All of Me...: Heading West

      My cousin Donna and I had been throwing around the idea of heading out to Phoenix for a couple of weeks previous...Patty had come close to death and we wanted to see her. We tried every combination possible, she living in Indy and me in Mi we could drive, fly, train...Only one problem...We didn't have any money...We were both waiting for our taxes to come back. Being the early riser that she is, she called and woke me up one morning at 7am...(We had talked about us taking her car or her truck...car has lots of miles on it and I truly don't think my back will make a 4000 mile round trip in a truck.) We only have one vehicle here and hubby needs it for work...she calls and says "how about this: I'll rent a car, and we'll drive out...I say, how about this, let me get a cup of coffee in my hand and I'll call you back"...and so I did.
     We talked about it and it sounded like a good plan. She could rent the car on a credit card and I could give her my half later..."When are we leaving?," I ask. She says "let me check on the car and call you back"...A couple of hours later she calls and says, can someone drive you down to Dayton? She will rent the car from there, I will meet her and we will leave. How fast can I get there? Well, I'd had a pile of stuff ready to go all week but not packed, not knowing if or when I could go. I said I can be packed and ready in an hour and it takes 3 hours to get to Dayton...ok fine...call me when you're on your way she says. My hubby ran up to one of those quick loan places and borrowed $500.00 and Donna had $60.00 but like I said our taxes were to be deposited within a few days...We left Dayton on a Friday just before dark...We had to run back by the airport to the car rental so that they could see my drivers license and I could share in the driving...Then stopped in Indy (right off of the highway) and had dinner with her BF and her son and his girl... finally we are headed west, I'm already tired from the ride to Dayton so she starts out driving. We hit it off right away, (remember we don't even know each other) and chat about family, spouses, kids, the trip etc...She gets tired of driving so I take over...the route is pretty straight and simple and she gets her pillow and blankie and tilts back and goes to sleep...we are going to try and make it to Oklahoma City so we can sleep at her sisters house. We don't want to get a room because we don't want to spend the money...Just for gas, oh and lots of coffee to keep awake...
   Now, I've been through St Louis Missouri before, seen the arch, it's a beautiful city at night, yadda yadda, but had never DRIVEN through it. I get to the top of this hill and the roads fan out in half a dozen directions, 6 lanes of heavy traffic and several different routes...I am already in the right lane and couldn't get over if I tried so I just take that route...Nope, wrong route and it takes us 80 miles out of our way until she wakes up and we study our mapquest. She has a GPS but we haven't hooked it up yet, so we do that, stop and get a REAL map and she drives again for awhile...I fall asleep and after a few hours she is sleepy again too so we pull into a truck stop and drive up and down and up and down all theses isles of running sleeping big trucks. One of us makes the comment that the truckers probably weren't real fond of us driving around and flashing our lights in their windows...We don't want to park here but she finds an area in front of the building that is lit up and cars only, we tilt our seats back, turn off the car and crash...But I kept waking up. I had it in my head that I was going to wake up to some big trucker guy with his face in my window...After awhile it is getting cold in the car and although we have blankets it's not enough...My back and body fell like they're frozen in position...So we sit up again and drive...drive...drive...Dollar menus and coffee...(I swear I will never eat off of a dollar menu again!) I can't tell you when, but sometime the next day we made it to her sisters house and crashed, but not for long...only a couple of hours and we were back on the road again...Time was of the essence in getting to Patty...
