Daytona D's Diaries

Happy 6th anniversary, Appendix! As always, I tie the Fourth of July with my appendectomy in 2003. What an event it was! As it's now been six years, you are so on your own to go back and read previous appendix blog entries in all those July entries over the years. New blog readers: it is up to you to go back and read all those entries. If you don't, I'll cry. Sniff.

Lucy is here to say "Happy Independence Day!" Man, I hate it when dogs have those scary eyes in photos. What IS up with that? She is ready to party, despite the scary eyes.

By the way, what's up with "She Who Must Not be Named" resigning as Governor of Alaska? Just saw that on TV. Does this mean I should resign as president of her fan club? Or, should I gear up for that run at 2012? I've heard the world is ending in 2012--this might be a harbinger of that actual event.....

Damn, I didn't get a lottery ticket for MJ's funeral. I'll have to moonwalk in my own living room in his honor instead of moon walking surrounded by 11, 000 other moon walkers.

We spent today gardening. We had toyed with the idea of going to Summerfest in the Land of Cheddar but somehow ended up gardening. The wife would like it to be known that it was not her idea to take up such a project and thus I do take full responsibility for the new area of the garden. It wasn't exactly Summerfest but I did manage to get both Dunkin' Donuts AND Starbucks today, so all is well in the world.

My sister, whom I shall call "Daytona D" for this entry, is on the road with her family. They are headed to--you can guess--Daytona. Now, I'd like to think I'm the only writer in the family, but I'd be sadly mistaken if I said that. Wild Mama and Daytona D can both hold their own in the creative writing department. Because many of you might be having thoughts of taking a road trip this summer, I feel it's my moral obligation to I post some of what my sister has written...it is imperative to remind people that road trips are not for the feint of heart.

You have to understand that this driving trip is comprised of my sister, her three Nascar-loving teenage girls and one Nascar-loving husband. That's a lot of Nascar love.

I must've missed the Nascar-loving gene.

If you are considering a road trip this summer, remember things like speeding tickets, construction and traffic. For those of you who scoff at this, here's Daytona D's report from the road to remind you. Hope you have a great holiday and remember to honor my appendix.....

"We have made it to Atlanta, Georgia. What was an 11.5 hour drive was an 18 hour adventure. We left the house at 5:00am to miss the Chicago traffic. And might I say, we pulled out of the driveway at 5:01am. Hubby Captain Morgan drove and we dozed. Just outside Indy, Captain said something and I looked up out the front window and there is this guy on the left hand shoulder pointing at us. Now we are doing 65+ and this guy is pointing at us and at the side of the road. I realized it was Mr. Police officer. I thought maybe it was a safety check or something…it was just weird how he pointed at Captain and then the side of the road.So we pull over and lo and behold Captain Morgan had been doing 71 in a 55 mph zone. Mr. Officer was giving him a ticket. So, this trip his ticket was in Indy.

We stopped for breakfast shortly after and he declared he was done driving.

After breakfast, Eldest Daughter drove and Captain Morgan went in the back seat next to Middle Daughter- not her preference of seat mates.

So we are be bopping along and there is a sign that says - watch for back up, road construction 60 miles. Who pays attention to something 60 miles away????? So we get closer and it says 71 detour, but there is nothing in sight and we proceed onward and lo and behold about 2 miles later, we stop. And crawl a few feet….wait….crawl…wait…crawl, and finally stop.

People are actually walking around because our cars were parked and off. Yes we sat on the highway for over 2.5 hours No air conditioning and No bathroom!!!! Captain went wandering down the road to see what happened and never returned. No phone, no water, just walked off leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves.

When we started moving, we found him sitting on the guard rail. Yes, we stopped and picked him up. There had been an accident with three semi trucks over an hour before we got there and the highway was still closed down. So off we go, first exit to a bathroom. Never tell a woman she can't go to the bathroom, because then she needs to go!

We continued on the road, three hours behind schedule, which of course made us hit Nashville at rush hour. So, we crawled another 20 or 30 miles at 10 miles an hour before getting through that mess. We ended up arriving at 10:30pm Chicago time, only four or so hours later than anticipated.

Amazingly, we are all still alive."