Oof... Back From Our Ramblings

All three of us made it back from Texas in one piece, and a wonderful time was had by all. That includes Baby Desch, who was patted by each one of his/her aunts and other friends as well. Josh and I made the long drive in two shifts, and wow, it was long.

We set out from Augusta on Thursday night with a goal of stopping for the night in Tuscaloosa, AL. I drove the first leg since Josh was really sleepy from our lack of sleep the previous nights. I for some reason had energy, so I volunteered to take the first shift. We rented a car from Enterprise to spare our Honda Civic the nearly 2,000 mile round trip. (Our Civic deserved a vacation in the driveway for the long weekend since he puts up with the demands of serving a one car family.) We climbed into our Kia Spectra, which was a good bit bigger than our car, and headed out to the interstate. I got the car up to a good cruising speed and started to look for the cruise control button. It was nowhere to be found. I asked Josh to get out the instruction book so we could find that elusive little button, since my foot was already starting to hurt with only 10 minutes of driving behind us (I know that's pathetic) in what turned out to be a 15 hour journey. Josh got out the book and found where the cruise control button SHOULD be, but the catch was in the phrase "in equipped models." Yes folks, that's correct. The cruel people at Enterprise sent us on a 2,000 mile journey in a car with no cruise control. Needless to say that was not the ideal beginning for the trip. I LOVE cruise control. Actually having to push the pedal on the interstate? That is so 1950. So as I drove, my speed ranging anywhere from 60-85 mph because of my foot actually having to do work and forgetting/overcompensating. Anyway, I eventually got over that. The Kia did come equipped to plug in ipods, so I guess it was a good trade-off.

We had orders from our doctor's office to stop every hour and a half and walk around for 10 minutes. Since I am starting to enter danger zone as a walking time bomb, we took their advice seriously and stopped often. Besides, my bladder can't make it much longer than that anyway. I can't remember if I've blogged about my cankles or not, but I am now finding myself the embarassed owner of cankles. For those of you who don't know about cankles, it's when your calves sort of run into your ankles and feet in an unpleasant way, and you don't really have ankles or calves anymore by themselves. The culprit of this unpleasant phenomenon is swelling, which plagues pregnant women of every stage, but it seems to get worse and worse. My feet were so big at some points during this trip that they looked like you could pop them with a pin. My sister Emily, who is about 24 weeks pregnant, referred to her feet this weekend as "sausages." The problematic cankles are worsened if you don't change positions frequently, such as getting up and moving or getting off your feet if you've been standing. Hence the instructions from the doctor. So needless to say the trip was a little slow going, but we enjoyed getting out at sketchy gas stations and running around a little. In the process of stopping we got somewhat of a tour of bathrooms of the South, which was quite alarming at times.

One of our favorite moments from the drive was going through Chunky, Mississippi. That's right, the name of an exit off of the interstate was Chunky. There didn't seem to be much to Chunky, which is a shame. I would have liked to stop in a town named Chunky. We also drove through Talledega County in Alabama, the home of the famed Talledega Superspeedway. I could almost feel the Nascar excitement in the air. There is also a Talledega National Forest, for your information.

We ended up getting into Lindale, Texas around dinner time on Friday night. We waited for the rest of our family to show up, and finally everyone did trickle in. My sister Emily and brother-in-law Rob were the last ones to arrive, having driven for the last 22 hours. Yeesh. We all stayed at these cabins on the property of the country club where Chris and Marnie were hosting the festivities. Now let me tell you about these cabins. It is generous to call them "rustic." They looked like they had been built in the 70s or so, with no updates since then. Suffice it to say that we weren't exactly staying in the lap of luxury, but we had such a wonderful time anyway. I am still reminded of those cabins right this second because my feet seem to have found their way into a fire ant nest in the parking lot, and those ants went crazy on my toes and ankles. Silly fire ants. They must just bite to be spiteful.

We had such a wonderful time. Marnie and Chris hosted a truly delightful weekend. We enjoyed meeting Chris's very large, crazy family, and we both loved hanging out with my sisters, parents, aunt, grandmas, and cousins. It was such a blast. Saturday night Marnie and Chris hosted a beautiful dinner at the country club, after which of course there was some crazy dancing... oh man, that was incredible. My feet hurt so bad for some reason on Saturday night, but the music was so good that at points I just couldn't quit dancing. I think the awards for best, most long-lasting dancing have to go to my sister Emily (keep in mind that she's pregnant too, which makes her achievement even more remarkable), my sister Jennie (she's always a machine at anything involving dancing), my sister Carrie (just give her "Chattahoochee and she'll go to town), and my cousin Adam. Let me pause to talk about my cousin Adam's shirt. He definitely won "Best Dressed." He showed up in a beautiful, bright orange shirt and black dress pants. The shirt reminded me of the walls in our old apartment. It was definitely a show-stopping outfit. Way to go, Adam. You're an inspiration to us all.

There is so much more to say about this trip, but this will have to do for now. It's good to be back in the blogging world.

Have a wonderful day!