Like a Ball of Snakes in my Legs - Wisconsin Road Trip Day 2

Last night was a terrible night. The beds were hard. They definitely were NOT queen beds, despite what the clerk said. And to top it all off? At about 11pm, I woke up with the worst charley horse I've ever experienced in my life. Pulling my toes back had no effect on lessening the pain. I ended up sitting up in bed (I don't know why... it didn't help at all), just miserable. It felt like an electric ball of snakes in my leg. Pain ran from the cramp all the way up to my butt. I think this personal hell lasted about 10 minutes before my leg stopped cramping enough that I could lay down again. 

To add insult to injury, I woke up at 6am and couldn't fall back asleep. Already, the cold, dry weather was wreaking havoc with my sinuses, so decided to take a hot bubble bath to get some humidity into my face. Afterward, I crawled back in bed to read for a while, while we both charged our phones and tablets. 

We packed up and left around 9:30, getting gas at the Shell across from the hotel, and picking up a sausage biscuit for me at McDonald's. Hubby was feeling a little better after getting some sleep, but he chose to skip breakfast so as to not irritate his tummy again. 

We're starting to see mountains!

Our first planned stop today was a little town called Leeds, in Alabama. I don't know much about Leeds, but I do know that they just got a new gas station... a quaint little shop called Buc-ees. Oh, yes. Buc-ees. Home of Bucky the Beaver, Beaver Nuggets, and the cleanest bathrooms known to man. 

What I didn't realize is that it only opened a few months ago, so it was still crazy busy. 

I'm coming, Bucky, I'm coming!

It. Was. HUGE. According to Bham Now, it is 53,250 square feet. New Braunfels, TX, holds the world record as the biggest Buc-ees at 66,335 square feet. To put that into perspective, a typical "large" RaceTrac convenience store is about 4,000 square feet. This Buc-ees also has 120 gas fueling positions, spread over three pavilions. 

It's HUGE

I drove the truck around the whole parking lot first, to get an idea of the size of it, and just had to stop at the selfie wall before finding an unobtrusive place to park the Penske. 

Road Trip Hair, Don't Care

Once inside, I was completely overwhelmed... It was crowded like the mall on Black Friday. While I could have picked up a shopping cart (yes, this place seriously has shopping carts), I went with a basket instead. My senses were assaulted with so much to see! There's an entire wing of the store that is random sundries like camping gear, outdoor gear, health & body treats (lotions, candles, etc), toys, souvenirs, and, of course, all manner of Buc-ees branded stuff (shirts, towels, plushies, even a Bucky onesie for adults with a hood and tail). The other wing of the store was your typical convenience store, with chips, snacks, etc. In the middle of the store were multiple kiosks with fresh food, including BBQ, fudge, pastries, and jerky. There were coolers that had sandwiches, salads, meats, cheeses, puddings and desserts. Then there was a wall of soda fountains and Icee fountains, and an entire coffee island with a myriad of syrups and creamers. I was blown away by the offerings in this store - even after being prepared for it! We ended up picking up Buc-ees cheese curls, cheese puffs, white cheddar popcorn, sea salt caramels, and beaver nuggets to try (I'll link to our Snack Review post when I finish it).

For lunch, we tried a regional franchise called Jack's. I'd heard of them from a YouTube series called Bless Your Rank and, for the most part, I agree with Matt about his choices, so it seemed like a no-brainer to check them out.  Hubby and I each got a 3-piece chicken tender meal with fries and a drink. The chicken was nice and fresh, and the crinkle fries were amazing! I don't know what seasoning they use, but they were so freakin' good. Both Hubby and I were impressed and would definitely eat there again. 

After lunch, we got back on the road, headed north to Tennessee. Alabama seemed to go on forever (it took another two hours to get from Leeds to the state line). Once in Tennessee, we hit up the Tennessean Truck Stop for some ice (I still had soda left from our last pit stop), a Tennessee magnet, and some ice cream. 

Crossing the Tennessee River

Any kid from the 80s knows about Space Camp!

Welcome to Tennessee

Now, I have to digress here... what do you guys call this type of ice cream cone? 

In my world - a world in which I worked at an ice cream restaurant - these are called Cake cones. When I ordered ice cream at the truck stop, I requested vanilla ice cream in either a Sugar cone or Waffle cone. She gave me my scoop on a Cake cone. I wasn't mad at it, but when I mentioned it to Hubby, he said that this was a Sugar cone. No, darling... this is a Sugar cone:

It's the best type of cone for ice cream. It's solid, it's sturdy, and it tastes the best! 

Anyway, I ate all that ice cream because it was really freakin' good (but it would have been freakin' amazing in a Sugar cone...). 

Once we got into Kentucky, we turned onto Interstate 24, and wow... what a crappy road! Full of patched potholes, plenty of bumps, it was terrible. I stopped at a Pilot Travel Center to pick up a Kentucky magnet, but I couldn't find any, so we got back on the road. 

The mountains are getting bigger!

Welcome to Kentucky

Ten minutes after we got back on the road, I felt some burbling in my tummy... uh oh. I need to find a bathroom. 

And of course, none of the exits we had coming up looked to be heavily populated. But soon, my body said it didn't matter, and I pulled off into this extremely sketchy BP gas station outside of Grand River, Kentucky. I hauled ass into the store, speed-walking to the rear of the place, passing a random old guy just munching on some gas station pizza, who had no idea what my problem was! I did bad things to that poor toilet. Once done, I picked up a bag of local chips (I don't remember which ones, though) and a Kentucky magnet, then got back into the truck to continue the trip. I popped some ice in my mouth and immediately my stomach burbled again, so I think it was the ice from the Tennessean Truck Stop that gave me the issue. 

South Kentucky Sunset

Much better than last night, we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in - get this - Metropolis, Illinois. The beds were super comfy with great pillows. Ice was hard to find, but once I filled up my bucked, I chilled in bed with Twitter and Redneck Charcuterie (Slim Jims and Cheetos) before passing out by 10pm. 

It weighs on my heart a little bit that tomorrow is the day. It's the day that my baby is officially gone. At some point tomorrow, we'll make it to Wisconsin and we'll unpack the truck and it will be all done. 

I'm not ready. 

Let's Get This Show on the Road (Wisconsin Road Trip Day 1)

 And so it begins! Today is Day 1 of our Epic Wisconsin Adventure. 

I was up at 6:45, so I had plenty of time to deal with Uber. Hubby was suffering from stomach pains. When I left the bedroom, I was surprised to see The Kiddo was already awake, waiting for Jo and Mimi so they could go to breakfast. She called an Uber for me before she left, and he ended up at the house by 7:30am, which was way too early, but after yesterday it's better to be early than late!

I got to Penske around 7:45, and had to wait outside. And, just my luck, it started to rain. Luckily, after about 10 minutes, the Service Technician opened the door early so that I could sit inside, out of the rain. After I got my truck, I headed home (Truck Rental Tip: Adjust your mirrors before you drive away!) My original plan was to back the truck up to as close to the front door as possible, but a 12' truck was harder to maneuver than expected, so we had to leave it in the middle of the yard.

Back in the house, Hubby was still in bed, still in pain. And, of course, I'm still miserable, with migraine leftovers from last night. Once back from breakfast, the girls loaded up the truck and the car. 

At one point, I happened to see that her purse and Nintendo Switch were on the couch, which told me that they were close to being done, and I had to just go hide in the bedroom for a minute and lose it. As I told Hubby multiple times that morning, I hadn't gone over the hill to "this is a great thing for her," I was still stuck on "this is a loss for me."

And, finally, they were all packed. I went into our room to get Hubby (still in pain), and we both had a good cry and then we said our goodbyes. Our "see ya later"s, actually, since we'd see them again on Monday, I guess. 

The Kiddo, Mimi, & Jo

And then she was gone. The house seemed quieter. Emptier. The cat was confused. 

