Aug 2013
So… how was your day?
08/22/13 10:53 PM
From: Ann Morrison
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 10:53 PM
To: Friends & Family
Subject: So... how was your day?
The morning started out like most ‘move days’, Alan making enough noise in the living room that after about 30 minutes of hiding my head under pillows I am forced to rouse out of bed.
“7:30… UGH! Coffee, need coffee!” …
I just get settled on the couch, coffee and iPad in hand when bed head pup decides to make an appearance, she does her little muffie shuffle in front of me, dancing her front paws up and down on the faux wood floor…
“Tap, tap, tap.... Mommmm need to pee now ….. Mom, Mom, Mom….. now Mom noooowwww!”…..
“Pup…. go ask dad… mom needs coffee… shooo…. go, go…”
My admonishment is enough to get her to stop her dancing and tail wagging and look hopefully over her shoulder at Alan. She uses her big puppy eyes. He knows this game; he doesn’t look up, avoiding eye contact with the pleading pup….
“Dad?” …..
“Tell your mom dad’s busy plotting our route today”.
The pup hesitates and then turns back to me, desperation starting to creep in…
“Tap, tap, tap…… mom? ..... mom?..... tap, tap, tap…..PLEAAAAASSSSEEEEE….. MOM?” ….
“Sigh… oh all right…. hang on… who can resist such a cute fuzzy face…. let me at least take a sip of my coffee… slurrrrpp…. okay okay let’s gooo.”
The tapping converts to bouncing up and down wildly as I grab the leash and head for the door. 1 peed pup, 3 cups of coffee, and a microwave breakfast later, the house is fully stowed and ready to roll. Short drive today… 3.5 hrs. We are stopping in Lebanon TN as our Asheville reservations don’t start till tomorrow. We have spent the night at a little Navy base just outside of Memphis, Millington TN and must travel the side road to get back to I-40. It is nice and wide and mostly clear of traffic.
Alan and I communicate via walkie talkies as we move down the road. Since pup and I travel in the car behind Alan, she and I often engage in conversation to help pass the time. Sometimes the conversation is rather lengthy but the little girl is very good to remain engaged, her little ears perk up, her head bobs from side to side as if to say ‘really mom, that’s pretty interesting mom’ and ‘gosh mom I didn’t know that’.
“And we are off…. looks like a nice day pup…. what do you think? … yes, I see you agree… you are smacking your lips…. why are you smacking your lips… you already thirsty? Really… but we just got started? …. okay okay , hang on, mom has some water for you, let me put your bowl in the console…. hang on…. HANG ON…. CRAP ….geeezzzz…. at least it is only water… just a little cold…. and it will dry before mom has to get out the car again… no, no, nobody will think mom peed her pants….. no harm pup… you were a thirsty girl huh….. hmmmm … Mom needs to pay attention to the road now… looks like we have construction ahead… cop car ahead… best slowdown…. avoid the cones… be cool… almost there…. walkie talkie …walkie talkie… where is the damn walkie talkie……. Uh Babe, you just took the exit back to Memphis! Babe!?!”
Silence
“Alan? Did you hear me? Can you hear me?”
‘Uh, I screwed up… ‘
‘Say again…?’
‘I screwed up… 2 miles to get-well’.
Silence
“…it was the cop car and then the cones and the turn off was right after that mess and the GPS said to turn right, but I guess not this right the next right but the cop and the cones and the workers…. well I turned right… just the wrong right…. 1-mile to get-well.”
Silence
“Oh my…. trucks… lots and lots of trucks. Pup… have you seen so many big semi’s in one stretch….? THIS is going to be a fun drive…. DANG! Did you feel that pup, did you feel that whipple…? What’s a whipple? Why pup that is a wind ripple.... hold on…. here comes another one….. whoooosh…. whipple whipple ….. and another….whoooosh…. arrrghhh watch yourself buddy… that was a close one…. I may look small but that big rig in front of me… that’s my man, he will whip your ….. WHOOOSH…. Shit!”…
The walkie talkie echo’s my sentiment.
