Thursday ~ Boy, it takes a long time to get ready, especially with only one day to do it. But I packed a lot into that one day. Packed - get it? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> Pretty much what I did was take the dirty clothes out of the truck, wash and fold them, put them all back in our bags, and load up again.

Oh, I also had to fit in a trip to town, since we needed dog food. (Technically the dog needed the food. We are still vegetarians.)

And Neaksis needed donuts. She says she didn't, but I always try to get her something nice as a thank you when she does something nice for me, and it also usually happens to be edible. She complains, but hasn't given anything back yet.

So it was 10pm before we actually left. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" /> And it only took about an hour to put away all the stuff I had thrown back in.

The trailer was over at Neaksis' house - believe me, her house looks really cute with its swelling garden, loads of home-grown flowers, dainty litle front door, and a 53' semi trailer parked in her driveway - and none of the kids but the Dervish had seen their cousins rooms since they had been painted. (Neaksis' kids went to summer camp last week, and their rooms had been finished while they were gone, and of course we were gone, too.) So I said to the Dervish, "Take the Princess in and show her what the bedrooms look like." Upon remembering, he became so excited, and said, "It's soooo......a MAKEOVER!!!!!!" I think someone has been watching Trading Spaces a few too many times with their auntie. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

All 3 of them were just about asleep by the time we pulled out of the driveway. Which gave AJ and I such a nice, peaceful evening together, that I just stayed up and chatted until 3am, when we stopped.

Friday ~ I guess it was Friday, although it still felt like Thursday night. Well, the rest area, which was basically just a glorified outhouse to start with, had all its restrooms shut down, and a row of porto-potties lined up instead. We went inside the family sized one, which was tipped so steeply backwards that I immediately slid on the gravel and skidded almost to the back. I hate using places like that in the dark, but many years ago Grandma taught me a technique that works no matter how much or little light there is, and builds up leg muscles as well. I'm not sure she would have been flattered to have me ALWAYS think of her at such times, but I can't help it.

A brief description of our night-time setup is in order. One of the first things we do is hang up a curtain that goes from the driver's side window, around the front, wrapping around to the passenger side, for complete privacy. The truck and the sleeper are both very small (but paid for, so believe me, I am not complaining), and the main bed is scarcely larger than a camp cot. That is where AJ & I sleep, tucked together like spoons. The top bunk, which maybe someday will have a mattress (actually I can tell you what will happen - AJ will get a new mattress for HIS bed, and put the old mattress on top), is where Mr. C sleeps. I would put the Dervish up at the other end, but he would fall for sure. Plus, that way we can store lots of stuff up there, and just stack it down at the end when it's time to use it for a bed. Thus the Dervish and the Princess sleep on the floor, each one's feet diverted to opposite sides of the gear shifter, since the space is too short to just stretch out. It's a lot like camping, but in microtents. We have a little fridge behind the passenger seat, and a microwave under the bed, so it is even pretty luxurious camping.

So anyway, when I say "we went to bed," that is what I mean: a lengthy process involving moving lots of people and lots of stuff.

Morning came all too early. Really, I am too old to stay up so late very often. The boys have figured out how to watch TV on AJ's phone, so they grabbed it bright and early, watching till the battery went dead before casting it aside as worthless. (AJ was so happy.)

It was my turn to drive, starting from somewhere in Nevada. We had opted to take the northern route due to weather, though now it looks to be pretty bad this way, too, at least in spots. And the worst weather in the 48 states looks to be right where our first part of the load goes, in Charleston, SC. Lucky us. But I digress. I drove. The kids fought. To be more clear, the Dervish fought. The other 2 merely fought back. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> Finally I pulled over atop a mountain, applied a little motherly love, had them run laps around the bathroom building, and proceeded with somewhat better success.

Along the way, there were some scattered cumulus. One lonely but mean-looking little cloud obviously had some extremely unstable air associated with it. From quite a distance, you could see it had textures indicating high wind, and underneath were small vortices of swirling dust, a little larger than ordinary dust devils. You would have thought that cloud was too tiny to make even baby tornadoes, but apparently not. Then there was only one, and it moved way over past the other side of the freeway, plus being that small and with no traffic around, it wasn't particularly worrisome. When we got right there, it swept back the other direction and passed right over us. I just held on tight and grinned as it pushed us a few feet over the white line to the right, then 1-2 seconds of nothingness to stabilize, then it blew us a few feet into the fast lane. And that was it. It sounds much more dramatic to tell it, but although it was interesting and unusual, it hardly even scared AJ at all, and for some reason he does tend to scare easily when I am driving. Sorry, no pictures, either.

In the afternoon, AJ decided to take a nap, so I had the Dervish come sit up front with me, that being the only way an AJ-nap could be accomplished. The Dervish must have stored up a lot to say, because he didn't shut up for an hour-and-a-half. We played "I Spy" for a while, which is quite an adventure with him, and has many of the same elements as his knock-knock jokes. ("Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Canteloupe." "Canteloupe who?" "Canteloupe in the garden!!! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!") "I spy with my little eye, something that is black." "Is it the clouds?" "No." "Is it the road?" "No." "Is it that truck?" "No. Okay, I give you a clyoo. I can spy with my little eye, right through that mountain!" Sigh. "Is it Salt Lake City?" (About 30 miles away.) "YES!!! THAT'S IT!!!!!" <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> He got to see Great Salt Lake just before he crawled in the back and fell asleep.

The rest of the day's trip was pretty uneventful, there was just a bit of road construction right before the UT/WY border, which took about an hour to go 7 miles. It gave us more time to admire the thunderheads building all over the place, though so far it has stayed nice and sunny where we are, almost as if we have our own personal bit of sunshine that we take with us wherever we go. Well, why not? We've already taken just about everything else.

A ways into Wyoming, it was time to stop and put up our tent, i.e. get ready for bed.

I thought that was the end of the night, I really did. But at 11:30 pm our time, 12:30 am local time, the Dervish woke me up. "Mom...Mommy....I was talking to Uncle JJ." For whom it was 12:30 am. "I pushed the button, and he was on Daddy's phone, and I talked to him." I'm afraid I was not my usual calm, sweet self at the moment. In fact, I was quite snappish, especially when the handful of cold, wet stuff in his hands turned out to be a huge wad of my baby wipes (an essential piece of equipment for the genteel trucker). I think I even screeched at that point. He tried to explain that he had only been washing the upholstery on the bottom of the top bunk, but I was not much comforted. Numerous incoherently dire threats and hissing, and he did actually lie down again. I think he went to sleep, too, but if he didn't, he was at least smart enough not to wake me up.

I took the kids' manuscript from 4 pages to 8, far beyond the bounds of 'polishing', which is still a sore point with Neaksis. When she said "go ahead", I thought she meant go ahead and finish the story, not just go ahead and type out what she had handwritten. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

And a big thank you to Ma Clampett, as fine a publicist as anyone could wish for. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />