Trip for Thanksgiving

The day before Thanksgiving, we were off to the river house for some time with the family and so happy everyone was able to come.  One of the best parts was that David and Aubrey were going to be in charge of the whole dinner.  All I had to do was enjoy spending the day playing with my grandchildren.

This was the first time in 46 years, I had not baked a turkey and all the trimmings on this special day.  Consequently, packing up for the trip was relatively easy since I didn't have bags and bags of groceries.  William and Sadie and I got underway around noon.  It was a beautiful day and the landscape was fully fall-wrapped, so pretty.  Sadie is a great little traveler and loves to go in the car.  She sits quietly on my lap the whole time.

As we drove through Fredricksburg, the Christmas decorations were out and as usual, the sidewalks were brimming with shoppers.  A very festive atmosphere.  We were happy and excited as we got to our shortcut outside of Harper.  FM 473 is eight miles long and runs into Interstate 10.

The closer we got to the river house the more nervous I got that I had forgotten something and I had been mentally listing all the items
I should have packed.

By the time we made the turn onto 473, I had worked myself up to a full blown frenzy in my head, thinking about what I had neglected to pack. Then, it occurred to me that William was driving way too fast for this stretch of road.  Not only is it very curvy, but it goes up hills and down hills, lots of hills.  I told him he needed to slow down and for a while he did.  Here came the hills, up.....down......up.....down.  I began to get mad that he was not slowing down and I was feeling a little queasy.  About that time as I was holding Sadie, I felt her stomach lurch,... wait,.. what...yes, it was definitely moving.  Uh oh,,,,,,,oh no.....at about the third hill, all of a sudden she started getting sick.  Not a little bit.  An incredible amount, all over me, all in my seat, in my purse, all over my books and magazines.  At that point, I completely lost it.  My sister calls it a "psychic break", I call it completely, out of control, crazy.  "Pull over, pull over, pull over damn it!"  God, I was so mad and upset and sick and holding Sadie and.... it was awful.

'Idiots delight' finally pulled over.  "Is this a good place?" he said.  Jesus Christ....   I bailed out of the car in hysterics, crying, furious, crying uncontrollably.   I could not get it together and this 18-Wheeler dude who had pulled over for a lunch break saw the whole thing unfold, literally.  I'm not sure, but I think he was laughing, well, I know he had a big fat smile on his face. After about 30 minutes since the total breakdown, I cleaned myself and Sadie up. And my purse and my shoes, (yes, in my shoes). William cleaned up my seat and the floor.  Thank god he kept his mouth shut.  Then, we got on I-10, and headed west.  

About an hour later, William says, 'you okay?'.  "Yes, I'm okay".  As we headed for the river house I added one more item to my list of things I had forgotten.... a doggie bag and one of those stun gun thingies.