I had one more moment of sad, and then switched into Get Shit Done Mode. Took a shower. Finished packing. All that stuff. Hubby was still feeling like crap, but I was doing a little better (I downed a warm Pepsi earlier, that's how desperate I was for sugar and caffeine.)

It took much longer than expected for him to feel good enough to leave, but eventually we headed out and were on the road by 1pm. 

We drove north to Lake City and then caught Interstate 10 and headed west. After an hour or so, we were in uncharted territory, and I was a little giddy. We were actually doing this! (Granted, differently than originally planned last year, but still...!)

Our first pitstop was a Raceway in Slocomb, at the Florida-Alabama line. There were two main reasons I wanted to stop there. One was because it was right by the "Welcome to Alabama" sign (I originally thought it was in the parking lot, but it was actually across the street), and two was because I planned on getting a big ol' soda from every single place we stopped at. This was no exception. 

The first of many... questionable... photos Hubby took with the camera

However, once inside (and this place was janky), I spotted some chips called Rap Snacks. Hmmm, never heard of those before. I decided to pick them up so we could try them.

Is Migos a person? A group? I'm old, I don't know shit about fuck.

This led to an obsession over the next ten days that I wouldn't have even thought of when I was planning this trip! Stay tuned for more!

Hours into this leg of the journey, hubby is still miserable, which is putting a damper on my day. I'm over in the driver's seat stuffing my face with Slim Jims, potato chips, and big ol' drinks, and he's positively green around the gills. He crossed over to miserable and pissy by the time we got to Montgomery, Alabama, which sucked. I understand that you're in pain, but dude... (it felt like he was verging into Man Flu territory.)

Also by the time we got to Montgomery, it's too dark to see anything fun, but luckily, our hotel was just up the road. Tonight we're staying at a Red Roof Inn. I booked a King Room, but upon check-in, I was informed that all of their king rooms were unavailable. The clerk mumbled something about there being an electrical problem with one wing of the hotel. She gave us a Two Queen room on the ground floor instead. 

Goodnight sunshine

Love Stuff... Um, maybe next time?

Oh but wait, it gets better... I told Hubby to go ahead to the room while I parked the truck, and when I got to the room, something seemed off... Oh, I know what it was; the fact that the room was used!!! Seriously, the beds were both used, there were wet towels in the bathtub, there was trash in the trashcans. What the actual hell? So, I went back to the lobby, and she gave us an upgraded room in "the interior wing" (which actually had an elevator, I might add). This room was clean and turned, and it was pretty, but let me tell ya... those were NOT queen beds. Those were doubles. My fat ass and his fat ass were rubbin' together all night long. I guess you get what you pay for when you get a $50/night room... 

What a crazy long day! Hopefully Day 2 is a little better than today!

Bonus Video: If you're a fan of Safiya Nygaard on YouTube, she and Tyler recently did a cross-country move and vlogged it on YouTube. These two (and their awesome cat, Crusty) are my #TravelVlogGoals! Check it out! 

No Fairytale Ending for This Family - The Night Before our Wisconsin Road Trip

A few weeks ago, I oh so selflessly offered my driving skills to The Kiddo for her big move to Wisconsin. Since then, I researched all the states we'd be driving through, booked nine hotels, found a myriad of gas stations and fast food joints to stop at (as Pit Stops to break up the monotonous driving). We came up with a daily itinerary to make this one epic road trip!

But today... Today was the last night that we'd all three be together as a family. 

This morning, I was up early, getting some last minute stuff done, both for work and for the trip. I had about 95% of the trip finalized, but I still needed to put the information into the Garmin Nüvi. 

At 2pm, I got the Kiddo up for her last day of work, and she scheduled an Uber for me, which I was going to take over to the Penske rental place (if I'd taken the bus, I would have had to walk another mile along a busy road). 

An hour later, I'm standing outside at 3:30, waiting for the Uber, waiting, waiting, waiting, and after about 15 minutes, I check in with the Kiddo, and she informed me that the Uber had been cancelled! 

