Brigid and I departed Tucson around 5am on Saturday. We drove through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas that day. We stopped driving in Fort Worth, TX, and stayed in a very questionable hotel. There were no hotel locks on the door, so we piled up any luggage we brought in in front of the door. The only exciting thing that happened on the first day was Brigid falling asleep while driving and drifting across the rumble strip. This woke both of us up and we were very alert for about 4 hours afterwards. Here is a picture of Texas:

This is what Texas looks like 99% of the time we were driving. I don't know if I believe that there are actual things in Texas beyond fast food joints and gas stations.

We got up early on Sunday morning and headed to Scottsboro, AL to the Unclaimed Luggage Store. We were very excited about this place because we had seen it on the Travel Channel and it seemed like a cool place -- like the world's largest garage sale! We drove for several hours before stopping in Louisiana for breakfast at Mom's Diner. Mom's Diner was sharing space with the local casino, and turned out to have a very interesting bathroom (a pivotal subject for Brigid). The toilet rocked to the side when you sat down. It swayed a long way to each side. I braced my hand against the wall of the toilet stall for the duration (and I made sure it was short). I had the specialty of the house (the wise decision when in a strange and new place), and Brigid had french toast. The manager of this place was talking about her miscarriage when she was 15 while Brigid was paying her bill. The manager was about 20 years old, and had a very tiny head on top of her very skinny neck. It was quite the cast of characters at the diner.. and they may have been related very closely to each other. I couldn't understand anything anyone said to me - Brigid had to translate. I can usually catch most of what people say, but my ability in this area completely departed while touring the south. Over and over again, I had to ask Brigid what someone had just said to me. It was bad.

Gambling is legal in Louisiana, and we passed many casinos. The one next to Mom's Diner was typical -- a very informal place.

You notice that there is a black smudge under "Casino" -- this says: Gambling problem? Call 1-800-blah blah. This message had to be under every single sign for a gambling establishment in the state. I saw a lot of ads for Gambler's Anonymous.

We arrived that night in Scottsboro, AL, ready to visit the Unclaimed Luggage Store. After vetoing the first hotel we found, we finally got a room at a Days Inn, next to a Western Sizzlin buffet restaurant. Brigid translated the price of the room for me (I didn't understand when the girl said "fittysi," which was "$56"), and we got our room and went to the buffet place for dinner. I was so desperate to eat something other than road food, I had a huge plate of vegetables -- not a hardship, since the south is the place to get good vegetables. I was right too! I had black eyed peas, squash and onions, kick ass greenbeans, okra, and carrots. The carrots were terrible. Everything else was great! I also had two fried chicken wings, which were also terrific.

We got up on Monday morning and went to Goodwill, just so I could check it out. Then the Unclaimed Luggage Store. What a total disappointment. It was totally overpriced. They had some nice stuff, but, for example, I am not going to buy a second hand Coach bag that is not clean, for $200! Not a chance! Brigid was also very disappointed. We resumed the road trip.

We stopped in Tennessee somewhere for barbecue for lunch. It was superb. Then, we were driving along and saw a sign for a Coach Outlet. We decided to stop and ended up spending 3 hours at the outlet mall. Brigid bought a beautiful Coach bag, and a few other items. I held myself together and didn't buy anything.

I drove the rest of the way home and, except for running over a recently dead deer, things went very smoothly. The car smelled really bad after that deer, but I was just grateful that I hadn't been the cause of death. We arrived at the house at midnight, and went almost directly to bed (I had to call Ron and let him know that we had made it home before I could collapse into bed).

I flew home on Tuesday afternoon, after spending about 30 minutes with my mother and a little more time with my dad. It wasn't a relaxing visit. The plane ride home was terrible, mostly because I was completely upset about Brigid moving home. Ron picked me up and went home and directly to bed. I am still a little tired and out of it.

On Wednesday, I went for my very first mountain bike ride -- it was a lot of fun, but I did crash twice. My friend brought her husband's bike for me to use and everything went fairly smoothly. We did the Bunny Trail at a local mountain bike area and there wasn't anything too challenging. I don't know how I managed to crash, it just happened so fast! Here are some pictures of my wounds:


The guys' last day of school was yesterday. We are officially on summer vacation. Today was a tough day -- getting used to having the guys at home all the time is tough. Andy has been dying to make cookies on his own, so I finally said that he could this afternoon. It started very promisingly when Andy chose a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips. I let him do it all by himself, and I went out to ride my bike around the block. I could only go a certain distance since everyone was at home, so around the block I went, so that if they needed me, I could be found pretty easily. When I came home (early because of a flat tire), we fired up the oven and put in the cookies. When I pulled them out, we tasted them and something was not right. It wasn't right at all. After much dissection of Andy's cookie technique, I found that instead of using 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda, Andy had added in 1/3 CUP of baking soda. The cookies were a little salty and dry. We have disposed of them.

Tuesday, the summer schedule for swim team begins. I am trying to get Andy and Benjamin into the 11-14 age group for practice because otherwise, I will be at the pool from 8am to 8:45am (for Elias's and James's practice) and then from 12:00 to 1:00pm for Andy and Benjamin. If they practice with the older group, I would be at the pool from 6:45am to 9am, straight, which would be way better. I will let you know how it goes!