What I Did on Vacation

Yes....that's a cast.  For the first time in my life, I have a broken bone.  Here's what happened:

If you're a regular reader of this little blog, you know that the last year of my life at the office has been less than stellar.  Because of all the grief inflicted on our department by the implementation of a bad, bad, BAD computer system, I was unable to take my beloved camping trips during the 2011 season.  Needless to say, I was really looking forward to a week in the woods during a long-anticipated WHOLE WEEK OFF this week!

Rain was predicted for Monday, so I packed most of the camping gear in the car on Sunday evening.  I'm a tent camper, so even though I can get everything in my little Saturn, it has to be packed just so in order to fit.  When I went to bed Sunday night all that remained to put in the car was my medication, my small stash of items to be put on ice in the cooler, and my clothing for the week.

When I awoke Monday morning I heard the rain before I looked out the window.  I packed the last of my needed items into the car and headed for Food City to get a breakfast biscuit, some sweet potato chips, and a bag of ice for the cooler.  While waiting to pay for my biscuit (which was, by the way, delicious) I saw an older gentleman throw one of the biggest fits I've ever seen in public.  If anyone from Food City management in the new Bristol, Virginia store happens to be reading this, the young lady who was operating the check out register at your deli this morning was NOT AT FAULT, and the man who was having such a fit was a TOTAL JERK.  Just sayin'.

Anyway, after I'd paid for my items I headed toward the campground at Sugar Hollow Park.  Even though it's very near where I live, I'd never camped there before.  There were very few campers in the campground when I arrived, and some of them left during the day.  I chose a site at the end of a loop within easy walking distance of both water and the bathhouse.  I checked the electrical connection to be sure it worked (much better than finding out after you've already pitched a tent!), then proceeded to get the tent set up.  It rained the entire time I was setting up, and SO HELP ME as I drove the last tent stake into the ground, the sun came out!!  *LOL*  Oh, well, it all worked out okay any way.

I dried the tent floor with an old bath towel, turned the heater on in the tent to help dry it out, and took a little break.  After a quick call to Mom to let her know that I had cell service (but no wi-fi, thank goodness...I needed a break from technology!!), I unloaded the rest of my gear from the car and got the tent set up and squared away.

After another brief rest, I decided that I'd go out and pick up a salad for my main meal, since it was after 2:00 p.m. by this time.  I went to Wendy's for a pecan chicken salad with pomegranate vinagrette (yum!), then came back to the campground to eat it.  After my delicious lunch-dinner I dragged out my comfy lounge chair, fired up the netbook, typed an entry into a "camping diary" I'd decided to keep for the week.  At my side, waiting for me to finish typing, were my knitting bag and my Kindle.  I had a library loan on the Kindle that I had to finish before Thursday, but I finished it before bedtime that evening.  Though I'd seen the movie numerous times, I'd never read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".  As much as I love the movie, I liked the book even more.  It's grittier than the movie...sadder in some ways, more inspiring in others.  If you've not read it, you should.

Keeping track of how much wildlife I saw, on the first day I saw two spiders, two bunny rabbits, one chipmunk and heard a gazillion cicadas.  (The 17-year cicadas are in full song in my neck of the woods.)

Early in the evening, I took a walk around part of the campground.  (I intended to walk further, but a thunderstorm was threatening around, so I cut it short.)  I had the opportunity to meet a nice couple just a short distance from my campsite.  That reminds me that I meant to tell you the day's count for campers in the campground:  1 pop-up, 2 camping trailers (but only one was occupied that evening) and 2 tents, including mine!  I zipped up for the night and settled in, comfortable in my cozy tent, listening to far rumblings of thunder and the song of the cicadas.

As is my habit, I awoke early Tuesday morning.  The air was crisp and cool, so I turned on the electric kettle to make myself a cup of hot tea for breakfast and lazily crawled back under the sleeping bag to wait for the water to boil.  I turned on my Zune to see if I could check the local weather on the radio and learned that there was a chance of rain later that afternoon.  After breakfast I cleaned up the tent and dressed for the day.  I sat outside the tent and settled in for a restful session of knitting.  The campground was very quiet, and I enjoyed watching a bunny play while I completed a few rounds on a pair of socks I'm knitting.

The park ranger on duty came by to be sure all was well and that I had passed the night comfortably.  I commented to him that I'd seen one runner and one bicyclist go by on a trail near the campsite and asked where the trail went from there.  From over his sun visor he pulled a nice little map of all the trails in the park and told me that he'd been told that there was enough bicycle traffic on the trails these days to ensure that the trails had been packed down nice and smooth.  I thanked him and said that I might actually get up out of my chair and take a little hike.

