HOME, SWEET HOME!

GOOD GOLLY!  I thought we'd NEVER make it home!  The entire left side of my butt is numb... and that other side hurts from riding side-saddle in the center of the front seat.  You know what?  That Hemi isn't all that great after all.  Did I say it was big?  I lied!  While it was bearable with 6 passengers, it sucked with 7!

And with the 2300 miles that we traveled, the kids chattered non-stop for about 2000 of those miles!  I discovered quite by chance that a mouth full of teriyaki flavored beef jerky would keep the kids quiet as they chewed on it.  Unfortunately the jerky only lasted about 300 miles.  To be honest I was surprised by how good the kids were.  Oh, there was the usual 'don't touch me' thing going on, but 3 cd players, one dvd player and a bag full of those cheap little handhelf electronic games kept them occupied.

And Gabe... oh my gracious, I can't tell you how proud I was to see him standing there in his dress green uniform.  Steve was just bursting with pride as well.  Our son is a soldier.  No, our son is a US Calvary Scout!  He has grown up so much.  We sent our boy to boot camp and they really did turn him into a man.  Its weird.  Every once in a while I'd get a glimpse of my boy, but it would just be a fleeting glimpse and then it would be gone.  The military suits him.  He is so happy.

I took hundreds of pictures with my new camera.  Really folks, I'm not exadurating.... it was literally hundreds.... approximately 400!  My memory card holds 505 pictures, but I wasn't worried... I downloaded my camera each night onto Steve's laptop, and then into my 515 flashstick.  I was prepared!  Oh the photo-ops that presented themselves as we traveled cross country were unbelievable.  And unfortunately they will remain such for Steve's idea of supporting me in my paparazzi training was to point out an interesting site as we zoomed past at 75 miles an hour.  Most times he would just point, leaving me to guess at what he was pointing out.  Once, just once... he slowed down to about 70 mph so I could snap a picture of a plane parked in someone's front yard.  Yea!  What a waste of an opportunity!  I can see I'm going to just have to go on a road trip all by myself so I can stop any time I want to.

Well, I'm going to shower off the trip, try to untangle my hair and sort through all those pictures.  I know I must have at least a couple good ones in there.

Did I mention how nice it was to be home?  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!