Wow. Who knew trying to get on the road for a trip would be so difficult? I guess I should have known....anytime we travel with Mark it never goes as smoothly as I would like. Is it Mark? I think more than just him, it's the combination of our "travel" personalities (they don't mesh, lol) and his kind of scatterbrained nature. Love him as I do, that man is often floating in many directions!
I admit, I am a bit hard to deal with when preparing for a trip. There is so much to do, you know. And I am so focused on getting it all accomplished. Often without anyone helping, which only aides in making the stress I feel about an upcoming trip (especially if it is one that involves flying!) skyrocket to astonishing levels. But that is really neither here nor there. I admit it. I am here admitting it ~~~ I am hard to deal with when getting ready for a trip. I would LOVE it if everyone would just DO what I am saying/asking and not quibble over the way I said/asked......I would have an easier time of spotting a unicorn leaping over a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, than see that happen, ha!
We were pretty much ready to go, but for a few last minute things. Kapperz G would be so proud of her little girl...that house was left so clean it looked like a model home, yea me! I had the boys putting away the last of the dishes while I was booking a hotel for us near the airport and putting our mail on hold -- all things that I kept forgetting to do while I was focused on getting everything else done, lol! Mark gets home and finishes up his packing, but while he is doing that discovers things (work stuff) that he needs to take care of before we leave. I won't go on and on and on about how this was something he had been sitting on for WEEKS and just never made it a priority in his life, but, given what I just said, I am sure my feelings are pretty obvious. Oh! I also had to call on his Az vehicle registration...we are supposed to get a discount and it didn't show, right. So I call and find out that there is some form that needs to be sent in every year with the registration and payment....gggrr! I download the form, print it and start to fill it out -- it has to be NOTARIZED....and signed by his C.O.!! Are you freaking kidding me?!?!? Ugh, oh well. We were already going to be delayed because of the other work errand Mark had to see to, oh well, better to get it done and on its way before we leave ... that way I don't have to worry about it on VACATION, heck yea!
As we are wrapping things up at home, Mark comes in and says that he still needs to go by Sprint to get his contacts from his old phone switched over to his new phone -- I went and got the both of us new phones the day before but since he wasn't with me at the time, well, you know how that goes. So, he has to get that done, which takes about 20 minutes for the switch of contacts and the update....AND we have to go get a piece of paper notarized then signed by his C.O., and we have to go by the post office so he can mail off what he has been sitting on for weeks now. The day is starting to slip right on by.
Okay. It's done. Paper is notarized, signed, and in the mail with the fee and registration form, the work thing is in the mail and the phone has been dropped off at Sprint. FINALLY, my starving children may eat -- it's after 2pm at this point.
Things calmed down at lunch. My stress level went way down as my cholesterol level went WAY up -- Crabby Patty's....man, FRIED everything. Even Twinkies!!! But 3 Diet Pepsi's later and I was a shiny, happy person who didn't have a care in the world. Caffeine...YES!
Of course things didn't go smoothly when we went to pick up Marks phone. Why would they!? We were there for over an HOUR trying to get things worked out....it's after 4 at this point. Our "leaving by noon" has obviously been shot to hell. Once that all got figured out, we gassed up and headed out ---- and yes, we actually got out of Havelock, then New Bern, and before you knew it, we could safely say we were on our way!!! Yip, yip :-)
It's not a bad drive, as long drives go, to Charlotte. And our phones have GPS, so I plugged our hotel in and let our guide do all the work, lol. The boys were watching movies, Mark and I were wrestling for station control on the XM, all was good. Do you expect a curve ball here? Nah, things were pretty smooth. UNTIL...Matt tells me how bad his throat is hurting. That it has been hurting since he woke up and is getting worse. Nooooooo!!! I told him, "I'm sorry, but no one is getting sick! You just tell your body, NO!" He looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I am, but dammit, some kids we knew JUST got over a horrible bought with strep throat --- I do NOT want to have Matt go through that while in another country, no thank you! I tell Mark that when we stop for dinner I want to find a drugstore and get some Tylenol, throat soothers, vitamin C, and whatever else I might find that could help to ease the throat issue. He looked at me like I was crazy. I think the "look" is contagious. Once one person gets it, it spreads like wildfire on a windy day!
