Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Spotsylvania Adventure...part 1

What a weekend. Still processing it all and still trying to recover so I’m going to write about it in stages.

Some time ago (maybe last year at Beach Week??), Daddy brought up the idea that we all meet up for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Wilderness. Daddy has been doing some family tree-type stuff and found out that his great-grandfather (I think…I get lost in the “greats”) had been a captain in a regiment in the Union Army during the Civil War and had been killed in the line of duty during the Battle of the Wilderness. (Here's some information about him. Especially love the last two paragraphs!)

Fast forward to a couple months ago and I’m talking to my sisters about getting down the nitty-gritty about making plans. Next thing you know, I’m in my car driving to my sister, Annie’s house in Charlotte! This past weekend's travels took me from Loganville to Charlotte on Thursday evening, from Charlotte to Fredrickburg, VA (and visiting a new cousin’s home in Spotsylvania) on Friday, Fredricksburg to Washington, DC and then finally to my sister, Lori’s house in Fairfax on Saturday, Arlington then DC then Fairfax and then to Charlotte on Sunday and, finally, back home to Loganville on Monday. Yep, I’m exhausted and as much as those doofy blind spots in the Equinox drive me nuts, two thumbs up for the nice ride!

That’s the overview…now to take it slow. I wish I had pictures. I meant to take some selfies along the way because I thought it would spruce things up around the ole blog to add more pictures. Oh well, best made plans and all that…

Anyhow, the Plan was that I would leave Thursday after work to drive the 4.5-5 hours to Annie’s house and spend the night there. I worked 45 minutes late on Tuesday and was going to leave 45 minutes early on Thursday. My trusty Equinox needed an oil change. In fact, it told me I needed to change the oil every time I started her up. I was getting tired of hitting the CLR button and also didn’t think I should go on the type of trip that I was planning without changing the oil and getting the car a good once-over. Unfortunately, life happened and I wasn't able to take care of that so I drove to work on Thursday with the car still screaming at me that it needed an oil change. But, hey, I was getting off 45 minutes earlier than I’d planned to when I came up with this whole Plan, so everything was going to be fiiiiiiiiine. Sure…

Thursday at 2:30 p.m. I get a call from my supervisor who asked me what time I was getting off work that day. I had seen him earlier in the day when he had to come out and help with an issue and we’d talked about the 45 min early thing, but it must have escaped his mind. When I told him that I was clocking out in 15 minutes and heard him sucking in his breath, I knew I was not getting out of there in 15 minutes. Surprise! My evaluation was due by Friday and since I wasn’t going to be at work Friday, he needed to get it done now. But we did it superfast so I was still able to clock out 15 minutes early.

I prayed all the way to the mechanic and when I got there heard the words I wanted to hear, “Sure we can fit you in now. It won’t take long.” And it didn’t. However, while I waited I came to the realization that I’d managed to leave my phone’s charging cord at work! That’s a pisser! Back to work I go meaning that by the time I get home, I’m now 20 minutes later than in the original Plan. Shazbot!

I hurriedly take the dogs on a walk, change my clothes, and jump in the car to start this adventure. Traffic bit the big one getting out of metro Atlanta and I had to drive the last part in the dark (thank you, OnStar) but my sister, her husband, her adorable fur-babies and a guest bed with the softest sheets known to man were waiting for me. So that was super.

Next up…the drive to Spotsylvania (love saying that name). SOMEone gets pulled over in the next installment! J

No comments: