I spent the night with the Acords the night before, and they don't usually have coffee. It was getting on around 9 AM and I was like, "Um... This is selfish, but I'm an addict and I need some coffee.... heh!" Mr. Rocky jumped up to make me some, but he didn't have to, because Mrs. Jeanie was on the phone with Mrs. Theresa, who was at McDonalds. Problem solved. The dear Mrs. Theresa brought me some coffee, and I knew everything was gonna be alright.
Mr. Rocky packed our luggage in the trunk, Anna Leigh and I settled down in the back seat with munchies, blankets, and dvds, and so we set out. Mrs. Jeannie took the wheel under the guidance of Anna's GPS, and Mrs. Theresa rode shotgun. And we drove. And drove. For hours.
For lunch, it was decided that we would all write down our top four choices for lunch (on a ripped up napkin) and whichever place had the most votes is where we would go. Subway won! The subway we found had a Dairy Queen beside it, and all of a sudden I really wanted some fries. So I decided to get a DQ chicken wrap, which I ended up regretting because it was tiny and weird. However, the fries were fantastic and that's what mattered. Then we drove even more, finally making it to our hotel about 9 hours after we started.
Anna Leigh and I plopped down on the sleep number beds as soon as we arrived. We played with the settings and laughed for probably half an hour, til Mrs. Jeanie called out outside to look at the awesome pool. By the way, the most popular sleep number is 35. The perfect balance between soft and supportive. The pool was pretty sweet. It had a waterfall rushing over these big landscaping boulders, and a nifty koi pond. It would have been nice to go for a swim, but we got there too late, and had to leave too early in the morning.
All the way to the hotel we kept thinking of things we needed. Fake nails, chocolate, deodorant, wrinkle release spray, blo pops... you know, important stuff like that. A Wal-Mart run was definitely going to be a necessity. We also decided we needed to find a Cracker Barrel for dinner since all of us but Anna needed a real meal. It seemed perhaps if we just drove around we would find what we wanted. We drove one way. Nothing. We drove another way. Nothing. That plan wasn't working so well, so we stopped at a pharmacy and asked some lady where we could find a Cracker Barrel. She gave us really good directions, told us there was, mercifully, a Wal-Mart right beside it, and suggested we visit the Atlantis hotel on Paradise Island once we got to the Bahamas.
So, we headed out following the girl's directions without a hitch, and found the Cracker Barrel. I have never been so excited about roast beef, mashed potatoes, and macaroni in my life. My heart flooded with joy at the thought of it. And rightly so. Anna asked if it fulfilled my expectations, and I told her it quite exceeded them. It was the best ten dollars I've spent in a while, topped off with a biscuit and blackberry jam.
With our stomachs much happier, it was time to head to the next-door Wal-Mart. We sallied forth, made our purchases, and headed back to the car. Mrs. Theresa realized that this trip (which had been pretty dramatic for a simple trip to dinner and Wal-Mart) was definitely worth documenting, and forbade us enter the car. Henceforth she found an optimal space in the parking lot whereat the Wal-Mart sign could be see above our heads. The camera found a place on top the car, auto-timer was set, and the picture was taken! Time to move forward!
Who knew forward would be so confusing? Richard the GPS voice told us how to get back to the hotel from our current location, but we passed the exit he told us to take. We got off at the next one, so he told us to get back on the interstate by turning left in a couple hundred yards. We approached the place to turn and were stunned to find not a clearly marked ramp, but what looked like a vast emptiness instead. "I'm not turning into that cow pasture!" Mrs. Jeanie said, so we did a U turn. It didn't make sense for it to be a cow pasture, and surely Richard was right, so we headed toward the left turn again. "Take it slow, Jeanie. Nobody's behind you, just go slow. It DOES look like a pasture!" said Mrs. Theresa from the passenger's seat. And so she did. Of course, it was not a cow pasture. It was not well lit, but it turned out to be a normal on-ramp, and we made our way back to the hotel drama free, with Anna Leigh and I contentedly eating gummies and chocolate.
Once we got back to the hotel it was time to make preparations. Getting ready for anything can be a fiasco when there are women involved. Increase the number of them, and the insanity increases exponentially. Anna Leigh and I had to lay out all of our potential outfits and corresponding jewelry, and invite a panel of judges to help us. Oh, the indecisiveness of us! We made quite a mess of the contents of our suitcases, deliberating which pants would be best for which day, and showing off our formal dresses. Mrs. Theresa's enthusiasm for everyone's dresses was very gratifying, and we were quite satisfied with our selections. Finally, casual and dinner dress were chosen for the next day, we re-packed our bulging suitcases, and went to bed.
