After
the concert we made our way back to the hotel and a hoped for night's
rest. It was going to be a long ride home, hopefully though it wouldn't
be in the rain. We didn't stop anywhere for a meal, thinking that there
had to be a snack machine in the hotel and crackers would be fine.
(Hubby's idea not mine, but I wasn't arguing). Parking the car we
grabbed everything we had taken with us and carted it all in to the
room. I then went off in search of...something. I did find a snack
machine across from the front desk. I bought a candy bar, and a pack of
chocolate covered cake like things. I had also rescued a cinnamon/
raisin biscuit from earlier that morning from the glove box of the car.
Please all you dieticians get up from the floor, it was a one night
thing. My husband had already showered and had coffee ready by the time I
got back. After our highly non - nutritious meal, we called it a night.
I showered, remembering his warning that it didn't take much cold water
to cool down the hot- and he was right-and made my way toward the bed. I
had slipped around when hubby wasn't looking and turned the ac over to
fan. He wasn't freezing me no matter how hot he thought it was. I set
the alarm on my watch since the clock on the clock radio in the room
wouldn't set and called it a night.
Watch
alarms are strange, at least mine is. That thing was so excited about
being set, that instead of waiting until the 6:30am at which I had set
it, the thing went off several times during the night. It would only
beep once, but that was enough to bring me out of a deep sleep into a
confused state of "What now?"
I
actually beat my husband up, (got up before him to be precise) I wanted to be up early to get my contacts
in without having to listen to and respond to a conversation that would
be more rant that chat. It wasn't easy. I'm accustomed to this little
routine here, I place this huge white towel over my desk, I have a cute
pink teddy that holds my mirror and I place my contacts case, solution
and paper towel next to that. I'm close to and looking down into the
mirror. Oh, and I have a lamp beside.. behind me. Here I was, hand towel
over the sink, all my gear beside me, and me trying to lean in close
and see in this huge mirror where I was not looking down but almost up. I
did however finally mange to get everything in place and went to wake
up hubby. We needed to get everything in the car, breakfast out of the
way, checked out and on the road. We would soon be burning daylight and I
wanted to get home. According to hubby, we had things to do there.
For
once we actually had not taken much so it didn't take long to get it
stacked into the back seat of the car. Carrying my camera bag, purse and
the room keys we returned to the hotel and made our way to breakfast.
It was simple, eggs and biscuits and gravy. They also had cereal and
toast and muffins. The waffle thing was either out of order or out of
batter, either way, there were no waffles to be had that morning. As we
checked out I asked and was given permission to take a few photos of
the inside. We chatted a while before I signed the paperwork and we made
our way back to the car. One thing I will carry with me is just how
nice everyone was there. From the moment we checked in, to my wandering
around bored out of my skull while hubby napped, to waiting for concert
time, to every moment, everyone we met was incredibly nice. We asked for
two more pillows, boom, two more pillows. We, hubby, managed to lock us
out of the room, boom, another room key..If we wanted to chat, they
were available. If only it was that way everywhere. They were this
friendly, and still got their work done.
Climbing into the car, we headed toward home. The lady at the desk made
the comment that she hoped we had a safe drive back and that the sun
would be at our back. I didn't bother to respond that we would be headed
east and that the sun rose in the east, just to see the sun would be a
joy compared to the rain we had left on Friday. My husband said that he
knew the way, just to turn left and head out, we would hit a certain
road and that would take us to another one that would be our main ride
home. He did not tell me how far I would have to drive to find the first
road. We kept passing signs for it, just didn't seem to ever be going
to reach it. Finally it appeared over the horizon. We pulled onto it and
started only for him to tell me that up ahead was a truck stop and we
could get a thermos of coffee there. That taken care of we were off and
running again. This was going to be a lot of down hill driving. This was
going to be a lot of down hill driving with people who rode their
brakes, who raced the trucks, Truck driver who paid no mind to those
great big letters painted on the highway that read no trucks this lane.
Usually stuff such as this makes me nervous, but today, I was fine. Even
when the energy truck from Kentucky rode right up on the tailpipe of my
explorer and stayed there.
I
did fine the entire ride, the car handled nicely, it was doing fairly
well on fuel consumption, there were no problems. Right up until we
reached the town of Shelby. I pulled up to a traffic light and stopped,
and the car died. Dead. Completely. Won't crank, nope, ain't going to. I
found the emergency flashers and kept trying. Cars were going by us,
trucks were passing us on the right. Finally it caught and I pulled it
into gear and pulled away. We made it to the next gas station where I
pulled in, hands trembling horribly and drove up to the pumps. Pumps
that held no regular gas. We topped it off (I still had half a tank)
hoping the higher grade octane would clean out anything that might be
blocking the fuel filter. I can't help but believe that I pushed my baby
too hard even though it was down hill.
Pulling
into the driveway I happily turned the key to the done position and
opened the door. Home, we were home. I began carrying stuff in just to
get that out of the way. Of course the furthest most of it got was to
the chair in the living room, but at least it was inside. I called and
spoke briefly with my mother, my parents live next door and help keep an
eye on the place, and let her know we were home. Our son was at the
race and I had no idea when he would get back and I wasn't calling as
that would be a waste of time. One simply cannot hear a conversation
over the roar of engines.
There
were a few hours of daylight left, I went out with mom. James got back
from the race. My husband and I made a run to Sam's Club. I cooked
dinner and made to call the day done. The next morning, full realization
hit. The weekend was over, I had fallen back through the looking glass
from fun and excitement to the ordinary. It was back to work for both me
and my husband. Even as the sounds of the music and singing along with
the screams from the crowd still sounded in my ears. Even as my heart
still raced and the excitement flowed within, the ordinary was back.
Responsibility was back. But the joys, the good times, the special
things that made this past weekend one to remember, will not ever fade. I
only hope, that it won't take another six years before we can do it all
again.
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