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Published: December 23rd 2006
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Ozy's first road trip
This is Ozy before the really nice calming pill kicked in and he slept for most of the trip. Isn't he cute! Well boys and girls, sorry for this late update. There have been so many things that happened since we last spoke, where do I begin?
Well firstly, I'm in Grenada Mississippi, not Tupelo-it was the closest choice to what I had available. We're about 4.5 hours from The Husband's home in Louisiana. We drove all the way from Des Moines to Mississsippi in one day-back to the original plan. How did we get here, and a day late you ask? Well let me tell ya.
Wednesday:
I leave work about noon-it's raining and ugly outside in DSM. Ozy's been groomed and he's pretty. The house sitter guy flaked out on me, but I have a replacement coming at 2:30. We go pick up our last minute items and rush to the house to meet the house sitter. It's 2pm.
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It's now 3 pm, and she's not here. I call. "I'm on the way, I fell asleep", she says. What tha heck?
YOU FELL ASLEEP? I wait until about 4:30, then we had to leave-we had to go to the bank before it closes, and I had to pick up the rental car. House sitter
Thru the Rain
This is outside of Ottumwa, on Highway 34. The rain cleared up about 20 minutes after this shot was taken. chick calls, says she's at my house. I tell her that now she has to wait on me, because she TWO HOURS LATE!!!
Pick up the rental car, a Ford Freestyle. This was not my first choice, as Hertz had slim pickings of cars and this is what I could get. The Husband is a big man, so he may not like this car, but he has plenty of room for all of our crap. I go home, meet the housesitter chick (who's a bit flaky, but nice), and finish cleaning and packing. We don't get to bed until 3 AM Thursday morning.
Thursday:
We wake up about 10. There's no way we're going to drive to Arkansas as planned-we're tired. So, I call my sister in St Louis, and ask if we can stay the night there-at least we'd be on the road somewhere. She's cool, so we pack and get our stuff loaded. It's about 3 now. In the meantime, my perfectly groomed dog, who is clean and pretty, has gone outside and got mud all over his white paws. Color me not pleased.
The husband isn't happy with the car. His head is
Mississippi River Valley
This is on Highway 61 in Missouri. It's all under construction, but the scenery was nice. hitting the top of the roof....he's grumpy, I'm grumpy. We make it as far as Altoona before we figure out this isn't working, and call Hertz to get a new car. The only car they have is a Grand Marquis, and the only thing the St Louis airport has is a Grand Marquis. I hate this rental car, and since I have to drive the majority of the way, I'm not going to drive it. So, I call Thrifty, and they just happen to have a Chrysler Pacifica-the perfect road trip vehicle. I turn in the car at Hertz and go get the car from Thrifty. This is rental car #2.
I get in the car, and immediately the 'perform service' light comes on-can't drive this car to Louisiana! I go back to the counter, they have no more Pacificas. I instead get a Chrysler 300-pretty swanky! This is rental car #3. I love this car, I'm happy, I go home. The Husband gets in the car, he likes it, so we load up the puppy and go to Jolly Holiday Lights. We've lost a day, but if we get up early on Friday we can make up the time, right? Read on, dear reader.
Friday:
We get up at 6, and we're dressed and ready by 7:30. I can't find my rental agreement, so I call Thrifty to get another one. We load up the car. The 300 may be a cool car, but the trunk space is not what we need. That car is stuffed tighter than a sausage, and we're bringing things back with us. So, I go to Thrifty, ask for yet another rental car. After an extra $109, I am the proud owner of rental car #4-a Chrysler Town and Country Minivan. It's got plenty of room, Husband is happy, Puppy is happy, I'm happy. We leave Des Moines-finally. It's 10:30 AM.
We get lost. The AAA directions leave a lot to be desired-why didn't they just route us down University Ave? That's Highway 63. We eventually make our way down the right road, thru Ottumwa, Mount Pleasant, and finally to the Great River Road-US Highway 61 to Missouri. I must say, that of all the road trips I've been on, the Iowa part has been pleasant. The roads are nice, and the scenery is beautiful. Once we got past Ottumwa the rain stopped and the sun came out-really pretty.
We got to St. Louis, and stopped at Happy Tails Doggy Spa-the place where Ozy will stay when we're in St Louis at my sister's house (she doesn't like dogs). This place is doggy heaven-no crates, just open places for dogs to run and play. He liked it so much he didn't want to leave-they had to chase him to get his collar back on him so we could go-my dog would act up. We get back in the car, and try to make up for lost time. We were still going to stop in Arkansas, but The Husband (who was driving) got a second wind from some where. So, we drove to Grenada-about 2.5 hours past our original stopping point, and almost 800 miles from Des Moines. It's midnight when we get in and settled, so we crash. It's Saturday morning now, and we're getting ready for the drive to Franklinton.
I'm a little wary about being in Franklinton-the floors in the house aren't the greatest, and we haven't seen what Katrina has done to the property. There really aren't any hotels in the city (it's a very small town), and defintely no internet access. So, this will be my last update until we go to NOLA on Sunday. Until then, here are some pics from the trip, and happy holidays!
Andrea
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