On The Road Again

Well lovelies, I greet you tonight from the lovely Econo Lodge in Effingham, Illinois. I began this day with a bad sunburn on my lower back that came from wedding in my strawberry patch for about 6 hours yesterday afternoon. I hardly slept. I finally crawled, yes crawled out of bed at about 8:30 this morning. I then shut off my alarm that was to go off at 9. I heard voices outside, so I opened my window and listened to my parents converse in the garden where my mother was laying down straw around the plants, and my dad was wondering if she needed help. He then left to go tell my neighbor, whom my mother had received the straw from that there was indeed 20 bales there, like there was supposed to be, instead of the 15 that she had believed were there. I then called to her that I was up, I would finish packing and then proceed to make strawberry muffins.

I came downstairs and ate a sausage my mother had left for me, then proceeded to cut up strawberries for muffins. I started to make the muffin batter, only to discover we had no eggs! I grabbed the keys from my mom's purse, and some cash, yes she had given me permission to take some cash after I told her I needed eggs, then went into the small local grocery store. I came back and made my muffins, which came out very tasty by the way.

We had lunch, me having some salad and tuna salad so it wouldn't go to waste while my mom and I are away for the week. My grandma and Frank came when I was finishing my salad. I then had to run around looking for my hoodie, which I never found, nor do I think I will actually need, but we shall see. We hit the road at about 11:30 or so. We stopped for a late lunch at Cracker Barrel where we met with Frank's sister, son and his wife and her daughter. Then we hit the road again, arriving at our motel at around 8:00 our time, but only 7:00 their time. I had to reset the clock on my laptop. I searched the room until I found the ethernet jack, which thankfully I thought to pack my ethernet cord into my new messenger/laptop bag that I bought.

My bag is this cute dark brown messenger bag that I bought about two days ago I think for 1/4 the price I thought that I would. I like it very much so, and am looking to use it as my backpack at college this coming year. Is it September yet, I ask you. I shall arrive in Louisiana on Friday and be there until Monday morning. Arriving home some time on Wednesday night. Then Thursday I leave to see my lovely Sarah, then see Laura on Friday, then go to another wedding Friday evening, crash at my ex-roomie's place, then hopefully hang with her next Saturday!

Now, for some interesting tidbits from my journey today. For one, my stomach can't handle plain V-8 juice, at least not from a can....when it isn't ice cold. I know I can handle it ice cold from a plastic bottle because I've had it before. When I took one drink I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I had the taste of it in my mouth for about a half hour until I had the common sense to eat another Strawberry muffin. I did a couple crossword puzzles, asked my grandma a little bit about her family, and began to read The Old Man and The Sea. I bought the book at a Goodwill a few months ago I do believe, maybe longer ago. It has been among the many books I currently own but have not read. I do hope to change that this summer, but with how much I've been working outside I do not know how much reading I shall do.

Trying to sit in a car, or anywhere for that matter when you have sunburn on your very low back is very hard. You can't sit with your lower back against anything. It becomes irritating very quickly. I had a truck driver wave at me at one point, it was a younger driver too, not one of those older ones. I have just noticed that my bag is the largest one that has come on this trip. I also think I brought more clothes than normal. I could have put it all in a duffel bag, but I wanted to make sure I was ready for anything. Which is very strange for me, normally I am the lightest packer compared to most people I travel with. Anyway, I do suppose this has become long enough and I have to find something for them to watch on the television. I can't wait to get back on the road tomorrow. I find I really like to travel.