J.P.

I send a text message. It starts out simply. I say “Earl”.
He says, “What?”
I say, “Earl, why don’t we live in Texas?”
Now, it’s rare that I call my husband Earl. His name is Earl and like me, he shares the name of his father but he’s not a junior. It’s one of the many things we have in common. Well, that and our marriage license. But I don’t call him “Earl” because that’s his name. I have my favorite nickname that I call him and it makes me feel good. But I’ve had a beer or two so I call him “Earl”. Formalities and all that. Back to the question. “Earl, why don’t we live in Texas?”
He always has the same answer, “because we have good jobs in Upstate New York. We do quite well in Upstate New York.”
“I could have the same job in Texas but they wouldn’t let us be married.”
“That won’t be a factor much longer”, he always replies as he’s always the optimist. That is one of my biggest worries. When you’ve married your best friend for real, you want everyone to recognize that realness forever.
This is how it goes. I’m in Texas on business and have had a couple of beers with the guys. I played golf tonight. I suck at golf. I’m horrible. As I told my friend Matt, I could push a Vega with my cyclist legs, but if there’s no windmill or waterfall to putt-putt through, I suck at golf. Apparently my legs dance around. I don’t feel embarrassed because I’m sharing a pitcher of beer with a co-worker who I’d call a friend. He’s a good guy.
Even though I don’t “get” Texas, I like the vibe of working down here. Good people. Totally different than the office I work at home, but the vibe is still good and they believe in what we’re doing. That’s important to me.
I say, “Earl”.
He says, “What?”.
I say, “Earl, but I’m tired of the snow.” I don’t whine. I hate whining. Whining makes me insane and happy that I’m an introvert that shuns the company of those that whine.
“Hold on until I retire, then we’ll make our move.”
I have a pretty sweet gig. It’s a lot of work, I occasionally bitch about it, but when I meet with others in the group, as we are all over the country, I’m reminded that I work with good people. I need that reminder. It energizes me. A lot. I could skip the beer (but I don’t) with them, but I enjoy working with them. Traveling to the next office over (150 miles away) or to the Texas office (1000 miles away), it doesn’t matter, it’s the group camaraderie that isn’t completely replicated over the telephonic conference calls. Contact with your peers is good. I need to find a way to do it more often.
There’s a lot of nifty things around this office in Texas. I don’t know if it’d be as enjoyable if we lived down here but I’m willing to take that gamble. It was 102F when I landed yesterday. They’re enjoying a cool spell at 85F. They say it’s fall-like at home in Upstate New York. I don’t know if I’m ready for autumn yet.
I might have to convince someone that I need to come down here one more time before the end of the year, just to make sure all of our ducks are in a row on this new big project I’m a part of at work. I wonder if they’ll buy it.
I text again: “Earl”.
He says, “Go to bed, sweetheart, I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
I say, “I love you” and then I call it a night.
I shall include a photo from “I Dream of Jeannie” for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Actually, when I golf I think of a scene from the movie “I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later”, but I can’t find a screen cap so this one will do.

So it is Monday and Earl and I have been home for just shy of 24 hours. Tomorrow morning I board a plane and head to the greater Dallas, Texas area for work; this was not planned until I received a phone call while we were in the more rural area of Wisconsin. Though things are wicked busy at work and at home, I’m looking forward to this little trip.

When all was said and done, Earl and I hit 11 states in 11 days and 3506 miles. On Saturday morning we left Louisville and made the short drive to London, Ohio, where we met up with Tim and Kevin. Tim and I have been chatting regularly since February or so; they finally hunted me down because Tim collects the *exact* same clocks that I collect. I must say, he has a beautiful collection of these clocks.

We drove around Columbus and went to dinner in their ’61 Lincoln Continental convertible, complete with suicide doors. A couple people yelled “Green Acres” at us!

And we had chocolate covered bacon!

Yesterday morning the four of us met Tim and Kevin’s dear friends Mitch and Sheri where we had a fabulous brunch on the patio before we headed home in the Jeep. 10 1/2 hours later, we were home.

And tomorrow, I hit the road again.

So today has been a day of relaxation in Louisville, Kentucky. Last night we met up with our friend Kody, who I believe recently moved to the area from Lexington. This morning I woke up and I was still feeling sniffly and stuffy from the cold-I-don’t-have. Not to be deterred by this, I decided that I was going to evict the cold-I-don’t-have by sweating the bastard out. I achieved this through walking.

I walked from downtown Louisville to an area I believe is called the Highlands. I did this via a neighborhood called NuLu. NuLu looks like it’s rebuilding itself to a former glory, whereas the Highlands (Bardstown and Baxter) is fully of locally owned eateries, pubs and cute little shops.

I walked the 3.1 miles from the hotel to the nearest Starbucks, where the fever-I-didn’t-have apparently broke. I felt 500% better but I was sopping wet. Hoping I didn’t look like a homeless person, I ordered a bottle of water and an unsweetened green tea and quickly chugged them down. Even though I didn’t have a cold, I felt victorious because I suddenly felt like my normal self again. The bonus of this cold I didn’t have is that my voice is really deep right now. I sound like Barry White but without the panache or hit singles that were remade by Taylor Dayne. If I tried I could sound like Taylor Dayne but usually I end up sounding like Anastacia.

I think I’m digressing.

Earl and Kody opted to drive (as they thought I was nuts to walk that much) and they met me for lunch, where we went to Wick’s Pizza Parlor and Pub.

Vegetable Stromboli.

One thing that occurred to me during lunch, and this was obviously because I was feeling better than I was before, was that we hadn’t had any pie or any sort of dessert along this trip. We rectified that with a stop at the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen, where I had Chess Pie for the first time in many, many years.

Another thing that I had not accomplished yet was a visit to a local barbershop for a shave, which is something that I enjoy from time to time. I ended up going to the Derby City Chop Shop, which was highly recommended by all things electronic. I wrote a review of the experience on Google+.

Official Barbershop greeter.

Foaming at the mouth.

It was a long wait but that was a beautiful thing, because I got to get a feel for the local flavor and it was quite a nice vibe.

After my chop shop experience (and no loss of blood), Kody and Earl decided to drive back to the hotel but I declared I would walk back, after all, why settle for 3.1 miles when you can walk 6.2 instead? Still feeling fantastic, I walked back to the hotel where I again sweated like a pig. On the way back, I passed a shop in NuLu that had this on the front wall of their building.

Documenting your dreams is a beautiful thing, whether you say them silently and toss a coin, repeat them every night before going to bed or write them on a chalk board on a storefront in Louisville, Kentucky.

After you document the dream you have to go chase it. While still feeling inspired, I spotted this whiteboard in another store front.

Live it up, baby, live it up.

So every year around the holidays I have teased Earl a little bit about the fact that he gets so excited about the holidays that when it finally arrives, he finds himself with a little bit of a head cold. It’s like his body breaks down a little bit from all of the excitement.

This morning I woke up with a stuffy nose and some sneezing action. I was so excited about this trip that apparently when the awesomeness ensued, my body relaxed and finally said, “you need a break, bud”.

The only thing on the agenda today was driving.

The plan was originally to take a ride along the northern part of Arkansas through some pretty nifty scenery (and a bunch of Mayberry like towns), but that route was all flooded out from the frivolity of last night’s thunderstorms. So Plan B it was and we ended up driving the entire route via Interstate. (For those keeping Interstate BINGO, we rode Interstates 540, 49, 44, 55, 64, 264 and 65).

Once we hopped onto I-44 in Joplin, Mo., we were retracing a ride we had taken years ago in the first Jeep. In fact, I pointed out to Earl the Hampton Inn that we stayed at in Lebanon, Mo. He said I was crazy. I told him that I am absolutely crazy, but I knew that we had stayed at the Hampton Inn on a foggy night. Then I refrained from saying “neener neener” when I confirmed it via this blog entry.

We did a very small bit of exploring on old US 66 and found ourselves at the Route 66 Diner. They have a clock there that looked very familiar.

Apparently we were near Fort Leonard Wood, as we found ourselves surrounded by men and women in their ACUs. I have to admit, a man in his ACUs will always get my attention.

Since we were at a diner that featured homemade soup, I ordered chicken soup for my soul (but not the book) and to help my sniffles. It was delicious.

We drove quickly through St. Louis (waving to cousin Julie and internet buddy Richard in the process) and then drove across the endless prairies of southern Illinois and Indiana. I finally found a place to use the restroom, where the bathroom doors were only chest high.

People could glance in while one was doing their business. I would just wave back because I didn’t know the proper etiquette of how to respond when you’re sitting on the toilet. Do I stand? Do I shake something? Wipe something? Do I make a territorial “ahem” noise? So many choices.

When all was said and done we were situated in Louisville, Kentucky, where we are just getting back from dinner at an Irish pub that had a darlin’ server named Michelle who was kind enough to remind me what “Irish Baked Beans” were. I had them for breakfast on toast when we were in Ireland a few years ago. She wasn’t there but she said that would be proper.

If the blog entry seems slightly rambly, it’s because I supplemented lots of Airborne chewable tablets and Halls Vitamin C drops with a Guinness. Or two. But not three.

Because three would have just been too much.

I’m going to sleep in in the morning.

Sometimes you just have a feeling that things are going to be awesome on vacation. You know this to be a fact before the event even happens so you don’t really worry about these things, but in the end it’s always good to have a validation that what you know to be true is actually true.

Today was a good day.

Last night we met up with Erik & Robert and Dwayne, and Mark and Ben, who were visiting from Denver. I’ve followed Mark’s blog for a while now and I’ve been following Erik’s blog for a longer amount of time. So when we sat down and had drinks and dinner last night, I started chatting up a storm. I don’t know if this takes some people by surprise, but I’m the type of person that is either going to jump into a conversation and/or experience with both feet or I’m going to just sit back on the sidelines and watch. There’s no halfway for me, I’m all in or I’m all out.

All in was a good thing.

Today we continued sharing some good times with our new friends In Real Life and ended up going to the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. This was very cool. Earl and I are not huge art fans, but we certainly appreciate talent when it is displayed, so we had a good time enjoying the various pieces of art that were on display through this wicked cool complex of buildings.

Can you see why I enjoy this particular painting of a clock shop?

Here we are with Mark and Ben. I let Erik touch my phone. I don’t let just anyone touch the Phone of iMachias.

Mark and Ben needed to head back to Denver, so we said our farewells (and we look forward to our paths crossing again!). Earl mentioned something about Loose Meat, and once I figured out that he was talking about lunch, Erik introduced us to a place near his tattoo shop where we had loose meat and loose talk. I believe the eatery was called Maid-Rite.

This evening we went to Erik and Robert’s house for a visit. We chatted for quite a few hours like we had known each other In Real Life for years and years. There’s something wonderful about that “click” sound that happens when you meet good people. Erik and Robert are doing some fabulous things to their farm and we look forward to visiting again to see how things are progressing.

This has been a fantastic visit with good people. We are looking forward to meeting up with Erik and Robert again soon.

Earl and I are now doing what all crazy Jeep road trip people do. We’re doing laundry.

We woke up in Ankenny, Iowa this morning. When I awoke I had no idea where I was. I thought I was in Wisconsin but Earl wasn’t on a cot so we must have moved to a new hotel.

There’s a reason it can be dangerous to use Hampton Inn in every place you stay. We had a run going for a while: room 334, 335 and then 336. Then we ended up in 106. Tonight we are on the fourth floor. Maybe they added a floor just for us.

Today was all about driving from central Iowa to northwest Arkansas. So we drove.

And we drove

And we drove some more

We stopped in at a place called Toot-Toot Cafe in Bethany, Missouri for lunch and it was good, though there was a brief moment of silence when the two gentlemen from New York walked into this family restaurant. Every eye gazed upon us and when they determined that we were good folks, only at that time did normal operations resume.

Upon our arrival in what I have come to think of the Bentonville-Rogers-Pea Ridge, Ark. Metropolitan area, we quickly settled in and met up with Erik, Mark and husbands, husbears and friends for dinner and Tuesday night beveraging.

It is completely awesome meeting these folks in real life and we are looking forward to continuing the visit tomorrow.

After beveraging Earl was in the mood for dessert so we checked out Andy’s Frozen Custard in Rogers, where I had something called a concrete. It was delicious. Earl had pretzels added to his.

And now we are settled in for the night, feeling good and feeling happy.

For my husband, who mentioned earlier today: “I have a conference call tomorrow at 9 a.m., but since we are here it’ll be 10 a.m.”

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Clip #6 Goldie… by RetroCafe