Well, fuck. Oh, and worse, there were no other Uber drivers available. She reached out to Jo to see if either her or Mimi could come and pick me up. While she did that, I called Penske, only to find out that they closed at 4pm (it was about 4:15 at this point), and I wouldn't be able to pick up my truck until the next morning. Because of this, our entire evening had to change. Originally, the girls were going to pack the truck and car tonight, and then get on the road right after, while traffic would be lighter. And Hubby and I would leave first thing in the morning. Now, everyone's schedules were shifted by about 18 hours. 

Right before the Kiddo got home, a close friend of ours came over to say goodbye, and he ended up staying for over three hours (I'm not mad mad, as he really needed some human contact after suffering a personal loss recently, but, well, I was definitely irritated, because I had SO MUCH left to do!)

Because of all the stress, and the fact that I'd not had anything to eat since an early lunch, I ended up with a horrendous migraine, which of course, made everything even worse. I was able to push through it and get everything packed up and ready to go, but I ended up eating some very unsatisfying McDonald's in bed for dinner (and I took a hefty dose of Unisom to knock my ass out!)

So, that's it. Not the way I wanted our last day as a family to close, but it wouldn't be us if there was some sort of perfect ending... 

Here's hoping for better days the next week and a half!

Detour - an Unexpected Road Trip!

Oh, boy, you guys... okay...

So, around the winter of 2019 and into the beginning of 2020 (remember that time? Nothing was crazy? People were dying from regular stuff, not from the WuFlu? Good times...), The Kiddo and her friends were planning on finding an apartment to rent together here in town. The friends (lets call them Jo and Mimi) had already been living on their own with other roommates, but due to some heavy drama surrounding the main leaseholder, they wanted out as soon as possible (they eventually even moved back into Jo's parents house to get away from this psycho!).

However, we live in a college town, and our apartments cater to a college crowd. This generally means that either you pay per room for a shared apartment (even if all the people are renting together), or you pay per room to share an apartment with strangers, or you pay a huge amount of money to rent an apartment on your own. Here's just a few of the typical apartment complexes in town:

The Enclave ($2,816 for a 4-Bedroom)

Integra 24 ($2,275 for a 3-Bedroom)

Campus Lodge ($2,100 for a 4-Bedroom)

The Niche ($1,796 for a 4-Bedroom)

They were hoping to rent a house, in a similar neighborhood to the house they recently rented. All of the Kiddos worked in the same area of town, so it made sense to stay where they were, geographically speaking. Plus, Jo wanted to stay where she was because her cats were used to the area, she said. 

So, for months, they looked for houses. They looked for apartments. They widened their search area. They upped their monthly rent budget. It was slim pickins out here for places to live. No sooner would they find something than it would slip from their grasp. Once, because the property owner took it off the market. Once, because someone offered to buy the property outright. 

Then Covid hit in earnest. Students left in droves, which should mean that they could find a place to live, right? Nope. Many apartment complexes just kind of shut down for a few months, waiting to see what the university would do for the next semester. And, many of the private home renters stopped any new rentals as well, because cooties. 

Around April, Jo and Mimi went up to Wisconsin to visit a friend who was having some personal issues, and after a few weeks, they told The Kiddo that they planned on staying there! What a kick in the balls for The Kiddo, I was heartbroken for her. Not only did she lose the option to move into her first place with her best friends, she lost her best friends altogether! She was in a funk for quite a while, though she never really said anything out loud. I could see it though. She was going through motions and nothing brought her joy. 

Close to Labor Day, she casually asked me my thoughts on her moving to Wisconsin. She and the friends had been talking and the friends would be coming down to visit their family here, and invited her to just pack up and leave with them! Uh, no... We had a long discussion about thinking things through, rather than acting impulsively, but a spark had lit up her eyes. 

