that cross!!

Smiling,

nk