Bonnie and I loaded the car again and prepared ourselves for the journey from the steamy Atlantic Ocean coast to the middle of the desert planes of Texas. We took route 20 by the horns.
Our journey started at 9am and we pressed on through Columbia and almost to Atlanta when I could no longer stand the cats attitude. Throughout the day I tempted Bonnie to shut up and calm down. She was driving my sanity in the opposite direction. When we stopped for gas, I cracked open some wet cat food and crumbled some sleeping aids on top. To my uneducated self's surprise, she started foaming at the mouth immediately. It didn't cease. She foamed and drooled for nearly 2 minutes. I thought I killed her. Google had let me down. Thankfully, she recovered. Lesson for medicating animals: MIX it in with the food, don't just set it on top.
We passed through Atlanta and straight into a red line of weather. Lightning cracked through the skies while thunder rumbled the car. Bonnie trembled in my lap while fat raindrops shot down from the heavy black clouds. The sun was gone. You would never know it was only noon. Traffic slowed to a crawl, some pulled over and hid under bridges. The weather was gone as quick as it came.
My goal was to get to Birmingham and stay for the night. However, we got there around 2pm and I was wide awake. We kept going--- Meridian---Jackson---
At five in the afternoon, I had passed through Jackson, Mississippi. I stopped for coffee and conversation. I was shocked that I was already past Jackson. The maps say its only 6 hours to my destination. As if I was going to stop for the night--- Too much cream in the coffee upset my stomach.
Its dreadfully uneventful driving through old Mississippi. Vicksburg--- cross the river---
I am getting tired now. But being this close to my destination, how can I justify a $100 hotel room because lets me real, I am not staying in a roach motel by myself!
I keep going. I stop here and there to stretch my legs and try to get the blood flowing in my brain again. The miles pass by slow now.
I make it to Shreveport. Three hours left. I stop again. I had had enough when I crossed the Texas line. My eyes were strained and blood shot, Bonnie was sleeping on my lap. My arms hurt. Its 11pm.
I stopped for a sandwich in Tyler Texas. It helped... momentarily. I got back on the road and off again at the next exit. I called my dad, seeking advice. As I sat at the Pilot Station he told me to take a nap and keep driving, or go up an exit and grab a room. I seriously couldn't muster myself to get a room 2 hours from home. Absurd. I napped.
It was dark but I parked under a light, grabbed my blanket and cat and tried to sleep. I dozed off momentarily. This was the season in Texas of the rains. The rains had been pouring violently in Texas for weeks. Levees were stressed and breaking, floods were raging, roads were closed. One of these storms blew through Tyler while I was asleep in my little economy car.
It woke me up with terror. The car shook and rocked while the rains and winds fell and ripped through the air. The cat stared at me with horror written on her face. It was ferocious. Back and forth the car went while the rain and hail pounded on the roof. You couldn't see out of the windows. Once again, the light was gone except for the strikes of lightening.
I called my dad again to see what I should do now. The rain eased up enough to drive and I couldn't sit at the station anymore. I got back on the road where I fought the weather and resisted the urge to hydroplane the car. I crawled onward.
Onward, I crawled.
I talked to my brother and complained for the next hour. Before I knew it I was turning into the driveway. Safe-Home-Alive- with my family at two in the morning.
I conquered the eastern half of route 20 in one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment