Road Trip: Day 1 The Mom, The Step-Dad, and I finished packing the car at midnight last night...this morning? Which does that count as? Anyway, we loaded up the entire back of the car and then the roof-top cargo carrier (wicked awesome). I am so glad I didn't have to do the two bags thing like the teachers I know who are teaching in Asia this year - I could have done it, but I am really happy that I didn't have to. 

I took The Mom and The Step-Dad out to breakfast as thanks, and we stopped by my grandmother's on the way home. (This is my dad's mom, mind you.) My grandmother is 94 and such a character (just the way she insists on calling Big Papi "Big Pappy" cracks me up - it isn't spelled right, apparently), but she's also a worrier. That means that The Dad and Auntie decided she doesn't need to know I'm going to be in Mexico, so I am already accruing the benefits of the school's Texas postal box. 

Anyway, the drive down was crazy. I should have expected that for a Sunday afternoon in July. Everyone and their brother was headed south, back to the city for the work week. I was originally GPS-scheduled to get in at 5:40, and I didn't get here until almost 7:30. The torrential rain in Connecticut didn't help (except perhaps as a test of the water-resistance of the cargo carrier...my comforter hopes that it held watertight) - there was too much rain for the storm drains, so there were sections that had water that was probably 6-inches deep, meaning that anyone with sense (i.e. not near as many people as one would hope) was driving slowly so as not to splash water in the wrong spot on their car undercarriage. And, you know, driving slowly in torrential rain is also a safe thing, with or without deep water. 

But I am safe and sound at my friend's house now, and it is going to be great to spend a few days with her, as I haven't seen her in ages.