Fast forward to Thanksgiving, and she was again talking about moving. Things were sounding more concrete this time, and the Mommy in me began to worry that I would actually be losing my daughter for real this time. Many nights we had discussions over dinner about what that type of move would entail, details she had to think about, actions that would need to be taken. In the end, though, by New Year's, we knew that she'd set her heart on The Badger State. 

As we went through January and into February, she and the girls made plans, tried to figure out the best way to do this... The girls were going to come down to visit family "at some point" and when they did, they'd load up Jo's HHR with all of The Kiddo's stuff and they'd just drive all the way back to Wisconsin. I listened to the plans, knowing full well that they had no real idea what they were doing, but attempted to keep my mouth shut. They seemed to think they had everything under control, and when I'd point something out, The Kiddo would say, "oh... we didn't think about that..."

Sigh....

And while I didn't say a lot to her, Hubby and I would often have discussions in bed, and more than once we joked (half-joked really) that, in the end, we should be prepared to drive a moving van to Wisconsin.

Fast forward to the end of February. I'm driving the Kiddo to work, and we're talking about the slowly-forming moving plans, and she was hemming and hawing about how it will be difficult for them to drive the HHR and a U-Haul, with only two drivers. They'd have to pay for hotels, pay more for gas, blah blah blah. So, I looked at her and said, as "mom sweetly" as possible, "do you want us to drive the van to Wisconsin?"

She was so thankful she almost cried! The three of them were thinking of ways to ask me to drive, while at the same time not wanting to inconvenience me. I told her that I'd already prepared for the task, and that, as long as she was going to pay me back for all expenses, I had no problem doing some driving. 

Oh, and right about the time we were having this discussion was around the same time that Winter Hell had been unleashed upon the nation (remember Texas!)

(Typo aside...) I am not built for single-digit negative temperatures!

Oh, finally! Wind chills above zero!

Oh come on! How is this Florida Girl supposed to drive in snow-covered roads?

Well, me being me... or more specifically, we being us, Hubby and I turned this into a whole thing. He was originally open to the idea of flying home, which was amazing (he's afraid of heights), but after a few days of discussion, we nixed the flying and opted to drive home. Kind of a trial run for whether or not we like doing road trips. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have about 2 weeks to plan a 10-day road trip vacation!

Santa Suits on the Loose - Virtual 5k Race Report

I'd tell you to click to sign up for 2021, but, well... we all saw how 2020 went...

 

In January 2020, I registered for the December 2020 Santa Suits on the Loose 5k. I've done it a few years now, and I love it, because where else can you see hundreds of people dressed in holiday attire or Santa suits running up and down A1A?

 

Ah, January 2020. What a simpler time. All was right with the world. People didn't wear masks. People didn't hide in their homes. People actually ventured out into the world and participated in sporting events. 

And then... COVID happened. You know my feelings about this, I won't go into it. 

It's a thing we have to deal with. 

I held out hope that by WINTER - come on, man, WINTER! - everything would be back to normal, but alas, it was not meant to be. I got an email at the tail end of September, announcing that this race (like all of my other races since March) had gone virtual. Damn. 

Awww, man... virtual...

 

So, I put it on the back burner, and kind of forgot about it. I'd removed it from my (basically empty) calendar. I'd get emails every once in a while, but it was definitely out of sight, out of mind.

I completely forgot to run during the race week, and unfortunately, I was unable to enter my results at that time. 

It's a cute medal! I sure would like to have it some time soon...

And since it was too late to enter them, well... I back-burnered it some more!

Christmas came and went. New Years came and went. 

Then one day, I realized that I never got my shirt and medal... Oh, lord, I hope I didn't have to enter my results to get my medal... I'd be pissed!

So, I reached out to the SAYS program to inquire of my medal's whereabouts. A few more weeks went by, and I got a reply saying that it may have been returned to them in the mail, they're so sorry, they'll make sure it goes out in the next day's mail.

Today is February 13th, and I still haven't gotten my goodies, so I reached out again. We'll see what the email says. 