“You okay back there? THIS is going to be a fun drive.”
The pup has had enough excitement; she crawls to the back seat to put herself to sleep.
“‘Whooooaa Babe… did you see that car already… you almost turned into him!! He is trying to pass you.”
Silence
“That was intentional… the guy was sitting on my ass… I needed him to fall back or move on down the road… he was holding up traffic.”
Silence – me this time.
“Ah… okay then…good to know ‘
My adrenaline is now in full gear… did I mention the cops, the construction cones, the wrong turn, the trucks…. now we have cars trying to play chicken with the rig… geeeezzzz …. I look in the rear view and see two big trucks looming, the walkie talkie crackles…
“Neighbor Ron taught me that trick… see how the guy finally moved on around me?”….
“hhhmmmmm yea, let’s maybe not try that with one of these big boys okay sweetheart… my heart can’t stand the strain… and I can’t drive with my eyes closed!”
It would seem that the stretch of I-40 between Nashville and Memphis should be renamed TRUCK HIGHWAY. A never ending stream of them, going both west and east. Some travelling faster than us, many that are not… I tease but Alan is actually very good in his maneuvering of the rig, we pick up speed and fall in sync with the flow of the iron horse stampede...
“Sweetheart, darling…. can you give me a little more room when you pull back in front of the trucks? I know the bimmer is a baby car but really? Need just a little more space…. KABONK… Bang, Clunk ….. Geeeesh… folks around here don’t know about BUMP warning signs do they?”
Alan offers his insights…
“at least not as bad as a carrier landing… “
“KABONK…. whoooosh, whipple whipple”…..
Okay, now it is just all starting to become funny; all the trucks are morphing into this massive herd of iron horses and I have images of pilot Alan atop a big bronco … which in my imagination is a massive iron horse with F-16 wings…. (we are from Colorado and he was/is a military pilot)….. lasso is flying and he is wearing his Tilley hat…
“Yeeee Haawwwww…….. shaaaaaawhack” ….
The stampede gives way to the rig…. of course the imagery is helped along by the fact that I have country radio playing loudly, Blake Shelton, Boyz Down Here…. ‘chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco SPIT’ (pup is sleeping and well, I am in Tennessee… they only play country on the radio here)… my worlds are colliding…. trucks, planes, horses… country music ….. and the cops… did I mention the cops….we saw more cops in in a 3 hour stretch than we have seen travelling through 10 states over 4 months…….
“Whoooosh….whipple, whipple ….. K A band K A band”……
“AAAaaarrrgggghhh….. Get me outta here!”
Just about the time my adrenaline is peaking …. we turn off onto the newly completed 840 by-pass. Oh my. Oh my what a difference…. cue Tchaikovsky please…. a split, double-lane highway that seems to have been built just for us… wide open road surrounded by rolling green hills and nary a truck in site. …
“Aaaaahhhhh …. so maybe there is a God!”
We arrived at our campsite with no further excitement. It just happens to be situated as I-840 rejoins I-40. The park is much like a nice KOA…. gravel, slightly uneven sites, set on the side of a grassy hillside. The cool part is the rolling hills… we took a walk…. bathed in the green grass and let the strain of the day fade away.
The hour is now late, iron horse is in stable, fire water is in hand… tomorrow is another day… tomorrow we rejoin the stampede. Tomorrow we finish our last stretch of I-40 and hit our summer destination; Asheville.
So… how was your day?
Hugs and Love
Ann, Alan and the Muffin Pup.
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 10:53 PM
To: Friends & Family
Subject: So... how was your day?
The morning started out like most ‘move days’, Alan making enough noise in the living room that after about 30 minutes of hiding my head under pillows I am forced to rouse out of bed.
“7:30… UGH! Coffee, need coffee!” …
I just get settled on the couch, coffee and iPad in hand when bed head pup decides to make an appearance, she does her little muffie shuffle in front of me, dancing her front paws up and down on the faux wood floor…
“Tap, tap, tap.... Mommmm need to pee now ….. Mom, Mom, Mom….. now Mom noooowwww!”…..
