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I made it back from the wilds of Alabama!

I know that I should have started packing the night before I left, I really should have, but I didn't. LOL I waited until Friday morning to throw a few things in my suitcase.

I'm a pretty light packer, I can pack for a whole week trip in just a carry on suitcase. Taz never wanted to check luggage so I had to learn to keep to the basics and only take one suitcase and the lessons have just taken hold over the years so I don't think I could overpack even if I wanted to. The hardest part of packing to stay in someone else's house is figuring out what to do about pajamas. I don't wear anything when I sleep at home but that seems a little dangerous under someone else's roof and I can never figure out what to wear that'll keep me decent while not feeling restrictive. It's a never ending battle and, as you'll see, I didn't get it figured out this trip either.

That's Charlie looking all sad next to my bag. She didn't know she'd be coming along.

Ok, I may not have had a lot of luggage but I do seem to have an excessive amount of car cups. The one on the right contains the smoothie I made for breakfast (complete with all sorts of vegetables and I really liked it - go me!) while the one on the left is actually Charlie's travel cup full of water, middle is something for me to drink when the smoothie ran out. Yes, I like pink - why do you ask?

I had a little trouble getting out the door. It was my only "blonde" moment of the whole trip but boy, it was a triple blonde moment.

So, I walked to the door, keys in hand with Charlie already on her leash, and then decided I wanted to take a hair tie to put in my pocket in case having it down was going to be too hot. Walked back into the bathroom to get the tie and noticed my deodorant still sitting on the counter which meant that I hadn't packed it and probably hadn't even used it yet. Traveling in the deep south in August without deodorant is a baaaad idea. 

So I had to take off my whole shirt to put it on, put the shirt back on, threw the deodorant in an open bag and headed back to the door.

Well shit, where are my car keys? Trudged back to the bathroom (dragging Charlie along on her leash) and yes, there were the car keys.

Ok, time to blow this popsicle stand. Out to the car and...crap! I had forgotten my smoothie. Back to the kitchen and no smoothie in sight...oh yeah, there is the handle dangling from my fingers. I had it with me all along.

Fouth time out the door was indeed the charm but by this time I was hot and sweaty and frazzled. At least there was no one around to witness the past 10 minutes. That's why I just told you all about it!  I would hate to keep all that fun to myself. :-)

After all that I got on the road and everything was delightful. There was no traffic to speak of. In fact, I had a hard time keeping my speed under 90 the whole way.

2 1/2 hours into the trip we made our first stop at a Rest Area so that both Charlie and I could take care of business. At that point I decided to take a picture of my feet, as one does, so that I could post something to Instagram about the open road. I have committed to posting a picture a day for the whole year and I sometimes run out of creative ideas and have to improvise. Don't judge.

I'm thrilled to report that I survived all that driving without crying. Usually long drives start me thinking and the tears start rolling. This time, about an hour and a half into the drive, I was following a line of thoughts that made me teary but I firmly stopped thinking those things and focused on something else. This was a hard enough trip, I didn't need to spend it sobbing.

My next stop, 2 hours later, was a cute Vietnamese restaurant that Taz and I loved. It's right off the Interstate in nowheresville Florida but their food is amazing. My little sis (she's really my niece but we're practically the same age so I've promoted her to sister) drove an hour to meet me there. She'd never had Vietnamese food before and was nervous about trying it, fully prepared to just sit there and watch me eat if she couldn't find anything that sounded good. Never fear, she decided grilled steak and shrimp over rice couldn't be too weird and ended up loving it. I had grilled pork and shrimp over noodles (pictured above) and it was delicious. I wish this place wasn't so far away, I would go there every week.

She and I followed each other the rest of the way (90 minutes) to her home town where I ended up going clothes shopping before even making it to my brother in law's house.

But that deserves its own blog post so stay tuned!