 

I finally actually did this race on February 7th, enjoying some beautiful Florida "winter" weather (it was 66º and cloudy, according to Garmin). It felt great to just be OUTSIDE again running around Depot Park and enjoying the tired muscles after the fun (lord, I've missed the post-run lethargy!).  I didn't try to go balls to the wall, especially because I've not really run in like a year at this point, so I was perfectly happy with my time (okay, if it was 42 seconds faster, I'd be a little happier... those were probably the seconds that I deviated from the course to put my sweatshirt in the car!)

Darn those seconds!

And even though I didn't register my results, I would have been #53 on the board with my time (out of 71 total finishers). Not bad!

 

By the skin of my teeth, I beat Sara Britt!

 

I hate virtual runs. Just hate 'em.

Driving for Meridian - Miles for Meridian Virtual 5k

Hi, and welcome to 2021! It's exactly the same as 2020... are you surprised?

Last November, in what may have been a stupid or too optimistic decision, I signed up for a race. It's Miles for Meridian, which I ran February 2020. Even as I signed up for it, I was skeptical that it would actually RUN, but it had a few things going for it... 1) it was only $14, 2) it has an amazing medal, and C) FREE deferral to 2022 IF it was cancelled or changed to a virtual. 

"Run the race virtually with your shirt, number, finisher medal..." 

Just a few days into January, we got the dreaded update... it had changed to a virtual. I never got any sort of email update from them, which very much annoyed me... I had to find out from Facebook. I waited a few weeks, to see if they would say anything about deferring, but they never did, and by the time I realized they hadn't sent anything, I figured it was too late to do so. I sucked it up and decided to just run it virtually, which I did on January 31.

The last time I ran a 5k was November 8, for a virtual Walt Disney World Wine & Dine Volunteer Run (no blog post about it), so I wasn't expecting any sort of PR. 

Instead, I got a view of an amazing sunrise, which made the 1+ hour time worth it. 

I was just happy to be back outside. As I've mentioned before, I wasted like 8 months of this stupid pandemic sitting on my ass. I let the "fuck it" mentality get the better of me, and I've been fighting my way back to where I was before. I've been hitting the gym 5 times a week, but I've not been running much at all (okay, none), nor have I even been walking on the treadmill at home... the poor thing is dusty. 

I'm guilty of using it as a drying rack for all of my gym clothes

Anyway, the run (mostly a walk) was a lovely time. 

I reported my time to Meridian and the following weekend, headed over to Town of Tioga for the "Drive-Thru Celebration."  This involved wearing your mask (because, of course...) and pulling up to get your swag. We got a huge reusable bag with lots of goodies in it, they took your "finisher photo" and that was it. 

My headband says "Just Don't Be Last"

I picked up some lunch on the way home and then checked out my swag. 

Small lunchbox full of swag (Samsung Galaxy J7 for scale)

Water, snacks, 3pc candy, hand sanitizer, mask, and small calendar

Bigger bag with more swag (44oz water bottle in the background for scale)

Chip clips, pens, water bottle, stress ball, 3pc candy

Long sleeve shirt (very long!)

Sweet-Tasting "Medal" with Kiss for scale

So, a nice mix of advertisements, branded junk, and candy, though for a "candy-themed" race, I expected more than six pieces of candy. 

But the thing that burned my ass? The "medal." What medal? you say... 

Exactly.

There was no medal. As you recall, the in-person race was going to have a medal, and the original registration email said that if it went virtual, we'd still get a medal. 

However, when the race switched to virtual, all mentions of an actual medal disappeared. 

LEFT: Original advertisement      RIGHT: Updated advertisement

From Virtual Race registration page - see "sweet tasting finisher medal"

So, yeah, I'm mad at this race... kinda at myself, I guess. I should have reached out earlier to inquire about deferral. But because I was under the assumption that we'd still get medals, why would I have known to reach out? Because of this, I'm hesitant to sign up for next year, which sucks. It's a good race, benefitting a good resource in our city. I guess I'll wait and see what the fall/winter have in store, but right now, if we have to do more virtual bullshit, I won't run this one again.