National Lampoon's southeastern vacation - Part III

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Mother Rucker has not changed. And I can’t say I miss it.

At all.

The commissary is still the same cramped, dark, frustrating place it was when we were here 4 years ago. The PX is the PX that time forgot. Enterprise is still the land of tattoo parlors and pawn shops. It’s still hot and muggy.

But my husband is here so I’m happy to be here. And several of our friends that have left Hawaii are here – Mother Rucker being the proverbial “Black Hole” of the aviation world. So it’s been nice hanging out with them. We will get to spend the 4^th with them (hopefully the thunderstorms will hold off) and that will be great!

The funny thing is that, even though it’s 95* or higher here during the day, I often find myself cold. Especially indoors where the a/c is always cranked in complete disproportion to the temperatures outside. But even yesterday evening, when the sun had pretty much set, I found myself turning the car’s a/c off and rolling the window down because I was cold. Seems my blood has thinned over the past 3+ years.

We made the drive from Tennessee to Rucker pretty easily except for the unscheduled stop in Birmingham (81 in a 70…damn) and a PITA detour on 167 in to Enterprise. Sent us all the way out to Elba and back! Definitely would have been easier just to drop down into Dothan and come across which is the direction we’ll be taking when we blow this popstand.

The kids are enjoying their dad (as am I) and I’m enjoying the thunderstorms, Target, and access to all things aviation. I’ll be swinging by the museum next week to wander around a bit, say hi to a few aircraft that are familiar to friends (BillT), and raid the gift shop.

For those keeping score, you can tally up 6 “Are we there yet” inquiries. One per hour. Not too bad. Princess Trouble is feeling better. Thank goodness for doctors in the family. And thank goodness for friends that let us crash with them at the last minute when Lodging screws up our reservation.

I forgot to relay a funny story about our arrival into the South. I had reserved an economy car with a rental agency. We traveled with 3 suitcases, a bag for the car seats, and one backpack each. Pretty light for a 6 week road trip. I tossed it all on to a baggage cart and made my way to the rental car counter to pick up my rent-a-dent. The poor guy behind the counter looked at my rental contract, looked at my baggage cart piled high with our luggage, looked back at the rental contract and then looked at me. He gives me a skeptical look and says “You’re not gonna be able to get all that into this car.”

Heh. Wanna bet?

My husband has worked for UPS and UHaul. We are a military family and have done 2 partial DITY moves (one from Alaska to Alabama with a 1 year old and 2 cats!) in a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder. I can get 3 suitcases into an economy-sized rent-a-dent.

Watch me.

And I did. It was ugly, but I did. Damn thing’s about the size of a pregnant rollerskate and I eventually wound up consolidating our stuff into 2 suitcases and leaving one with BIL/BFF. But it CAN be done.

Heh. Never tell me I can’t do something.

Pau.

- hfs