LA to NC Road Trip... Uggggggh

So, I'll try and be as brief as I can... but those of you who know me will already know that doesn't happen often!

Cory and I flew down there into Ontario, Andrew picked us up for the airport and briefly showed me around town, where his wife Brandi used to work, the town and such, and then we headed back to their place to grab a bite to eat and load up the car. Andrew's wife and daughter were going to fly over there after a couple days, so it was going to be us three adults and their little dog Elsie... in the Suburban and towing the Mazda - Hummmmm, interesting times ahead!

That road trip was both awesome, and a nightmare all at the same time... It was good times for "The Three Amigos" but I tell ya, it was one helluva drive... We were very thankful that we'd put the blow up mattress in the back of the suburban for a 'sleeping' area, and had just crammed everything into the Mazda so we didn't have a crap ton of stuff in the suburban with us... I would be more thankful for that later on than I realised.

As soon as we hit the desert I started to just feel ill... really ill. I knew that since I was a true Irish girl and wasn't too fond of the heat it probably wouldn't be my ideal environment, but I didn't ever really think it would be so terrible... I was nauseous all the time, and the only thing I could do to not have to pull over every 10 minutes was try to sleep, so Elsie and I snuggled up in the back seat of the suburban and tried to sleep as much as possible... The poor boys had to do all the driving, and I was about as much help to them as a chocolate teapot.

Anyway, long story short, we drove as far as we could in one foul swoop but decided that we would need to spend at least one night in a hotel, so we could all get a decent sleep in a bed, and could have a nice hot shower too, so we planned our stop for Amarillo...

As we got near, the sun was setting and we all wanted to see Car Henge before dark... it was close, but we managed it. Right as we pulled in the sun was fading fast, but it was so worth it, and it was really nice to just stretch our legs. After that we headed to the hotel, got washed up and went in search of dinner. So, being in Texas, we wanted to eat at a Texas Steak House... and we found the closest one... they closed just a few minutes before we got there... just our luck... So, needing food we decided that TGI Friday's would do it and headed there... So much for us being able to see a bit of the town that evening. We were all SO exhausted that we ate dinner and went back to the hotel to sleep as much as we could, since we had planned an early start in the morning.

It was so nice to sleep in a real bed, and to have a nice hot shower... I could have easily stayed another night, but we had a lot of miles still ahead of us, so we wanted to get cracking on those.

We got a quick bite to eat, filled up with petrol, got coffee's and headed out of town... it was a foggy cold morning.... We got a few miles out of town and the bonnet started smoking... Uh Oh! That's not a good sign. We pull up on the side of the road, and for sure, we're overheating... Crap!

So, we add as much water as we had on with us, and let it cool down, then get back in the car(s) and drive to the next exit in search of water or services... nothing. Just a farm house. So, we get water from there, and are told by a service guy nearby that there's a "LOVES" not too far... we head there. They don't have the parts we need, and now we're just getting frustrated because we're wasting time.... We find out there's a parts store in Claude. Where the heck is Claude? What the heck is Claude? Well, we call ahead, and they have the part, so we make our way there.... there is NOTHING ELSE in Claude! We grab the part, the boys do a makeshift repair and we get back on the road... I'm pretty sure, even though it was unsaid, we were all just hoping we wouldn't have to make any further stops or repairs...

The makeshift repair worked perfectly, and so long as we kept the water topped up we were able to keep plodding along at 60 MPH... If we were lucky we got up to 65 ish... no kidding!

I continued to sleep as much as I could, since I was still feeling pretty crappy, and we still has another 1200 miles (ish) left to go... we were thinking about the possibility of making one more overnight stop, possibly in Tennessee... but we'd see how things were going at that point. We were all very eager to just get there already, and I was kind of bummed about being ill already for the whole trip...

The further we drove, the funnier everything got... and I mean EVERYTHING... We kept finding ourselves laughing hard about things that probably wouldn't usually even make us crack a smile... Yep, we were going crazy!

We kept driving... I-40 is one LONG ASS road, and while I am kind of fond of it after spending all that time there, I don't think I'd be too sad if I never had to drive on it again... At some point, and I can't quite remember clearly when the "aha!" moment was, but we realised that since we were not going at the max speed the whole time, our journey would actually take us a lot longer than we had estimated... Drat!

So, we decided to keep driving, so we could just get there as quickly as possible... Cory and Andrew took turns switching out driving/sleeping... Elsie and I tried to sleep as much as we could to pass the time (and keep me from being ill), and we tried to stop as little as possible... Not as easy as you might think. It didn't matter if I took a bathroom break when we stopped for petrol, I still needed to stop half way in between every other stop... I guess I was drinking all those fluids to try and avoid becoming dehydrated or something, anyway, I felt bad for everyone else, but I couldn't help it! When you gotta go, you've gotta go!

We keep passing State lines, which was awesome, it meant we were getting somewhere... Some states seemed misproportionally (is that even a word) longer than others, but we kept passing state lines and eventually the scenery started to look more green, more alive, fresher and much less desert like! YAY - I was not a fan of the desert (and it was not a fan of me either)....

I think my heart actually skipped a beat when we passed from Tennessee into North Carolina... I was so excited! The end was now in sight... The road sign said we had just 52 more miles to go... They turned out to be a LONG 52 miles!

We were all on the lookout for exit 46... and exit 46 was signposted... LOTS... it seemed like it was posted forever, and we were starting to think this exit wasn't real and we would never actually find it! Grrrrrrr

... and then, like a building rising out of the fog, it was there... Exit 46 was the next exit... we were very excited to get off I-40 and into town!!!

We follow the map and pull into Andrew's new street, and as we drive down the little road the mood lifts - we had made it, we were there... the Three Amigos had survived!We all jump out, stretch, let Elsie have a drink and then we have to unload the Mazda from the trailer...

Well, what should have been an easy task, well, wasn't... it was fairly funny to watch though! Andrew jumped into the Mazda, started her up, straightened up and tried to back off the trailer... nothing.... tried again... nothing!

Whoops, then Cory realised that they chain was still attached... so he hops under there, unhooks the chain and we try again... Andrew lines up the ramps and backs off there - Fantastico!

Here's a summary of our trip in photos, and a little video at the end too... Enjoy!


So, that's pretty much the end of our road trip... It certainly had some good times and some hard times, and I guess, now looking back I should have really realised that I was more unwell than we thought at the time. But like they say, hindsight's 20/20.

It would be less than a month before I was diagnosed, and life for us would be turned upside down...