Short(er) and Sweet (Tea)

Its funny but after those first two days on the road I honestly started to settle into the truck. It wasn’t exactly comfortable per se but by then I knew just where everything was, had some good music kickin and started to enjoy the journey. I knew that we were about to enter MS and see my MIL who we hadn’t seen for way too long and I was looking forward to spending some time together, even if only for one night.

From Cookeville to MS we just yakked at each other and I marveled at the sight known as kudzu. I guess I always thought Matt was just exaggerating when he said the stuff blanketed trees and grew up and over roadways in the span of one season. But oh no, he was not joking at all. In fact MIL said it can grow up to 18” per day.

Guess that’s why they say don’t lie out tanning in your backyard for too long, you might just be swallowed alive by heart shaped leaves attached to life choking vine. Interested to learn about why kudzu is even in this country and why it just won’t go away? Click here

After the Days Inn debacle we knew better than to try to get the truck down MIL’s street so a few blocks before her CR- (that’s Country Road FYI) we found the closest Walmart and crossed our fingers. At most Walmart’s across the country you’re allowed to park a vehicle overnight. It’s just that those vehicles usually come with the requirement of a different type of license – RV, tractor trailer, tour bus – and our 16’ box truck with a car hitch isn’t exactly what one might refer to as rock ‘n roll.

I started by having Matt drop me off at the door and told him just to circle around the lot. The nice lady at the front door said it should be fine but talk to customer service. The nice man in customer service said it should be fine but he’d talk to his assistant managers. One of them requested my name and phone number. The other said no more than 24 hours. We were good to go!

After his 8th circle (because all those calls and conversations took just a touch longer down south, Sugar) we met back at the front and with the info in hand of exactly where in the lot to go, we made our way to the front, pulled through and proceeded to drop the car off the trailer for the first time in over 48 hours.

As we shoved bags into the backseat on top of the bags already in the back seat and got in we both laughed at how tiny we felt now. The immediate thought that went through my mind was that as soon as we hit Arizona I’m so getting my huge black truck with tires as big as me and the step ladder I’ll need to get behind the wheel of the thing.

Don’t worry, I don’t hate the environment now or anything, it’ll mostly sit in the driveway anyway considering the current state of gas prices.

We got to MIL’s place and had a handful of hours to chill and chat in central air around the kitchen table. At one point (around 9:30) I started to actually drift off in the chair. My body, don’t forget, thought it was still 10:30 after two and a half straight days inside the very rigid backed bucket seat of a box truck.

I locked myself in the guest room for about 15 minutes and did a few sun salutations. I needed to wake up, stretch my very compressed stomach muscles (hello upward dog!) and detox a little of the road food. As a side note, we’re back on our workout routine starting next Monday yippie!

We had a Pizza Hut pizza which pained me to do because I wanted to arrive in AZ with the memory of Bianchi’s still on my taste buds but it was food and had about 2 peppers on it so at least I ate 1/20 of a serving of veggies. Upon the next drift-off I finally declared that regardless of what they did, I was heading for bed.

The next morning MIL had to work anyway so it worked out great. We crashed out and at about 8:30 AM hugged our goodbyes and headed back with fingers crossed that the truck would still be in the lot. A wave out the window at MIL who was heading up the road, a nod at the truck and trailer being right where we left them and a quick 15 minutes to get the car hooked back up and we were back on the road.