   So before we left her sisters house we do another mapquest to the next town that we will stop in, only we have decided that we will get a room this time so we can get a full nights sleep...My cousin Theresa, Donnas sister, a first responder in the OKC bombing, guides us to the bombing site and walks us through the tradgedy...we spend an hour or so there...A very sad and humbling place but I am glad that I've gone...It deserves it's own blog and I will get to that...We seperated from cousin Theresa there and Donna is driving and then later I took over while Donna slept...this stretch of road is a gazillion miles long, very dark, no gas stations, no rest areas, (not that we'd go to one anyway!), no exit ramps, not even anywhere to pull over...nothing...Just miles and miles and miles of nothingness...It is night again and all there are on this road is truckers...By now I have been driving for 6 hours and my back is killing me. (I have degenrative disc disease and 2 herniated discs)...I'm getting severe shooting pains in my lower spine and am close to tears...FINALLY! I can see the city lights in the far distance, I floor it...Amerillo Texas, that's where we're staying...I wake her up tell her we are in Amerillo and all I get is a weak "yay"...I pull in to a gas station and she sits up and says, No cuz, we aren't staying here, it is not safe. We still have 400 miles to go! WHAT THE FUCKING GOD DAMNED HELL KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THAT! I practically fell out of the car, close to tears as my back was in excruciating pain...No, she says again, I said Albuquerque, like in New Mexico, not Amerillo...I was PISSED and she was PISSED, both of us growling but not wanting to have a full out fight...Our first Higgins spat, tiny but intense...so I walked around for a few, got my pillows assembled under and behind my back so I couldn't feel the road vibration, popped 2 vicodin and went to sleep...and so again, we arrive at our new destination in the dark...
     We find Albuquerque but the GPS has us going through sub-divisions and around in cirles...We can SEE the city lights below, but we don't know how to get to it...After awhile I'm ready to throw that stupid ass GPS out the window...this entire trip, whenever we get off the highway to potty and grab some coffee, it says in a WAY too sexy voice, make a u turn, turn left, turn right..."SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU STUPID BITCH", I scream at the GPS, and again we both begin to laugh, hysterically...Drive and drive and finally find a room... there is only one room left and it is on the smoking floor...Donna is not a happy camper as smoke really does bother her...I feel bad for her but I am elated! I didn't over do it out of respect for her but it was nice to wake up and have a smoke with my coffee...We haul ALL of our shit in just in case the car gets stollen, she had showered at her sister and I badly needed one...It is after midnight and she says about me taking a shower, "what about the people next door?" I said "FUCK the people next door, I'm showering!" She just chuckles and shakes her head at me...By the time I get done she is sleeping, fully clothed...I relax and smoke another wonderful cigarette and crash. By now it is after 2am...
    Early Donna is up, dressed and ready to hit the road as I stumble around trying to wake up...We see hot air balloons going up in the distance...cool, we take some pics and she asks me if I'd like to check out the town. I'm feeling guilty about taking the extra time that we should be on the road but we decide to go into town and look around...I'm glad we did...what a great little shopping town, (yet another blog coming up!) great pics, friendly people for the most part, and we strolled around for about an hour...It felt good to be up and walking...
   When we were getting ready to leave we could see these mountains off in the distance and I, of course, wanted pictures because we had completely driven through the Ozarks in the dark, but somehow we ended up in an industrial section...we see a man standing at the back of his pickup truck...there is a couple of items in it and a yard sale sign...We laughed our asses off but didn't get a pic...We are going up and down all of these roads trying to get a closer shot of the mountain range without the buildings and fences in the pic...all of a sudden we are cruising down this street and all lanes of traffic are coming in our direction! Facing us! We are driving the wrong way! She shoots into a driveway barely before a head on collision, horns honking, headlights flashing at us..(quick thinking Donna!) and we start to laugh and laugh and laugh...Why is this funny? Because we are over tired and it just is...As we sit there a trucker is parked across the street and he wanders over towards the building he is headed to, shaking his head and laughing at us too...He said, "don't worry, you're not the first ones to do that." It seems that we can find our way around better in the dark than in the daytime...We finally get our bearings and continue west. We drive and drive and drive and I fall asleep...the next time I wake up it is dark and we are parked in a Holiday Inn parking lot and Donna is sleeping behind the wheel, so we crash for a couple of more hours and get back on the road...We arrive in Phoenix... at night... in the dark...
   I have to say that one of the best things about driving into the dark is the sunsets...I will post some here but will have a whole slew in my FB pics...The west has some of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen...
   Donna, if you can add anything that I've forgotten or perhaps some of these things are out of sequence, please do so...My jumbled brain may have forgotten some things...I enjoyed traveling with you immensly...The worst for me was the non smoking car...that sucked, mostly when trying to stay awake behind the wheel...
   Now remember folks, this was just the trip out, I still have the trip back, the time spent in Phoenix, OKC, Albuquerque and much else to tell you about...It was a trip of a lifetime and I shall never forget it...