We took Y out of school on Thursday and again today on Monday so that we could travel to see our relatives on Bill's side of the family in both Alabama and Georgia.
Not exactly a cheap trip, we paid about $120 for gas, $100 for food, $337 for puppy/cat in-house sitting, $136 for our youngest dog to be boarded at the kennel (he has to stay in his crate when we leave the house and 22hrs/day in a crate is just cruel), and $300 to make Bill's car trip ready (oil change, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, air-conditioner filter for the air-conditioner that cools the hybrid engine, wiper blades and a good cleaning). Just under $1
ooo total for a five day trip.
I sure
could've used that to pay some bills, but
Y had never met anyone on that side of the family and I hadn't seen anyone on that side for at least 5 years.
Y got to meet two of his babushkas (grandma), one of his
dyedushkas (grandpa), three
tyotyas (aunts), two
dyadyas (uncles), and three
koozins (cousins), plus several neighbors and friends of theirs, as well as two little doggies, two big doggies, a cat and a bird.
Y really made out, too. He came home with about $60. He earned $20 for helping Uncle Keith and his friend Terry clear out a lot next to Terry's house and he got the other $40 from his nice Aunties. He also got some cash in the Easter Egg Hunt, but he gave that to his cousin Mike for Mike's birthday. We won't even mention all the candy he ate while we were away and all the candy that came home with him in the car. Oh, and Uncle Keith gave him a fishing pole, too!
Y seems to think he's going to get to buy anything he wants with his money. He needs some fishing bait and tackle, and we know he wants video games. I wonder how far he thinks that $60 will go?
It took about 10 hours to drive from TX to
southeastern Alabama. We got there early Thursday and left around midnight Friday night to avoid storms in Georgia. It took about 8 hours to drive to the Atlanta area, getting there early Saturday morning. We left Georgia at about 9pm Sunday night. We had to get back to get Goofy out of lock-up, Bill needed to go on a job interview and
Y needed some time at home before going back to school tomorrow morning. He still needs to do his homework, too.
We had a good time visiting with Bill's dad, stepmother and uncle in AL.
Y had an especially good time playing with Buster and
VZ (
VanZandt). Who knew Buster could make it around the block in five minutes without his little paws spewing smoke?
Y took him on his
rollerblades and poor Buster was tired for the rest of the trip. We also went fishing where
Y, Papa,
Dyedushka and
Dyadya caught over a dozen small fish. The first few were hooked by Papa or Uncle Keith, and
Y reeled them in. Quickly though, he was baiting, casting, hooking and reeling his own fish. The hardest part was convincing
Y that you had to throw them back in the lake. They were too small and too polluted by the local paper mill to eat. We visited the Gulf of Mexico, too, but
Y had to practically be drug down to the water. He refused to take off his shoes and walk on the sand and put his toes in the surf. Too bad he had to shake his shoes out for five minutes after we got back to the car. I tried to warn him!
When we got to Atlanta,
Y was quickly squeezed, hugged and tickled by several aunts who had been dying to see him. Aunt Ellen, Aunt Jeannie & Uncle Brian and cousins Nicole and
Kamryn (and Russ, too!), all live on the same street; all within five houses of each other. So, we spent the weekend walking in and out of
everyone's houses and sitting on the porches until the dead of night. I was so tired, I think my head didn't even hit the pillow before I was asleep on Saturday night. That was the first time Bill and I slept in a double bed in over 10 yrs. Boy was that interesting when you're used to a king sized bed. I kept waking up and trying to push him away, but he was already at the edge of the bed.
Aunt Margaret and cousin Mike came over from the other side of town to add to the festivities.
Y is now fully versed in the proper way to give a handshake now, thanks to Russ and Mike. He can't do it without laughing his little butt off, though. Saturday was spent mostly catching up on the last several years, and ended with
Y's first ever egg coloring with
Kamryn. They both looked like they were trying to turn into the Incredible Hulk by the end of the night with all that dye. Sunday started with Easter baskets, waffles for breakfast and a trip to the lake house. Jeannie and Brian have a cottage they built on Lake
Oconoee (
sp?). Of course, we had to take a trip around the lake on the pontoon boat.
Y's highlight was that Uncle Brian let him drive the boat around for over thirty minutes as we checked out all the cool houses on the lake. Someday we'll have one, too!
We even got pictures of everyone, and I mean everyone last night. Could someone please send us a copy of the 'everyone together' photo? We already had our car packed up and ready to go when that picture was finally taken. A pretty good time was had by all, although
Y was getting really annoyed with all the posing for pictures last night.
We left Atlanta at about 9pm; Bill and I took turns driving and sleeping. We were about halfway through Alabama on I20 when a
thunderstorm hit. Bill yelled out when he saw a car ahead of him spinning around on the road. I woke up in time to see the guy's bumper sitting in the center lane. His car had hit the guardrail about 1000 feet down the interstate. We could see his airbags had blown and his car was pretty much totalled. Bill pulled over safely, called 911 and got out of our car to check on the other driver in the pouring rain. Turns out his was shaken, but okay. Just as Bill was getting back into our car, we heard another crash behind us. It seems someone had tried to stop for the bumper in the road and the car behind them did not stop. We figured it was best to get out of there before we were hit, too.
Just as we were speeding up, and before we saw the next mile marker, our headlights hit on another object at the side of the road. There was an overturned SUV or truck down in the ditch. So, we made another call to 911. They said, "Oh, we already got that call," and Bill said, "No, there's another overturned car about half a mile away from the first accident. Bill did not go check on the second driver because it was pouring buckets again and he said he wanted to get us out of there before we became casualties of the weather. It was really dark there, so we couldn't see if that driver was out of their vehicle or not. I thought we should have stopped, but less than one minute later we saw the ambulance and fire truck racing down the highway. So, our checking on them probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. We did stop at the next
intersection so Bill could get a dry shirt out of the luggage in back of the car. We will never know, I guess.
Gotta go make dinner now.
Natalie
TX
