It has been another successful day of driving. Really, Melanie and I are quite amazed at how well we and the kids are doing with being in the car for extensive hours each day. I’m quite confident our kids spent more time in the car today than they ever have. They did great.
Most of today was spent driving across Louisiana and eastern Texas. We are now in a hotel just outside of Dallas. Kudos to Melanie for braving the Dallas freeways. I have been in the driver’s seat up until this afternoon, and of course, we hit the worst driving situations we’ve yet encountered. The abundance of interweaving, overcrossing roads left me feeling like I was in one of my recurring nightmares, quite literally. But all is well. We’re now safe at a hotel, and we even took the kids swimming. The main pool was a bit chilly, but the hot tub wasn’t as hot as hot tubs usually are, so the whole family was happy to spend a good chunk of our time in there. I think this was our first hot tub for the boys. They thought the bubbles were quite fun, although Creegan was a bit intimidated at first.
Now for some random tidbits about the last couple of days…
I find it interesting that both our hotel tonight and our hotel yesterday in Mississippi have ceiling fans in the rooms. We’re at normal hotels. Nothing fancy, nothing quaint. I’ve never encountered this before. It’s nice.
No burgers today. Complimentary breakfast at the hotel this morning, Subway in Shreveport, Louisiana for lunch, and Taco Bell / KFC hybrid for dinner here in Dallas Lake. I’ve been happy to diversify.
I did shed tears today. This change is hard. Last night as I lay in bed, I wondered if we had made the wrong choice to move. I thought of the people I was losing from my life and thought moving might not be worth it. It’s depressing.
Edison threw up last night. Too many treats, I think. He threw up around 11:30 p.m. When he woke me up to tell me, I felt like it was the middle of the night and I had been asleep for several hours instead of just one. I think that means I was sleeping quite well. The hotel mattress was very firm, but it felt so good. I dreamed about a cruel, demeaning mother who forced her teenage son to act like a dog. She would make him do things to earn treats. For example, she put a treat thing on his shoulder and made him try to flip it into his own mouth. It was meant to belittle him, and it did. She was also a very religiously “pious” and “devout” person. I didn’t remember until I was telling Melanie about it that I had recently compared some attitudes I see in certain religious cultures to be like unto “obedient dogs.” I also dreamed I was applying for a job at 7-Eleven. Probably not a good sign, psychologically speaking.
Some creep was staying in the room next to us last night. Thankfully, his being next door didn’t affect us. I saw him in the lobby checking in with his daughter (approximately 6 years old). He would swear every few words, but he seemed to think he was incredibly charming. That’s the attitude he seemed to have, like he thought he was funny or something. When his daughter rang the bell at the front desk, he told her to “stop ringing that f---ing bell.” Charming, don’t you think? Melanie told me later that she encountered him on the elevator. Melanie had our three boys with her, and this man had his daughter with him. The girl had apparently just been swimming and was in a swimsuit. The guy kept trying to get my boys to check out his daughter, asking repeatedly, “Boys, look at her. Do you think she’s hot?” This is a guy that should probably be decked in the face, for one reason or another. Very disturbing behavior. I’m still bothered by it. I’m glad my kids are shy enough that they just ignored him, but I feel like this man violated every single person on that elevator. What a shitface.
There is a QuikTrip (AKA QT) gas station across the street from our hotel tonight. QT was the gas station Melanie and I always went to when we lived in Atlanta. It was the best. When we saw it, Melanie got all giddy and squealed in excitement. We stopped there for fountain drinks, and I secretly wondered if it could really be all that special now that we’re six years removed from going to QT on a regular basis. In Atlanta, they by far had the best fountain drinks, but that was back before we drank diet beverages. I also thought to myself that you kind of get used to what you have, and I honestly wondered if I would taste a drink from QT and find myself thinking, “Nope, our Circle K in Tallahassee is better.” Well, holy crap, the Diet Mountain Dew on tap at this QT here in Dallas Lake, Texas is the best “Fountain Dew” I think I’ve ever had. They really are superior! How can gas stations vary so much? What is the magical QT touch? I’m half-tempted to set an alarm and go out for a Fountain Dew in the middle of the night, knowing this is probably the last QT I’ll encounter for perhaps the rest of my life.
That’s it for today. G’night.
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