Life lessons from a road {trip}

It was to my shock and horror when I started updating myself on my friend's blogs this morning and realized that almost all of them had updated their blog, and I hadn't.  I have been wiped off the map for over a week and the world went on around me (as it tends to do, but is super mean of it).  To try to fit in with the cool kids, I am back from the beyond and ready to share some wisdom (as per usual).

As many/most of you know, I recently took myself and trusty dog on our first-ever solo road trip (longer than 3 hours).  I drove from Clarksville, TN (home of the... you know... corn and nice people) to Salt Lake City (home of the Running Utes, Cafe Rio and Sarah's Parents... also nice people.).  It's a full 24 hours worth of driving, 1600 (ish) miles, and 8 states (some of them I wasn't in very long, but I am counting them).  And I drove it ALL. BY. MY. SELF.  (have I blogged about my mantra "I can do hard things"?  Because I can.  And I did.  Boy, howdy.)

So here are my lessons from the road on the full day's worth of enlightenment (which is what I am pretending to call the roadtrip).

LESSON 1: Sleep is the enemy.  On day -1 of the road trip I was planning to go to sleep nice and early to be fully rested for just this moment.  However, on day -1 of the road trip, I didn't actually get to sleep until day 1, if you know what I mean.  Nevertheless, I used overly-emotional non-sleeping to my advantage and got out of bed at 4:45, putting the dog and I on the road by 5:30, and putting us more than half of the way through Nebraska at the end of day 1.  How did I do this?  Well, luckily for me I really dislike caffeine.  In fact, if I drink a Diet Coke, you know something is wrong or I am asking for a headache.  Which means my Cherry Dr. Pepper (amazingly smooth) and Diet Coke with Lime (not as good as I remembered) happily carried me all day long. Anyway, an early start to your morning can make all the difference to your day - so even if you do stop around 6pm, you're still way ahead.

LESSON 2: People aren't lying to you.  When someone says "stop at state welcome centers because they're nicer than rest stops" or "you have to stop in this town because if you don't there is NOTHING for 150 miles" or "at the maximum, you must stop every 4 hours to let your dog walk around outside of the car or he will get sick" you should listen to them.  Especially if you combine numbers 2 and 3, and missed a city in Wyoming, and now you're pulled off to the side of the freeway as your dog is puking his guts out.  Yup.  Nobody was lying to me when there was nothing for 100 miles.  And I mean NOTHING.

LESSON 3: Books On (insert listening device here).  In days-gone-by, I have roadtripped from SLC to STL, and found Nebraska to be the most irritating, desolate and large place ever.  It is for this reason that I saved the new David Sedaris book "When You Are Engulfed In Flames" for this state.  I also listened to "The Secret Diary of Marie Antoinette" (need something to start you off right) and the better part of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (as read by some Monty Python guy... it was pretty funny) along my trip.  Sure, I also listened to podcasts (fun, but make you realize just how short of an area you can cover in an hour), old CDs (like mixed CDs from High School... ooh man, singing along to show tunes in the middle of Wyoming?  Priceless.), and the sound of my dog choking on a blanket he decided to eat.  But Books On my iPhone made me happiest. 

LESSON 4: Food.  Eat food.  Eat a lot of food.  Eat food at your hotel for breakfast, and in the car for a snack and when you're bored or when you're tired.  Keep snacks at an arm's reach.  And share some with your dog as long as it's not chocolate or raisins (or apples).  Food will save you on a road trip.  But don't try theater-sized box of nerds.  They will get all over your car.

LESSON 5: You Deserve It.  I upgraded myself to a suite at the Econolodge... I'm worth it.  I bought myself ice cream with my lunch... because I'm awesome.  I stopped at a particularly pretty-looking rest-stop to walk around... because it was pretty and I wanted to see a pretty thing.  If you're doing a totally crappy thing like dropping your husband off to play in the Army's care, and then driving across the country, give yourself a little awesome to try to counter-act.  You deserve it. 

LESSON 6:  Irrational is OKAY.  A nice hotel clerk asked me why I was in town, and instead of saying "just passing through" I broke down and started sobbing (not crying) in the hotel lobby as I told her my husband had been deployed that morning.  I hit the state of Iowa and started belting "Music Man"... and didn't stop even when I was filling up my car.  And I started getting mad at Park City, Utah because there were already splotches of color in the trees and I missed the very beginning of fall, which just isn't fair after the summer that I had...  Yeah, I'm not going to pretend I was rational at any of these moments.  But when you're all by yourself with a big open road ahead... I'm going to pretend that makes it okay.

Alright, those are my tales of a road trip.  Now that I'm here, I hope to get my blogging stride again, so I don't have to be jealous of other people's posts.

-s-