“Pup…. go ask dad… mom needs coffee… shooo…. go, go…”
My admonishment is enough to get her to stop her dancing and tail wagging and look hopefully over her shoulder at Alan. She uses her big puppy eyes. He knows this game; he doesn’t look up, avoiding eye contact with the pleading pup….
“Dad?” …..
“Tell your mom dad’s busy plotting our route today”.
The pup hesitates and then turns back to me, desperation starting to creep in…
“Tap, tap, tap…… mom? ..... mom?..... tap, tap, tap…..PLEAAAAASSSSEEEEE….. MOM?” ….
“Sigh… oh all right…. hang on… who can resist such a cute fuzzy face…. let me at least take a sip of my coffee… slurrrrpp…. okay okay let’s gooo.”
The tapping converts to bouncing up and down wildly as I grab the leash and head for the door. 1 peed pup, 3 cups of coffee, and a microwave breakfast later, the house is fully stowed and ready to roll. Short drive today… 3.5 hrs. We are stopping in Lebanon TN as our Asheville reservations don’t start till tomorrow. We have spent the night at a little Navy base just outside of Memphis, Millington TN and must travel the side road to get back to I-40. It is nice and wide and mostly clear of traffic.
Alan and I communicate via walkie talkies as we move down the road. Since pup and I travel in the car behind Alan, she and I often engage in conversation to help pass the time. Sometimes the conversation is rather lengthy but the little girl is very good to remain engaged, her little ears perk up, her head bobs from side to side as if to say ‘really mom, that’s pretty interesting mom’ and ‘gosh mom I didn’t know that’.
“And we are off…. looks like a nice day pup…. what do you think? … yes, I see you agree… you are smacking your lips…. why are you smacking your lips… you already thirsty? Really… but we just got started? …. okay okay , hang on, mom has some water for you, let me put your bowl in the console…. hang on…. HANG ON…. CRAP ….geeezzzz…. at least it is only water… just a little cold…. and it will dry before mom has to get out the car again… no, no, nobody will think mom peed her pants….. no harm pup… you were a thirsty girl huh….. hmmmm … Mom needs to pay attention to the road now… looks like we have construction ahead… cop car ahead… best slowdown…. avoid the cones… be cool… almost there…. walkie talkie …walkie talkie… where is the damn walkie talkie……. Uh Babe, you just took the exit back to Memphis! Babe!?!”
Silence
“Alan? Did you hear me? Can you hear me?”
‘Uh, I screwed up… ‘
‘Say again…?’
‘I screwed up… 2 miles to get-well’.
Silence
“…it was the cop car and then the cones and the turn off was right after that mess and the GPS said to turn right, but I guess not this right the next right but the cop and the cones and the workers…. well I turned right… just the wrong right…. 1-mile to get-well.”
Silence
“Oh my…. trucks… lots and lots of trucks. Pup… have you seen so many big semi’s in one stretch….? THIS is going to be a fun drive…. DANG! Did you feel that pup, did you feel that whipple…? What’s a whipple? Why pup that is a wind ripple.... hold on…. here comes another one….. whoooosh…. whipple whipple ….. and another….whoooosh…. arrrghhh watch yourself buddy… that was a close one…. I may look small but that big rig in front of me… that’s my man, he will whip your ….. WHOOOSH…. Shit!”…
The walkie talkie echo’s my sentiment.
“You okay back there? THIS is going to be a fun drive.”
The pup has had enough excitement; she crawls to the back seat to put herself to sleep.
“‘Whooooaa Babe… did you see that car already… you almost turned into him!! He is trying to pass you.”
Silence
“That was intentional… the guy was sitting on my ass… I needed him to fall back or move on down the road… he was holding up traffic.”
Silence – me this time.
