Week of June 21-27 - Special Moving CJ and Ashley to Las Vegas Edition! Part I

This past week I was given the opportunity to drive cross-country again to help CJ and Ashley move into their new home in Las Vegas. Of course I jumped at this chance, because it allowed me to do two of my favorite things: sit in a truck and eat sunflower seeds! Our journey was epic and exciting, and I hope to remember all the really good parts in the story to follow. Since I have retured from this trip, I have spent 6 straight days at work, never less than 8 hours per day, which is why this tale is slow to reach you, the faithful reader. It has also been split up to give you, the faithful reader, the opportunity to enjoy the story without having to read it all at once.

Day 1: Orlando to Ocean Springs – This leg of the journey was preceded by a trip from St. Pete to Orlando in the wee hours of the morning. Nicole was down for the week, and wanted to see some friends in Orlando, and I happened to need a ride, because that was where CJ and Ashley formerly lived and thus were leaving from. In order to get there by the time they wanted to get on the road, Nicole and I needed to leave at about 5 in the morning. This caused me a little trepidation because I was not 100% sure that my alarm clock would even recognize 4 AM as a legitimate time to wake me up. Sure enough it worked, and we got on the road precisely on time, which in my family translates into 45 minutes after we said we’d leave. We arrived to find their truck fully loaded with Ashley’s Xterra in tow and Ashley and her sister Brooke, who would be joining us, out shopping for last minute snacks. Once she got back it was a quick goodbye to the roommates and we were off! Right off the bat, CJ noticed the subtle nuances of driving a rented truck while towing another vehicle: they accelerate like a river barge, brake with all the urgency of a freight train, corner like a hog on ice, and at full bore they sound like someone has stashed a can of bolts on top of the engine. All of this is normal in such a vehicle, and lends itself to a great deal of fun while you adjust to the unique driving style you need to adopt, such as anticipating sudden stops several miles in advance and abandoning all notions of passing anyone, ever. CJ’s driving skills had plenty of time to evolve on the 8-hour drive to Ocean Springs, a city just outside Biloxi, Mississippi where we were staying the night with Ashley and Brooke’s aunt and uncle. They were a very nice family to let us stay with them, especially since their neighborhood was still working to repair the damages done to homes from hurricane Katrina. The roofs were still covered with blue tarps, and every house had the following parked out front: a dumpster to collect the gutted insides of the house, a storage container the hold the stuff that didn’t get destroyed, and a FEMA supplied trailer for the families to live in while Brownie’s “heckuva” job struggles to show itself.

Day 2: Ocean Springs to Arlington – After a solid country breakfast of eggs, bacon and biscuits, we hit the road for Arlington, Texas where we would catch a baseball game. Unlike my previous journey cross-country, this one as designed with an eye toward seeing things along the way, because time and funds permitted it. The colossal shortcomings in comfort that were baked into the rental truck, here I am thinking of seats made of plywood, were overcome by CJ’s Sirius satellite radio which would be integral to our sanity throughout the trip. We would not have to sort through FM radio stations deep in the heart of Texas where the favorite broadcasts are pretty well limited to evangelists spouting tales of hell and damnation and country singers. For some reason those two groups have the means to buy the most powerful broadcasting equipment. I’ve still never figured out how they do it. Anyway, instead of listening to all that, we go to listen to stand-up comedians and ESPN pretty much interruption free. We also played the Alphabet game, wherein you have to find words that start with each letter of the alphabet, in order. In populated areas the game can go pretty quickly with even Q and X posing little problem, while out in the country, that game can span hours and even when you finish your eyes still seek out words like a guided missile and analyze their usefulness to the game. I’m happy to say I won the first two rounds.

Upon reaching Arlington we got our first real taste of in-city navigation with the pachyderm, and had the added bonus of trying to do it with all the traffic from that night’s baseball game and throngs of Six Flags tourists going home for the night. We got lost almost immediately, but we recovered quickly. When we finally got to the hotel, Ashley and Brooke went to check in while CJ and I undertook the manly task of parking the truck. CJ and I could no sooner have taught drunken rhinoceroses ballet than convince that truck and trailer to take up anything less than 8 parking spaces. By the time we got up to the room, the girls were done showering and pretty much asleep. Our room overlooked Six Flags Over Texas, and that was neat, even if the park itself didn’t look all that exciting.

The next morning it was up and out to the baseball game. We had planned to get tickets in an area called the Home Run Patio, which was above all things shaded, but attractive also because a high number of homeruns landed there. These tickets had been sold out since they went on sale at the beginning of the season. We ended up with seats that offered far less protection from the sun, which must be closer to Texas than the rest of the country. CJ was right though; the ballpark is beautiful, and designed in a way that you always imagine an old time ballpark should look. The architecture is all red brick married to back steel with high arches and flowing breezeways. Think Roman Coliseum if it were built in the 1920s and then updated with modern conveniences. We stayed until about the 5th inning and we had built up a nice layer of sweat and sun block before deciding to get on the road, because Albuquerque would still be 11 hours away, whether the Texas Rangers won or not. Before we got on the road, though, I decided to take care of one of the charming little traits our rental truck had decided to share, the blowing of random fuses. In this case the fuse responsible for the brake lights gave out, and that’s never a good thing. One fuse box was located under the driver’s seat, but the offending fuse lived in a box mounted conveniently under the hood, practically under the engine. Also, we had no replacement fuses, so whatever a courtesy light is, we did without it because that’s where I pulled the fuse from. With that taken care of and the Weird Al song of the same name playing in our heads, we were off to Albuquerque!