The weather began to cloud up, so I decided that if I planned to take a hike I should probably go ahead and do it then, saving my knitting to do in the tent while it was raining later in the day.

Things didn't quite work out that way......

I changed out of sandals into my sneakers, consulted the map, and found a trail marked "easy" that would provide a nice walk beside a creek that runs through the park.  The trail had washed some during the rain of the day before, but was well-marked and enjoyable to walk.  I did find that "easy" is a relative term; for a younger, more fit person I'm sure the trail IS easy.  For me, I'd call it "moderate".  I was being very watchful for tree roots and mud that might trip me.  After all, I was walking alone.  As a precaution I had my "bear whistle" hanging around my neck and had my cell phone in my pocked.  I was carrying a bottle of water and my camera.  I saw several lovely sights and snapped photos that I will post on Flickr soon for your perusal.  On this lovely scenic trail, there was one brief section that veered away from the creek it follows to go around a tree.  In that small portion of the trail, it climbs very steeply uphill, the drops just as steeply downhill on the other side of the tree.  I proceeded cautiously, watching the tree roots and being mindful of the mud.  My caution didn't help.

As I reached the high point of that little section going around the tree I had a brief moment to realize I was losing my balance.  There was nothing to grab onto to steady myself, and down I went.  As it always happens when I have a fall, I really don't know exactly what happened.  All I know for certain is that when it was over, I was lying in the underbrush on the lower side of the trail and my right ankle hurt like the dickens.  My first thought was, "I hope there's no bone sticking out."  My second thought was, "I'm glad I'm here instead of Grindstone!"  Because in Grindstone I wouldn't have had any cell service.  Fearfully, hopefully, I felt my ankle and was relieved to see that nothing was sticking out.  The ankle was beginning to swell, though, and I knew I'd better get out of there as quickly as I could before it got worse.

Quickly consulting my trail map I learned that I was just over half way to the picnic area, so I decided to go forward instead of back-tracking.  I would call the park ranger from the picnic area and ask if he'd give me a ride back to the campsite.

I hobbled to the end of the trail and crossed a bridge into the picnic area.  I could hear park employees working with chainsaws in the upper part of the picnic area but knew that I'd never be able to make them hear me over the noise of the saws.  I flipped open my cell phone; no service.  Oh, man, this was not good.  I sat on a picnic bench in one of the shelters and sipped water for a few moments to catch my breath.  I knew where the ranger's check-in building was, and it was a long, steep climb out of the picnic area.  At least it was paved.

By the time I got the ranger's building in sight, my ankle was really hurting.  I got cell service back within steps of the building.  Figures!  I explained to the ranger what had happened and asked if he'd mind giving me a ride back to my campsite.  He was very kind and was happy to give me a lift.  He waited to be sure I was able to get into the tent okay and said if I needed anything to be sure to call.

I was all muddy and grubby from my fall, so I hobbled to the bathhouse to shower and wash my hair.  When I got back to the tent, I realized I'd left my car keys hanging on a hook outside the shower and had to go BACK to the bathhouse to retrieve them.

When I got back to the tent again I found that my ankle was swelling pretty badly.  I'm diabetic, so when it comes to a foot injury, I always lean to the side of overcaution.  I didn't want to frighten them, but I called Mom and Dad and told them that I thought I probably should have a doctor look at the ankle.  They came to the campground and took me to Urgent Care.

Their office was pretty busy that afternoon, so it wound up taking about four hours to get everything done.  The doctor took a look and said that because it was swollen all around instead of just on the side that whacked the ground, it would be a good idea to get an x-ray.  I agreed.  The x-rays revealed a spiral fracture of the tibia.  Rats.

They immobilized my ankle with a huge, heavy cast (photo above) that I not-so-fondly referred to as the Frankencast.  I had to be taught to walk on crutches, which was a new experience for me.  Armed with prescriptions for pain pills and anti-inflammatories and an appointment with an orthopedic specialist for the following afternoon, we headed for the drugstore to fill the prescriptions.

While waiting for the prescriptions to be filled, we came up with a plan for what to do about my campsite.  I thought I could probably go back to the site and spend the night, then pack up and have things ready to break camp the next day.  My mother would not hear of that.  Not only was I going to be on pain medication, but the walk to the bathhouse on crutches in a campground with very few other campers was not going to be safe.  What if I fell again?  Reluctantly I agreed with her.  She was right.

After receiving my medication, we picked up burgers and went to the campground.  There were things there I'd need even though I would be spending that night at Mom and Dad's house.  After I ate my burger I said that I could sit on my bed and pack up a few things.  This was going pretty well; I'd pack and Mom was carrying what I packed to my car.  Daddy asked if I thought I could finish that up and I said that I believed I could.  So, he went to pick up a friend of his so that his friend could drive my car back to Mom and Dad's house.  (Mom has a valid driver's license, but hasn't driven in years.)

So, with great effort and much gritting of teeth, I got things pulled together and packed up and Mom crammed them into the car.  By the time Daddy got back all that remained was to drop the tent, roll it up, and fold up the ground tarps.

As it turns out it was a good thing I spent the night at Mom and Dad's.  It was a truly miserable night.  Even with the pain meds I was very uncomfortable and couldn't manage to fall asleep until about 3:00 am when exhaustion finally felled me for a few hours.

Wednesday morning I was in less pain and began to get the hang of the crutches.  I was anxious to see what the orthopedic doctor had to say.  I'd been told that my injury might require a screw to hold things in place while the bone healed, and I wasn't particularly looking forward to that.

Luckily for me, the doctor told me that the very fact that I'd been able to walk out to the ranger station was an indicator that the tendons and muscles surrounding my fracture were strong and provided enough stability that surgery would not be necessary (YAY!).  The Frankencast was removed and replaced with a much lighter air cast which can be removed for showers (DOUBLE YAY!).  I'm scheduled to return to the doctor in two weeks to be sure that everything's progressing as expected.  He said that it will take three months for everything to completely heal, but he expects me to be fine, thank goodness.

After we returned home and had dinner, I took a pain pill which knocked me flat on my butt!  Unfortunately, I woke up a little past midnight and haven't been able to go back to sleep.  That's why I'm making a blog entry in the wee hours.  *sigh*

So, the bad news is that on Day Two of a planned week-long camping trip I broke my leg.  The good news is that I'm going to be fine.

Here's hoping your week is less eventful than mine has been so far.  :-)

It's Been a Good Day

It's race weekend in my little corner of the world.  For those of you who don't happen to live in a town with a NASCAR track, let me tell you that race weekend changes the way things go in your town.

Bristol is a very popular track on the NASCAR circuit; it's a short track, and that makes for interesting racing.  There are a lot of fans who prefer short track races, and Bristol always draws a good crowd.

Having said that, I will mention that we don't get the sell-out crowds we used to get.  Times are hard, and the state of finances in the nation have taken a toll on ticket sales.  Still, there are lots and lots of extra people in town this week, and it's interesting trying to get around right now.

I was off work yesterday and today; I had some compensatory time that I needed to take before it expired.  I lost most of yesterday to a round of some sort of crud that made me headachy and mildly nauseous.  I thought at first it might have been allergies, since everything around here has burst into bloom with the unseasonably warm weather.  It didn't feel like allergies, though; it felt viral.  *YUCK*

But this morning I awoke feeling much better, thank goodness.  I met a friend for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom.  It was my first visit there, and I highly recommend it.  I had a calzone that was just wonderful.

After lunch I went to Best Buy in search of a laptop docking station.  Why do I even try to look for something there?  I've been in there three different times now and have never found a single solitary thing I was looking for!  Oh, well.  I'll go ahead and order one online like I thought I'd do in the first place.  Then I went to Target to pick up a few things; as usual, I found a lot more things that I actually needed, but got some good buys all the same.  After I left there, I went to Sugar Hollow to look over their campground.  I still want to go to Grindstone, but thought it would be good to take a look at a campground nearer home in case I needed it.  I then made a quick stop by the bank to pick up a little money. 

As I was leaving the bank, I witnessed a car accident.  There's nothing as sickening as that horrible crunch of metal hitting metal. Without going into too much detail, one vehicle hit another in the driver's door.  The driver who was hit in the door appeared to be unconscious.  I felt very helpless, but saw that others were coming to his aid, so I left.  Such a terrible thing!  I certainly hope he wasn't badly injured.  There was nothing about it on the local news this evening, so I hope that's a good sign.

I was a little rattled after seeing that and decided I needed to get out of the car for a few minutes.  I pulled into the parking lot at Sam's Club and went in for a little while to walk off my shakes.  I wound up finding a few items I needed, so the stop served two purposes.  In a short while I felt much more settled, so I drove home using the back roads and avoiding all the extra traffic.

I'm always glad to be home, but home looked especially good this afternoon.  Except for witnessing the accident, it's been a good day.

I hope your day has been good, too!

An Eventful Vacation

Finally I have time to post about vacation! I'll have photos posted at my Flickr site (see link at the right). We started out from Mom & Dad's at 6:23 am on Sunday, February 25. It was raining lightly on us all the way through Knoxville. We could see blue sky peeking through the clouds as we reached the west side of Knoxville, though.

Shortly after turning south toward Chattanooga, the sun popped through, and good weather prevailed. We stopped in a Cracker Barrel in Gadsden, Alabama for lunch, then continued on our way. We arrived in Vicksburg shortly after 5:00 pm our time (EST). Considering the time we'd spent at lunch, we made excellent driving time.

Not long after we'd checked into our motel, Raechel called to say that Lesa would be getting off work soon, and they'd be out shortly after. When they came over, we learned that Jeremy was working, and we wouldn't see him until the next day. Mom and Dad treated us all to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. The furnishings in the restaurant looked a bit tattered and worn, but the food was really good. When we got back to the motel, we visited a bit. I knew that Mom and Dad had to be tired, so I invited Lesa and Rae to come to my room and watch the Academy Awards on TV until time for Lesa to pick up Jeremy at work. Rae fell asleep in a chair while Lesa and I watched the awards.

The next morning, since Mom, Dad and I were still operating on EST, we ate the complimentary breakfast provided by the motel and waited for Lesa, Jeremy and Rae to arrive. We then went to City Cemetary, a very old and unusually beautiful resting place filled with interesting historic markers. After walking a good deal in the cemetary, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant where Raechel works. It was really delicious; their hot and sour soup is the best I've ever eaten anywhere.

After lunch, we went to the military park. Vicksburg has the most beautiful military park I've ever visited, and I've visited a few! There are 1,330 markers and monuments in the park, and the 16-mile tour road is a beautiful, leisurely drive. One of the highlights of the park is the U.S.S. Cairo, a Union ironclad which was sunk on December 12, 1862, in the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg. The Cairo was raised in 1964 and is on display. A museum houses various artifacts from the vessel.

Jeremy had to work Monday afternoon/evening, so we got back in time for Lesa to take him to work. Lesa then took a nap, and Raechel had plans for a bit with a friend. After a take-out dinner at the motel, Lesa and Rae went home and Mom, Dad and I turned in early. It had been an eventful day, and we were still operating on Eastern Standard Time!

The next morning we were up early as usual, had a complimentary breakfast again, and Daddy dropped Mom and me off at the Ameristar Casino. We told him we'd only be a couple of hours, and he told me to call his cell phone when we were finished. I hadn't been inside a casino in a long time, and considered my "breaking even" to be a real win! Mom wasn't quite as lucky. :-)

When we finished at the Ameristar, we still had some time to kill; Lesa and Jeremy were coming over after dropping Raechel off at work at 11:00 CST. Daddy asked what I'd like to do, and I asked if it would be too much trouble to go across the Mississippi River into Louisiana for a bit.

We went across the bridge, and turned down a road which took us out onto a levee. It was a beautiful warm day, and the sun shining on the pools of water by the levee was striking. After awhile, we came off the levee and back into Vicksburg. We stopped at the Visitor's Center for a brief time, then came back to the motel.

Jeremy and Lesa arrived at the motel shortly after we got there, and we went to a Cracker Barrel for lunch. We had to come back to the motel right away because there'd been a mixup with Mom and Dad's motel bill, and the manager was working on straightening it out. Daddy wanted to stay close until it was all settled, so we just rested and watched TV that afternoon until Jeremy had to go to work. After he went to work, I said that I'd like to go to the Port of Vicksburg. We went down to the port and saw some beautiful murals painted on the concrete walls at the riverfront. We also went through a lovely little park nearby, then drove through part of the historic district to see some of the wonderful old homes there.

We were too late to tour the homes, but got permission from one of the employees to walk around the grounds at Cedar Grove, a lovely antebellum estate which now serves as an elegant bed and breakfast. Cedar Grove took its lumps during the War Between the States; a cannonball is lodged in a parlor wall. The only reason Cedar Grove was spared during the shelling of Vicksburg is that its owners allowed the home to be used as a Union hospital. The mistress of the house was a cousin of General William Tecumseh Sherman, and was therefore ostracized by the residents of Vicksburg. Her husband, oddly enough, was not treated with the same animosity.

When we finished touring, we stopped and picked up some excellent take-out barbecue sandwiches and went back to the motel to eat. I felt like all we'd done for days was ride in the car and eat!

On Wednesday morning, after Mom, Dad and I had our usual quick motel breakfast, we went out touring around town a bit. We went down on Washington Street, where Mom and I spent a good while in the Tourist Information Center. We bought t-shirts and I bought a hat, and we talked with a guide there who told us lots of interesting things I wish we'd had time to do! After we drove some more in the historic district, we then went down to a little park on the river where we could watch a tugboat pushing a barge up the river. By then, it was nearly time for Lesa and Jeremy to come by.

We walked to a nearby Shoney's for lunch. I felt the need for something green, so I hit the salad bar. After lunch, Lesa looked just exhausted; she was to pick up Raechel at 2:00 (her lunch break from work), so Daddy suggested that she go to my room and take a nap until time to pick up Rae. Instead of waking her up when the time came, Daddy went to get her. When they came back to the motel, Jeremy, Rae and I started playing cards. Lesa was still sleeping. Mom suggested that Raechel call Lesa and ask when she was going to pick her up from work. *EG* Rae did so, and Lesa sure enough thought she'd slept through the time to get her. Mom and I quickly took credit for the stunt so Lesa wouldn't kill Rae. *LOL*

Lesa had to go into work that afternoon, and Raechel told us she didn't have to go back to work that evening. So Jeremy and Raechel stayed with us for a good while; we took them to Whataburger for supper. The food was good, but I enjoyed the music more than the food. (60's nostalgia)

After we dropped them off at their apartment, we went back to the motel to get packed and get a good night's sleep before heading home the next morning.

Since we were leaving long before the motel offered their complimentary breakfast, we checked out and went back to the Whataburger (open 24 hours) for breakfast. I liked their breakfast even more than the burgers they're famous for.

The beautiful weather we'd enjoyed since arriving in Vicksburg was gone. A cool rain fell on us as we headed toward Jackson. Daddy had offered to go home a longer route so that I could see some of the Natchez Trace. (I'd only seen the portion of it from Jackson to Port Gibson previously.) After we turned north onto the Natchez Trace, we began seeing deer in the early morning darkness. The rain lessened as daylight finally arrived. We stopped at a few of the historic markers on the Trace and took a few pictures. The weather was gray and dreary, so the Bynum Indian mounds were our last stop.

We came off the Trace at Tupelo, intending to see Elvis Presley's birthplace. The rain was setting in pretty steady by then, and we thought we'd missed a sign somewhere because we couldn't find the birthplace. We gave up and decided to turn north on Hwy. 45. (As it turned out, I learned later than we were probably less than 1,000 feet from the birthplace but didn't know it.) We drove to Corinth, Mississippi; on our way there, we drove through one of the worst rainstorms I've ever seen. A tractor-trailer was stuck in the median of the 4-lane highway at one point. All the ditches beside the road ran full of water. We were happy to see that storm move off to our east, even though we knew we'd have to drive through it again before we got home. We'd watched the Weather Channel the evening before and knew that we were apt to drive through some rough weather on our way home no matter which route we took.

We stopped at a Shoney's in Corinth for lunch; when we finished, I asked Daddy if he'd like me to drive awhile. He said he'd take it awhile longer. I knew he was thinking of that rainstorm, so I didn't press it. I figured he'd let me drive again after we got through that mess.

Driving east from Corinth, I realized we'd soon come to the Alabama state line. I wanted a photo of the state "welcome" sign since I'd missed getting a photo of it on our way to Vicksburg, so I took my camera out of its case and laid it in my lap. (Daddy was driving, I was riding the shotgun seat, and Mom was in the back seat, behind Daddy.) Fourteen miles east of Corinth, we were passing through a little community known as Burnsville, Mississippi. We were on US 72, a four-lane divided highway, traveling the speed limit. On our left, I saw a white Chevy S-10 pickup truck coming across from our left. He'd run a stop sign on his cross street, crossed three lanes of US 72, and hit Daddy's jeep in the left front.

When I saw the pickup headed across the highway, I thought "He's not gonna stop." Mom said that I actually said "He's not gonna..." before the kerblam! After the impact, I actually had no idea how bad the damage was. All I knew was that we were traveling down the side of US 72 in the pea gravel beside the road, and off to my right was a really deep ditch with what looked like a creek running in it. I heard metal on pavement and thought the tire was flat on the left front. It took a good way for Daddy to get the Jeep stopped. When we all asked each other if we were okay (we were), Daddy and I both got out of the Jeep. He started walking back up to the intersection where we got hit and said to me, "See if you can find my wheel. I don't know where it went." That was the first time I realized that the front wheel had been ripped off the Jeep! I finally found it down in the water in the ditch beside the Jeep.

The truck that hit us had the driver and two adult passengers in that little bitty pickup truck. Not one of them was wearing a seatbelt. The driver had no insurance, and was driving on a revoked license. The impact knocked the truck 180 degrees back into the crossover of 72. No one was injured. It was unbelievable. EMT transported the two passengers in the truck; there were no injuries, but there were some high blood pressure and high blood sugar issues to deal with. In our vehicle, Mom had what the EMTs called a "strawberry mark" from her shoulder harness. Her neck was sore for a couple of days, but other than that we walked away unscathed, thank God.

The Jeep didn't fare as well. As luck would have it, the wreck happened just down the road from a tire store that also did wrecker service. After the police came and filled out reports, the owner of the tire store moved the Jeep up to a locked lot on his premises. He invited Mom and me to stay in the waiting area of the tire store (warm, dry, and he had a big screen TV) while one of his employees took Daddy back to Corinth to rent a car to get us home.

While we were waiting in the tire store, a horrible rainstorm hit Burnsville. Watching the news, we heard about the tornadoes causing such terrible damage in Alabama. I told Mom that as bad as the accident was, we could have been in much more trouble if we'd gone home the way we went to Vicksburg. If we'd take that same route home, we'd have been right in the midst of the tornadoes! Talk about a strange set of circumstances....

With the weather forecasts for that night looking so terrible, Mom and Dad decided we should probably just get a motel room near Burnsville, stay the night, and start over the next morning. It sounded like a great idea to me. Daddy had rented a car from Enterprise in Corinth. Unfortunately, Enterprise there didn't have any one-way rentals available, so he was going to have to return that car by Monday afternoon. Paul, one of Daddy's good friends, suggested that maybe we could find a one-way rental in one of the larger towns over in Alabama and return the Enterprise car.

So, the next morning we packed up and headed for Alabama. Armed with a Florence, Alabama number for Enterprise and my cell phone, I rode shotgun again with Daddy under the wheel so I could make calls on the way. I had to wait awhile for Enterprise to open (we were still in Central time zone). When they opened, I learned that they didn't have one-way rentals, either, but that nearby Avis did. I got directions to the Avis location at the airport (actually in Muscle Shoals, where some of my all-time favorite music was recorded....Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, and my favorite song ever, Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll"). We got to Avis 20 minutes before they were to open, so we just waited in the parking lot, soaking up a bit of Alabama sun in the meantime.

When Avis opened, they told us they didn't have one-way rentals either. I have to admit that by this time my patience was wearing a little thin. The lady at Avis gave me a number for Hertz in Florence. When I called Hertz, they (hallelujah) said they had one-way rentals available. I got directions, and away we went. When we rented the Hertz car, Daddy drove it and I drove the Enterprise car; back we went to Corinth. Sixty miles. We turned in the Enterprise car, then went to the same Shoney's where we'd had lunch 24 hours earlier. The hostess remembered us!

We were then, finally, back on the way home. I drove from Corinth until we stopped for gas just before we got to Chattanooga. Daddy drove the rest of the way in. We had a slight scare just east of Huntsville. A young man pulled across 3 lanes of US 72 from a cross street, just like the pickup truck that hit us in Burnsville. I, luckily, was a bit paranoid and was expecting him to do something stupid. Mom and Dad both said that he looked up and saw me just as I got the car stopped. He actually never saw me coming. So much for having the right-of-way! *whew*

Other than a traffic jam in Chattanooga, the rest of the trip was uneventful, thank goodness. By the time we got the luggage in at Mom and Dad's and I got home, it was 11:00 pm. We'd left Vicksburg at 6:10 am the day before. Boy, was I ever glad to see home!

Luckily, we were able to handle all the paperwork (getting police reports to the right place, etc.) by fax. The insurance adjuster called Daddy Wednesday and told him the Jeep was totaled; Chrysler had told him to total it at $8,000, and he stopped counting the damage after he reached $8,300. So we got all the appropriate forms faxed to Detroit, and got Mom and Dad's new vehicle ordered.

All in all, a very eventful vacation! It's taken me so long to write this epistle that I'll wait until tomorrow night to post the vacation photos on Flickr.