“Ah… okay then…good to know ‘
My adrenaline is now in full gear… did I mention the cops, the construction cones, the wrong turn, the trucks…. now we have cars trying to play chicken with the rig… geeeezzzz …. I look in the rear view and see two big trucks looming, the walkie talkie crackles…
“Neighbor Ron taught me that trick… see how the guy finally moved on around me?”….
“hhhmmmmm yea, let’s maybe not try that with one of these big boys okay sweetheart… my heart can’t stand the strain… and I can’t drive with my eyes closed!”
It would seem that the stretch of I-40 between Nashville and Memphis should be renamed TRUCK HIGHWAY. A never ending stream of them, going both west and east. Some travelling faster than us, many that are not… I tease but Alan is actually very good in his maneuvering of the rig, we pick up speed and fall in sync with the flow of the iron horse stampede...
“Sweetheart, darling…. can you give me a little more room when you pull back in front of the trucks? I know the bimmer is a baby car but really? Need just a little more space…. KABONK… Bang, Clunk ….. Geeeesh… folks around here don’t know about BUMP warning signs do they?”
Alan offers his insights…
“at least not as bad as a carrier landing… “
“KABONK…. whoooosh, whipple whipple”…..
Okay, now it is just all starting to become funny; all the trucks are morphing into this massive herd of iron horses and I have images of pilot Alan atop a big bronco … which in my imagination is a massive iron horse with F-16 wings…. (we are from Colorado and he was/is a military pilot)….. lasso is flying and he is wearing his Tilley hat…
“Yeeee Haawwwww…….. shaaaaaawhack” ….
The stampede gives way to the rig…. of course the imagery is helped along by the fact that I have country radio playing loudly, Blake Shelton, Boyz Down Here…. ‘chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco SPIT’ (pup is sleeping and well, I am in Tennessee… they only play country on the radio here)… my worlds are colliding…. trucks, planes, horses… country music ….. and the cops… did I mention the cops….we saw more cops in in a 3 hour stretch than we have seen travelling through 10 states over 4 months…….
“Whoooosh….whipple, whipple ….. K A band K A band”……
“AAAaaarrrgggghhh….. Get me outta here!”
Just about the time my adrenaline is peaking …. we turn off onto the newly completed 840 by-pass. Oh my. Oh my what a difference…. cue Tchaikovsky please…. a split, double-lane highway that seems to have been built just for us… wide open road surrounded by rolling green hills and nary a truck in site. …
“Aaaaahhhhh …. so maybe there is a God!”
We arrived at our campsite with no further excitement. It just happens to be situated as I-840 rejoins I-40. The park is much like a nice KOA…. gravel, slightly uneven sites, set on the side of a grassy hillside. The cool part is the rolling hills… we took a walk…. bathed in the green grass and let the strain of the day fade away.
The hour is now late, iron horse is in stable, fire water is in hand… tomorrow is another day… tomorrow we rejoin the stampede. Tomorrow we finish our last stretch of I-40 and hit our summer destination; Asheville.
So… how was your day?
Hugs and Love
Ann, Alan and the Muffin Pup.
Perrier Melting
08/06/13 05:30 PM
From: Ann Morrison
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 5:30 PM
To: Friends & Family
Subject: Perrier Melting
So have you seen it? The commercial…the one where everything is melting because it is so hot? Well if you haven’t, here it is… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msBQR-CmI2E and it is EXACTLY how I feel today…
Shew… it is HOT and sticky… did I mention hot AND sticky… and it is not even 100 degrees yet… The air is thick, steam is rising from the overnight rain soaked grass and patio and I have succumbed to the indulgence of air-conditioning….aaaahhhhhhh. At least my face looks a little younger, all that humidity has plumped out all the facial lines…. okay, so maybe that was just a little fib… maybe not all of them. And my hair is well… my hair…. and it seems to think humid weather is a perfect time to grow fat and fuzzy. Yea, friends in AR… you know what I mean don’t ya…. Did I ever thank you for the nickname ‘BigHair’ given so many years ago? Well keep your eyes peeled to the horizon… Big Hair is coming to town.