We stopped for dinner 40 miles outside of Charlotte, poor John was "starving" -- the way he acts you would think we ration his food intake, lol. Anyway, across from Applebee's was, yea, Walgreens!!! After we ordered, John and I hustled on over and got what I needed --
OH! did I tell you that during the drive that was smooth and really not worth noting, I had two light bulbs go off!? The first one had to do with the kids' jammies. I had washed them and put them in the dryer in the morning. I thought I heard Mark open the dryer door and put the clothes on the couch (this was while I am on the computer getting the Az registration figured out, the hotel we are staying at booked,etc...my mind is not fully focused on what else is going on in the house). I tell the boys to fold the clothes and put them away. It isn't until we are on the road, HOURS from home that I think to ask, "did you make sure to put your jammies in your suitcases after you folded them?" We all know what the answer to that is...NO. Apparently Mark didn't take the clothes out, just a pair of his shorts and blue blanket, that is Johns blanket. Gggrr. Oh well. My fault. I should have remembered. The second light bulb was this...."do we need an international license to drive in Australia?" This one was a doozy, because I had booked two rental cars, one in Alice Springs and one in Brisbane -- we are going to be SCREWED if it turns out we need an international driving license.
Dinner was nice. It was nice to get out of the car. Woody, our friendly Applebee's waiter was VERY friendly. He liked to chat it up, which doesn't bother me a whit but by the look on Marks face, he wasn't having it, lol! When Woody brought up the Ospry and wanted to know what Mark thought of it and then steam-rolled over him with all of his thoughts about the Ospry, I thought Mark was going to lose it. You could visibly see him shutting down....too funny!
While at dinner, my GPS shut down on my phone and for all that I tried, I couldn't get it back up once back on the road. It kept telling me there wasn't a GPS signal for all that I had full service. It wasn't that big of a problem...we knew our exit, but that was about it. I thought it would be simple...you can usually see the hotels from the road and there are always signs. Hahahahaha -- yea, that's me, laughing! I told Mark I remembered from the directions that we need to head left off the exit. So we do. And we drive. And we drive. And we drive. Just as I am about to tell him to turn around, I see an exit sign with a name I remember from the directions. "TAKE THAT exit", I yell at him, pointing madly! He takes it and it can go right or left. He takes left. I didn't tell him to go left. As he went left, I said, I think we're supposed to go right. I won't repeat what was said under his breath. We commit and are going left (we should be going right...), finally he says, "why don't you call them, you have the number, right?" DUH....lol, I completely forgot I had the number written down. I call them and guess what, we should have gone right! After that we found them without a problem. It was 10:30pm by the time we got to our room. The boys, resigned to sleeping in their underwear, got their teeth brushed, put their respective mouth appliances in, and settled down for some late night reading. I played on my phone for a bit and googled driving in Australia -- I was relieved to find that as long as ones driver's license is in English, you may use the license of your country to drive about Australia! YEA...phew! Things are clicking into place :-)
Mark is not having such a great time of it. While on the road he received a phone call from work. He needed to get something written up and sent to someone and he promised it would be done that night. The hotel internet connection was giving him fits, as well as the website he was trying to work on.....frustration was oozing out of every pore. That poor man. When he couldn't take it another minute, he picks up the phone and says to me, "Honey do you want a beverage?" "Sure," I say. He dials. The phone rings and rings on the other end. His knuckles are getting white on the phone handle. I pick up the room service menu just as he slams down the phone and growls, "well room service isn't picking up!" I look at the menu, room service from 11am-11pm. I look at the clock, it's 11:35pm. Denied!
Matt decided to sleep on the pull out couch while John and I took one of the double beds and Mark had the other. We were all abed by 12:30, and I must say, I was completely knackered. It is currently 10:26am and both Mark and John are still asleep. Good, they need it.
Luckily we are near a shopping center so we are going to head out and get the boys some jammies today before flying out. And Matt is feeling better -- I dosed him last night with vitamin C and Tylenol, so I hope that continues to be the case.
As I sit here typing, I feel the enormity of our trip looming over me. The base of my spine is tingling and a whole garden of butterflies is flapping away in my belly. It'll be great. I know it will. I just need to get at cruising altitude.......
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