The Journey

We left St. Louis at 2:30 eastern time on Sunday. At least, we thought we did. It said 2:30 on the clock in the truck, and that was an hour different than St. Louis time. But, when we stopped for a late dinner at the Applebees outside Louisville, we discovered that the clock had been set to mountain time: it wasn't 8:30, it was 10:30! Suddenly, we were exhausted, so we stopped for the night.

Monday was hard: we hit a hail storm in West Virginia and, meanwhile, Rudy was roving the streets of Maplewood, having escaped out the window and over the fence at Joyce's. (Steve and Mindy didn't nickname him "Roudini" for nothing.) Joyce strafed her neighborhood with business cards, and eventually there were enough Rudy-sightings to zero in on his location.

Imagine you're in a giant steel drum and 50 major-league pitchers are hurling rocks at it, over and over. That's what a hailstorm sounds like from inside a 15' rental truck. I'm sure it sounds different if you own the truck. Joe was driving. I was curled in a ball in the passenger seat with my fingers in my ears. Around 7:30pm, Joe said he felt like he was in the Twilight Zone, which seemed like a good reason to stop driving. Less than 2 hours from Frederick, we called it a night.

So, on Tuesday morning we arrived in Frederick, where it was only raining a little, and unpacked most of the truck. We left the heavy things until we got some extra help in the evening, from Joe's brother, Bill; his fiancée, Jackie; and Jackie's friend, Tim. Tim arrived from Taiwan about a week ago, and Bill and Jackie have been showing him the sights. And suckering him into helping strangers move.

We've been unpacking, shopping, returning the truck and playing with my 270 new cable stations. Somehow we managed to find the season finale of Lost, but finding it didn't help us understand it. Does anyone know what the hell is going on?

Selected visual aids coming soon.

Comments

Anonymous said…
So while Cait was typing along and explaining that Rudy had jumped out the window and over the (4 ft) fence, romped thru Maplewood and been located and returned to Joyce's house...Joyce was out looking for Rudy because he'd escaped again. The first afternoon, "all" he'd done was push the screens out of the window. The second afternoon, Joyce cleverly only opened the windows about three inches, but Rudy more cleverly opened one of the windows with his snout (tough! you try it!), cleared the fence and romped again. Thru a combination of passing out business cards to all the neighbors within a few-block circle, and ok, Rudy coming back on his own when he got good and ready, Rudy came back to confinement the second time. After Joyce checked with Rudy's people to find out whether he chews through rope, here's the plan: Rudy is now either outside tied up, or inside (windows closed), or down in the basement in the Doggie Dungeon, a room with both doors hooked shut from the outside. What a guy. jc
cmcq said…
Needless to say, Joyce is OUR HERO.
Anonymous said…
Rudy has been safely delivered to Steve and Mindy, who own the dog, Chester, who taught Rudy everything he knows about escaping. Chester is so good that he's been featured in the newspaper for his escape exploits.

And if I could the clever name and password I made up last nite, I'd sign with that.