Traveling inland from the cool cloudy drizzly rainy coastline has brought a mix of sunshine, heat, dry air (Wyoming / Colorado) and humidity (Kansas / Missouri) and those sometimes classic torrential summer downpours one finds in the great open plains areas. Yes indeed, we have picked the hottest wettest 2-months (Jul/Aug) to travel cross county west to east. At least the rain has brought with it a few rainbows.
As I mentioned in my last communiqué … we have shifted plans and are headed east. Thus far, it has been a journey filled with friends, fun and a last opportunity to dump some more boxes into the Denver storage room as we passed through town. I swear the rig actually feels a little lighter… but back to the friends. If you have been reading our travel blog http://www.twobyroad.com/blog/index.html you will see that we have met up with quite a few friends along the way (in Newport OR, Cannon Beach and Astoria, Denver and now family in Missouri). We didn’t quite get to see everyone in Denver, sorry if we missed you… simply ran out of time, and we are not done visiting yet. We are currently staying with son Mark in Missouri and are headed to Arkansas next to catch up with several more old friends from the days when we were still young.
The trip east is a little grueling… multiple one night stops and 5-hr drive days, the occasional 1-week stop here and there…and yeeeeeesssss, I am driving behind the rig all the way in my little Baby Bimmer. So I am just going to put it out there…..to all my wonderful problem solving friends…. thanks all the same but I REALLY don’t need anyone to solve my ‘car problem’... it is an inconvenience to not be able to tow the thing while driving cross country like this to be sure and I do occasionally whine about it but seriously, anybody out there know me?? Anybody??? Anybody here ever NOT see me solve a problem that I thought needed solving… that I set my mind to solving?? That is who I am… I am the queen of problem solving… I have spent a good part of my career solving problems…. towing my car is NOT A PROBLEM that needs solving. Yea yea… I see you all laughing at me now… shaking your head… thanks for caring… thanks for trying …. but you can all stop now. Nuff said.
So, it is goodbye west coast… it was fun and all but time to be moving on. Although already in MO, it will still be another couple weeks before we land in Asheville NC… we have a few more short stops planned along the way.
Portland was an interesting stop, if for nothing else but to discover Edgefield, an eclectic green space just outside Portland and now home to the McMenamins beer brewing operations along with various hotel, spa and retail operations. This space originally spent seven decades as a ‘poor farm’, a place where those needing a ‘leg-up’ in life could sign-on to work the land in return for the room and board, growing fruits and vegetables, and tending dairy, hogs, and poultry raised on property, sufficient for feeding the population at the poor farm, as well as the county hospital and jail. We stopped by for dinner at the McMenamins pub, after which we stumbled into a free concert on the property; my rear-end started shaking involuntarily in beat and rhythm to the music; they had a sorta Jimmy Buffet meets Lyle Lovett thing going on and it was just too hard to stand still. After a minute I looked around at the crowd and it turns out I was the only one jiggling and dancing…. everyone else was placidly sitting around, chatting, eating their picnic. I hear music, my ass starts to shake and jive. What can I say; I guess it is the Africa in me. Definitely worth a visit if you are ever passing through. http://www.mcmenamins.com/1171-history-of-edgefield.
Well, Mark just got home from work… and we don’t get to see him that often so time for me to sign off and be sociable. Hope you are all enjoying your summer. Will be in touch… but probably not before we hit Asheville.
Just checked the weather… temp is on the rise for this week….. and the Morrison men have just decided sitting outside would be a good afternoon thing to do… think I better go stock-up on Perrier!
Hugs and Love
Ann
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 5:30 PM
To: Friends & Family
Subject: Perrier Melting
So have you seen it? The commercial…the one where everything is melting because it is so hot? Well if you haven’t, here it is… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msBQR-CmI2E and it is EXACTLY how I feel today…
Shew… it is HOT and sticky… did I mention hot AND sticky… and it is not even 100 degrees yet… The air is thick, steam is rising from the overnight rain soaked grass and patio and I have succumbed to the indulgence of air-conditioning….aaaahhhhhhh. At least my face looks a little younger, all that humidity has plumped out all the facial lines…. okay, so maybe that was just a little fib… maybe not all of them. And my hair is well… my hair…. and it seems to think humid weather is a perfect time to grow fat and fuzzy. Yea, friends in AR… you know what I mean don’t ya…. Did I ever thank you for the nickname ‘BigHair’ given so many years ago? Well keep your eyes peeled to the horizon… Big Hair is coming to town.
