Down through southern Georgia the Santa Fe rumbles, and I do mean rumbles.
This is it's 12th trip down, and apparently it's showing it's
age more than I thought. It had been so reliable all the othere times we
just never worried about her.
Diane asked if I minded if she took a little nap and I told her to go for it, no map reading, sign reading necessary for the next few hundred miles.
" So crap, throw the map off your lap and nap."
I'm still facsinated with the sky though;
The clouds are starting to break up a bit, no, not enough
for blue to come through, but at least they aren't all that
solid gray stratus cloud type. I would much prefer to see the status of stratus change to a serious cirrus.
Just not a Cirrus Black, could mean rain.
sorry
I look over and Smidgy has her pillow, her back is now to me but at least her seat belt is still on.
Kinda funny about the seat belts, I remember back in '92
on our first trip down with the kids, they only had to put the belts on
when we went through a city.
How times and thoughts have changed.
Shoot, for that matter, when I was a kid we would have been riding down the highway
sitting in the bed of a pickup!
Playing basketball!
And wrestling!
But right now, at close to ten in the morning in the southern part of the Peach State, I have a problem.
My tailbone is just screaming, I think from all the rain driving and not used to being a passenger with the stupid
Atlas on my lap I've been sitting funny.
Allright, since it's not raining out and the storm is gone,
I can deal with this in my usual way.
And I had prepared myself for just this emergency, by putting two in my
jeans pocket before we left the motel.
The thing is, I didn't want Diane to know I took any this
morning, and I'm not really sure why.
Maybe it because she thinks I overdo them, but right now
I just want to take the two in my pocket without her seeing me.
I look in my styrofoam cup and there's about 4 drops of coffee left in it.
Crap, this I didn't plan for!
I'll make it do.
But how to get them out of my left front jeans pocket?
Sitting down, these are really tight, no way can you get
your hand inside.
Ok, all of you sitting there at home or work at your computer in your jeans, pretend you have a couple of pills in your left pocket right now, and imagine trying to get them out without changing your position much.
Not too easy, is it?
And while I've got you doing stupid things, with the index finger of your right hand pointed, make large circles with your right hand in a counter clockwise motion in the air, then lean back and do the same thing with your right foot at the same time.
While you are doing this, reverse the direction of just your foot and now go clockwise.
Almost hurt yourself, didn't ya?
I got my thumb in there, but it still couldn't reach the pills, so I had to switch my position and lean way
over to the right and straighten my left leg, I also have to now hold my breath because I'm so close to Smidgy's head now, leaning this far over,
I couldn't have done it with out the cruise control.
While I'm doing this, I coyly glance to my right to make sure she was'nt disturbed.
However, all this movement threw the car's aim off just a tad, and my correcting it
made just a little bit of a jerk back to the left.
This slight jerk was just enough to make Smidgy's head pop up
and look around, just as I had gotten one out and popped it into my mouth.
She reminded me of "Whack a Mole."
Or better yet:
Do do, do do, do dodododo, do do, do do, do doo, do.
Do do, do do, do dodododo, Pop, goes the Smidgy.
She looked at me and asked, "You ok?" I nodded and smiled.
Coyly.
Might have overdone the coyly part this time.
She turned back to the door.
Whew, close call, but this delay has this thing already
beginning to disolve and I still need to get the other one out. Nothing worse than a pill that starts dissolving prematurelyin your mouth!
I repeated the same procedure, this time if the car went a little bit off course,, so be it, there's 3 lanes here and I'll use em all if I have to.
This time it went off smoothly, and the 4 coffee drops and saliva eventually got them down.
Then I settle back in for the long drive, I know releif is going to come in a half hour, yes, that's how long they take.
And I pulled it off without Smidgy knowing about it, hey, she doesn't come and tell me
every time she has a drink.
Always important to justify it when you do something you
don't want your partner to know, but I pulled it off! I mentally patted myself on the back.
