Tuesday, April 14

Easter dinner, ala vending machine!!

Last week I was planning a nice 4 day trip to visit my son in Tennessee for Easter. Well last Wednesday he called and said "Mom,I am having a bad day" in the voice that makes every mothers heart stop. Very LONG story short, the visit is now a go down and get him and his stuff and his car and come back home. Simple right?? WRONG!!!! The car had broken down and now has to be fixed, and fast, and please make sure to tell the mechanic that it has to go 800 miles when its done. OK so that was done on Thursday and the mechanic said it would have no problem going the distance. Now to get there and get him and all his stuff and fit it into 2 cars and get home. Oh and did I mention he has a 50" TV???? And 6 guitars, an electronic drum set, an amp and of course clothes and other stuff!!!
So Friday we head out and for some reason we were not supposed to make that trip that day. Everything went wrong, my navigation was retarded and got us completely off track, I mean really whacked out!!! Then after stopping and have new directions printed out, and having to go a completely different way than the last time, we started off again. But we were in New Jersey and we needed to turn around, good luck!!! Can't make lefts in Jersey!!! I am not kidding you can only turn in certain places, very strange. So there I am trying to find someplace to go to turn, and boom!!! My back passenger tire blows out!!! Thankfully I was only going about 20mph, so I quick turned into the parking lot and promptly got hysterical!!!
Called AAA they came and put my spare on, which thankfully is a full size spare and not a doughnut. I told hubby that's it we are going home and will start again tomorrow!!! When we got home he took the car to our mechanic, who he called and told him to get us 2 tires, and had them put on the car. My mechanic was floored, he had just checked the tires that week because he knew we were taking a road trip. It turns out a lead balancer from a mack truck somehow went into the side of my tire and blew it out, when Jay, my mechanic, took the tire off it was still in there!!!
Then later my son calls and says, good thing we didn't come that day. Tornado's all over the area we would have been in!!!
So Saturday we started out and thankfully all went well, followed AAA directions this time, and got there by 7:00. The "apartment" my son was staying in was in downtown Knoxville. The area is just outrageous!! Love the area!! The apartment, not so much. While it could have been fixed up to be great it wasn't. His friend who's apartment it was, but he was living with his girlfriend, left it a bit of a mess. And my son had no furniture so there was only a futon mattress on the floor. I must say I saw this and my heart broke, he was living in a 2 bedroom place with all new furniture and it as beautiful. He and his girlfriend broke up and decided to just live as room mates until the lease was up in August or at least until he finished school in May. But she decided to throw a tantrum and when she didn't get her way, she told him to leave. He thinking he had an "apartment" to go to said fine. But she did not know he had a place to stay and didn't care where he was going to end up. So for all she knew he had no place to go and still told him to leave, nice right???
Anyway after spending the night on the floor, off we went on Easter Sunday. Got to Pennsylvania and spent the night there, in a great hotel I might add. And came home on Monday!! So now thank God he is home safe and sound and we all made it!!
I have to say, making an 800 mile trip with 2 cars, one following the other is a bit nerve wracking!!! And I am NOT GOOD with road trips to begin with!!! I mean to go 4 or 5 hours away, no problem, but really 12 hours???? So this will go down in the books for us and the craziest Easter yet, and believe me I have had some crazy Easters.
Oh and Easter dinner, lets see....we got dinner from the hotel vending machine, not kidding!!! The hotel room had a complete kitchen in it, so I got a can of ravioli, hubby got a can of soup, and son got 2 easy macs!! By then we were so shot we didn't care what we ate. Heated everything up in the microwave and viola!! But the main thing we were all together and safe and not to far from home!!!!
So the real Easter dinner will be next week!! I will make us something really special. So now if you all will excuse me, I have to go have a complete meltdown!!!