If we just keep driving...

Before I go into the details of the road trip, I'd like to note that I've added a new blog to the Blogs I Frequent list. Check out I am Woman, See Me Blog!. Worth frequenting.

Okay -- onto the road trip...

The first thing to go is your sense of time. After twenty-five something hours of driving, bathroom breaks, postcard shopping excursions, battling unearthly creatures, and meals at the place you least expected (in the place you least expected), it's hard to even know what time it really is, let alone what day.

From the beginning. Really this time.
Tuesday morning...

So we didn't leave for Texas as early as planned. It just didn't happen. The night before the trip J.Vlo experienced some gut-wrenching moments and as she meekly asked for some pillows and a glass of water to make the couch a little more bearable, our 7:00 a.m. departure time was called into serious questioning.

The answer was that we quickly abandoned any "schedule" that we had foolishly planned. It's a VACATION we rationed, and "wingin' it" was the new plan du jour. So sometime about 11:30 a.m., after clearing J.Vlo for travel, hitting the bank, the grocery (we needed snacks), and a hotel for local postcards (Panda has this thing with postcards), we were off.

And then we drove. And drove. And yep, you guessed it -- drove.

Since most of the trip was just a ton of driving and not very exciting, I'll spare you the details. But there were some highlights, like when my companions decided to build a fort in the car so that they could watch another episode of "Weeds" without the glare of the outside world. It must have been quite a sight to those driving along side of us and most onlookers probably wondered just what was going on underneath that blanket.

To fully enjoy the show, however, they needed a CD car kit tape adapter (much better sound than leaving it up to laptop speakers). So we stopped in that bastion of Kentucky commercialism that is -- Bowling Green.

Okay, I may have overhyped this little town, but after several hours of nothing but caves and Dollar General stores, finding one of those streets that you're bound to find in most towns here in the U.S. -- you know the street... it's lined with several chain restaurants, chain stores like Best Buy and Old Navy, and at least two car dealerships (one selling "previously owned") ... yeah, that street -- it was like finding Shangri-La.

So into the Big K we go (where, in a bizarre twist, they're selling the Secret Dossier version of Apocalypse Now for less than that Robin William's flick, R.V. ...now I ask you, is that at all right?) and we head back to the electronics section to find our adapter. Only, they don't seem to have it. And we search and search and I start to wonder if they even make them anymore since most new cars are equipped with a CD player already. I mean, these little adapters are quickly going the way of the Dodo. Long story short (too late), we find it and we're on our way.

To Nashville -- well, around Nashville. We opt to skirt by the city and find food on the otherside. It's about dinner time now and we're a bit famished (translation: I'm cranky). So when the traffic hits and we see an L.A. worthy jam fast appoaching, we cut across several lanes to the nearest exit in search of something resembling food.

And there's nothing here, nothing worth a second look anyway. But I soldier on, driving through the backroads of Tennessee knowing that somewhere there would be another Shangri-La. There were neighborhoods and where there are suburbs, there are chain restaurants. So say we all.

And just as we're giving up, just as the light is fading over the horizon, we see it... a J.Alexanders. Then an O'Charley's. Then -- wait, off to the left...

It can't be. Do you see that? The old style? The art deco lettering? No. Way. These things shut down -- it can't be -- I'm dreaming? But then --

Oh yeah. Panda sees it too, and like two children on Christmas Eve who think they see Santa's sleigh soaring overhead, we're practically giddy with excitement and J.Vlo asks the obvious, "what? what is it?"

To be continued...