"Hope you feel better soon."
Darn!
And on we go.
I'm still fairly anxious concerning the car, my nerves are still razor thin and with that rumbling noise constantly reminding me I have a huge car repair bill coming up in the best case scenario, I'm also still not trusting that tire.
I'm an equal opportunity worrier.
Does it seem like the car is pulling again to the right?
Or am I imagining it?
One way to find out.
I normally drive in the center lane through Georgia and Florida, I leave the left for the real speeders with
radar who want to pass, the right lane for trucks and cars merging.
Nobody near me right now, so I let go of the wheel.
The car goes straight, but slowly starts sliding over to the right side of the center lane I'm in, I put it back on course.
Do it again.
Same thing happens, hmmm, I think about it:
Now, almost all roads are "crowned", they should slant to the right to let the rainwater run off and not just sit there.
Plus, the alignment of most cars is supposed to drift a little bit to the right,,,,kind of like a "dead man's handle" on a freight train, this way, if the driver falls asleep, the car will run off the road to the right rather than head into the oncoming traffic. Of course, in England and Jamaica it's the other way, they will veer to the left.
In Canada, they don't pull either way cuz everybody just drives down the middle no matter what way your going,
that's why there are so few Canadians compared to Americans.
Eh?
Bottom line, what I'm experiencing is more than likely exactly how everything is supposed to be, right now.
Or the tire IS low and hissing again.
I let go one more time.
"If you don't put your hands back on the wheel I'm going to get out at
the next rest area and hitch a ride to Disney on the first Harley that comes along!"
Scared the crap out of me!
And on we go.
When we reached Valdosta, I remembered our very first drive down in '92 with the boys;
We had stayed the night before in Stockbridge, by the time we reached Valdosta everyone
was hungry so we got off the highway and went for breakfast.
They had an all you can eat buffet, which Diane, myself and the oldest son, Todd were going to get.
Of course, now younger son, Jeremy wants it now, too.
He barely eats,, I was hoping he'd just want pancakes and that would be it.
Oh no, he wants it all, " I can eat plenty, Dad."
Ok, we paid the extra for him too.
We all went up to the buffet, gave the kids plates and told them to "go for it".
The three of us ended up back at the table, but Jeremy is still up there filling up his plate.
"This has got to be good", I thought.
Finally, he came back with his breakfast.
On his plate was one of those little cereal boxes of Sugar Pops.
And an apple.
That's it.
Yep, the restaurant took a beating on that one!
But it's now 19 years later, no kids.
We did look for that place about 8 years ago, but couldn't find it, can't remember what exit it was.
Finally, at last, we are through Valdosta, and see the Florida Welcome Center.
This was a huge ego booster and mood booster for me, we finally made it to Florida!
It was like Smidgy sensed it too, her head shot up, looked around and she sat back up normal.
It seemed brighter out, I leaned forward and looked up below the rearview mirror.
Off in the SE, there is now a small patch of the most beautiful cerulean blue beginning to part the stratus clouds like Moses parting the Red Sea.
My spirits soared! I even almost smiled!
Then it started to rain.
I couldn't believe it, it just won't let us be happy, but on we went.
A fill up in Lake City, which happens almost every trip, and I know I'm not filling up again until we come home.
It does seem that this stretch of the road is governed a bit different than how 75 was in Georgia.
Maximum speed is 70 through both states, I usually punch in 75 on the cruise control
and I'm not bothered by cops, and it's fast enough for staying in the middle lane.
Florida?
Uh uh.
You want to do only 75 on Rt. 75 you had better be in the right lane.
Gee, I wonder what happens over on RT. 95 over to the East?
I bump it up to a tad shy of 80, set it again.
But what happens a lot is I end up with my foot also on the gas, and am pretty much going close to 85
most of the
time in Florida. Yes, gas milage goes right out the window!
