Learning to have car claustrophobia

Tomorrow I leave on the second of my summer get the heck out of the swamp trips. A friend and I are meeting some other people in Hot Springs for our first ever girl gathering! I am so excited! Sonic Sue, my pal, was a librarian, is a red head and cannot pass a Sonic Drive In without getting a Route 44 Diet Coke. I drink vanilla Dr. Pepper.

We plan on visiting the Southern Living house while in Hot Springs and enjoying non swamp weather. I only know 3 of the other 10 women who are coming, Sonic Sue only knows 2 of us and Margarita Prairie Rose almost everybody. It should be interesting.

After that Sonic Sue and I will drive to Utah to deliver the family baby cradle to my baby, whose wife is having a baby! Sonic Sue has never been to Utah so this should be fun. We'll do the touristy stuff, then drive back.

After that I have two days of workshops, and a day of defensive driving class. Then off to the lake for the 4th, then back home for a couple of days. Then off to South Carolina to visit Middle Man, my #2 son, and his son. Margarita Prairie Rose wants to come along. It would be fun.I have to go to the beach. I don't care what beach, just a beach! I need ocean, I need waves and sand, and a book. It soothes my overworked, underpaid, self.

Then my mother has the bright idea of me flying, we load up a rental truck of furniture and drive across country delivering to my kids. I had a better counter proposal, of drive the truck here to my place, via #3's house and then take some stuff up to #1's house and we'll see how Middle Man's life is and get him his stuff when he settles down.

Okay so why don't I just fly to all these places? Because I don't usually go to cities with major airports, and then I'd have to rent a car. So I travel by car. Even with fuel prices the way they are, it is still cheaper!

So by the time school starts I'll be fearful of any trip in a car longer than 10 minutes.

I'm changing departments when school starts and that will be interesting. Now if only the powers that be would tell me exactly what I'll be teaching. But that would be cheating!