Traveling inland from the cool cloudy drizzly rainy coastline has brought a mix of sunshine, heat, dry air (Wyoming / Colorado) and humidity (Kansas / Missouri) and those sometimes classic torrential summer downpours one finds in the great open plains areas. Yes indeed, we have picked the hottest wettest 2-months (Jul/Aug) to travel cross county west to east. At least the rain has brought with it a few rainbows.
As I mentioned in my last communiqué … we have shifted plans and are headed east. Thus far, it has been a journey filled with friends, fun and a last opportunity to dump some more boxes into the Denver storage room as we passed through town. I swear the rig actually feels a little lighter… but back to the friends. If you have been reading our travel blog http://www.twobyroad.com/blog/index.html you will see that we have met up with quite a few friends along the way (in Newport OR, Cannon Beach and Astoria, Denver and now family in Missouri). We didn’t quite get to see everyone in Denver, sorry if we missed you… simply ran out of time, and we are not done visiting yet. We are currently staying with son Mark in Missouri and are headed to Arkansas next to catch up with several more old friends from the days when we were still young.
The trip east is a little grueling… multiple one night stops and 5-hr drive days, the occasional 1-week stop here and there…and yeeeeeesssss, I am driving behind the rig all the way in my little Baby Bimmer. So I am just going to put it out there…..to all my wonderful problem solving friends…. thanks all the same but I REALLY don’t need anyone to solve my ‘car problem’... it is an inconvenience to not be able to tow the thing while driving cross country like this to be sure and I do occasionally whine about it but seriously, anybody out there know me?? Anybody??? Anybody here ever NOT see me solve a problem that I thought needed solving… that I set my mind to solving?? That is who I am… I am the queen of problem solving… I have spent a good part of my career solving problems…. towing my car is NOT A PROBLEM that needs solving. Yea yea… I see you all laughing at me now… shaking your head… thanks for caring… thanks for trying …. but you can all stop now. Nuff said.
So, it is goodbye west coast… it was fun and all but time to be moving on. Although already in MO, it will still be another couple weeks before we land in Asheville NC… we have a few more short stops planned along the way.
Portland was an interesting stop, if for nothing else but to discover Edgefield, an eclectic green space just outside Portland and now home to the McMenamins beer brewing operations along with various hotel, spa and retail operations. This space originally spent seven decades as a ‘poor farm’, a place where those needing a ‘leg-up’ in life could sign-on to work the land in return for the room and board, growing fruits and vegetables, and tending dairy, hogs, and poultry raised on property, sufficient for feeding the population at the poor farm, as well as the county hospital and jail. We stopped by for dinner at the McMenamins pub, after which we stumbled into a free concert on the property; my rear-end started shaking involuntarily in beat and rhythm to the music; they had a sorta Jimmy Buffet meets Lyle Lovett thing going on and it was just too hard to stand still. After a minute I looked around at the crowd and it turns out I was the only one jiggling and dancing…. everyone else was placidly sitting around, chatting, eating their picnic. I hear music, my ass starts to shake and jive. What can I say; I guess it is the Africa in me. Definitely worth a visit if you are ever passing through. http://www.mcmenamins.com/1171-history-of-edgefield.
Well, Mark just got home from work… and we don’t get to see him that often so time for me to sign off and be sociable. Hope you are all enjoying your summer. Will be in touch… but probably not before we hit Asheville.
Just checked the weather… temp is on the rise for this week….. and the Morrison men have just decided sitting outside would be a good afternoon thing to do… think I better go stock-up on Perrier!
Hugs and Love
Ann