The rain just keeps starting and stopping all teh way to the turnpike, there it turned into a constant light
shower, it was mainly just annoying.
The turnpike is mostly just 2 lanes, I normally stayed in the right lane like you're supposed to but I came
across a small truck going a little bit slower than I was, and wanted, to go.
The problem was, he didn't have rain guards on his truck, and sent up an incredible amount of water worse
than 4 18 wheelers on the highway in the storm. I tried to pass him a couple
of times but I just couldn't see from his spray, Diane was white knuckling it again.
Finally, I tried once more and got by him, I couldn't see but the road seemed like it was going straight before I went for it.
We both breathed a very familiar sigh of relief again, then two miles up
we see the "Pay Toll" sign. Not having a Florida transponder I have to
go to the far right and pay the manual way.
Slowing down, I pulled up to the toll booth and a large, serious looking woman leaned out of the opening with her hand out.
"Yes, I'd like two Big Macs and two small fries, nothing to drink."
She just stared a hole right through me and I quickly handed over the money and took off.
I glanced at Smidgy and she's doing that squeeze the eyes shut as tight as you can thing
and shaking her head back and forth.
"What, did you want a quarter pounder instead?"
Back on the road, I realized what just transpired.
No, not with the toll booth, but that truck that we came to call
the 'Splash Monster' had a SUNPASS, he didn't have to stop and once again he's ahead of us, spraying
his camoflage smoke and water screen so we can't pass.
The car in front of me pulled into the left lane, started to pass, then backed off, tried again, backed off again.
I wasn't the only one!
Finally, it disappeared in a cloud of mist and since I didn't see any wreckage later, I assumed he made it.
Smidgy said, "This is fine, we really don't need to pass him."
No, it wasn't fine for me.
Up ahead, I saw my chance!
Waiting till just the right moment, loud exhaust be damned, I floored it.
The spray from his truck was noticably less like I thought it would be, we passed and settle back into the right lane.
After a moment, Smidgy said, "Ok, what happened to most of the spray from that guy, and how did you know it would be a lot less?"
"Elementary my dear, I simply waited until we had reached the top of the small summit that we just came up,
there will be a lot less rainwater sitting on the road at the top of a hill than there is on a flat surface because of run-off, he just ran out of ammo to spray us with!"
At last, it's our exit, we are now on 429 heading south, then one more toll and it's "DisneyWorld next exit."
It was at this exact moment it stopped raining.
Then the sun came out!
We took the Western Way to Buena Vista Drive to Caribbean Beach Resort Drive and made a right into heaven.
A little up ahead I stop at the guard/gate house, and an older man walks out and comes up
to the window.
As I got close I made sure to coast up to the guardhouse cuz now at these low speeds the car is back to deafening.
With the engine now turned off, I looked at the man.
"Yes, I'd like two Quarter Pounders with Cheese, two,,,,OOF!"
Man, is she getting fast with that left elbow!
I handed him my license and he went back inside.
I turned to her:
"What, now you wanted a Big and Tasty?"
He came back, smiled and told us follow the road along to the custom house to check in.
This is the only resort I believe on property that has an entirely separate check-er-in-er building.
But, wow, we are finally here after the longest drive down we have ever had!
I parked in a limited time parking spot, got out and just stood there for a moment looking around.
Yes, with a big, silly grin on my face.
Only Disney can do this to a person.
I looked at Diane and see we are sharing the same grin.
Then we turn to go inside.
Usually, the guard will tell you, "Welcome home," and even though this guy didn't this time, he didn't have to.
We KNEW we were finally home!
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The Beast roared in anger, then went back to feeding on it's latest corpse.
No, it's not going to forget, and it knows it has time, after all:
what goes down must come back up!
. Smidgy HOW do you live with him
Gah, my first thought might have ben interpreted in a perverse manner. At least my inner edit worked this time!
I don't recall anyone mentioning a straight jacket...Right
Not yet anyway.
