AZ Day 8

Between getting to bed well after midnight, my brains swimming, and Bailey’s alarm clock waking me up at 5:30 a.m., I didn’t get much sleep. Add on top of that a heavy breakfast and it was a tough day of driving.


Before leaving Gastonia, Cathy and Kevin brought me to IHOP for breakfast. I ordered poached eggs which make our waiter do a double-take. I guess people don’t order poached eggs in the south too often. He teased me and assumed that I would order hash browns instead of grits, but I surprised him and ordered the grits.

It was after 10:00 by the time I hit the road. The sun actually poked its head out for a bit and it finally got warm – like close to 50 degrees. By lunchtime, I was dragging. Between the heavy breakfast, lack of sleep, and the warm sun beating down through the windshield, I could barely keep my eyes open. I stopped at a Cracker Barrel and tried to take a quick nap to ward off the heavy sleepiness. I don’t know if I actually fell asleep or not, but was awakened by the phone ringing. It was Pat wondering about when I would be arriving. I thought I was behind schedule and wouldn’t get there until around 6:00, but as I crossed into Alabama, I also crossed into the central time zone, so I gained an hour’s travel time.

To try to keep awake and alert, I rented a book-on-CD from Cracker Barrel. It is a Dean Koontz story, so it should keep me pretty riveted. I drove the Interstates the whole day, so there is nothing to report as far as scenery or exciting stops.

I got to Pat’s at exactly 5:00. I think it was raining. If it wasn’t, it was pretty wet there. If it didn’t rain that night, it certainly did the whole next day and three-quarters of the way into Friday. Did I say yet that I don’t think I’ve had one decent day of weather since I left home? As I pulled into Pat’s driveway, I was greeted by BU (pronounced Boo) and I laughed out loud at the site of him. BU, which stands for Butt Ugly, is the worst mess of mixed dog breeds you’d ever want to see. His legs are too short, his head is too big, his nose is too big, but he is the sweetest little guy you’d ever want to meet and, as we found out, extremely protective. More on that tomorrow.