Welcome Home

July 21, 2006 | Category: Picture Post

(This is part two...)

I have never understood the whole Missouri/Mississippi river thing. The first is part of the second, or not. Here's what I DO know - we crisscrossed them and all their little friends. A lot.

We were in the midst of river crossing #zabillion when the little man in the backseat shouted that the portable DVD player wasn't working. He was cranky from so many hours in the car seat, and hungry, and for the next 10 minutes as we made our way over the bridge I tried telling him in soothing tones that Mommy couldn't fix it right now, because driving off bridges is bad.

He started throwing DVD's at me.

I pulled off at the first exit on the other side of the water, and we found a McDonald's (the first we'd seen in about 6 hours). After a strong talk about hucking things at people and a threat about corporal punishment, Bear sniffed back tears of apology and we cuddled and then I attempted to fix his DVD player.

Not so much with me and the technical thing.

I admitted defeat. We trooped into MickyD's and I ordered us some food and asked for directions to the nearest WalMart or Target or wherever I could buy a new DVD player.

"Walmart? Hey, Deanne, isn't there one oh..."

Deanne, the shift manager, came up from the back. "Oh yeah. So what you want to do is get back on the highway and go about 62... maybe 63 miles. Go right at the exit and left at the light. Can't miss it."

"63 miles...?" I echoed, disbelieving.

"Yeah. I can't think of where you could buy one of those things closer."

I blinked at her for a long moment, then took my hamburger Happy Meal and milk and walked off to the play area in a daze.

"Uh, Bear..."

"Yeah, Mommy?"

"We're going to have music time when we get back in the car."

For the next hour, we scanned through the tall collection of homemade discs I'd brought. The songs that Bear and I can both agree on are an eclectic mix of Southern Rock, 80's bands like the Police, Queen and Talking Heads, Laurie Berkner, some Disco, Neil Diamond, and selected one-off's from bands like Rascal Flatts and Rusted Root.

At one point, "Another One Bites the Dust" came one and Bear immediately loved it. I ended up playing it for him a half-dozen times.

63 miles later, we found WalMart. But by then, our old DVD had miraculously self-healed. And besides, we were having fun singing along and playing car bingo.

We travelled the length of South Dakota, the depths of Iowa. CD flew out to meet us in Nebraska and from there it was the long stretch through the dusk and the dark and then the lightening back home.

Just in time to pick up my Mom from the airport (because my mom will always find the cheap ticket - even if it means getting to the airport at 4am in the blessed morning). Then it was a parade and fireworks, and a fair with a rock-climbing wall. There were training wheels to come off a bike. There were hours spent curled up in people pile on the couch, just happy to be a family together.

And then it was back in the car, for a trip to Indiana, back to Illinois, and then up to Wisconsin for the opening weekend of the Bristol Renaissance Faire.

And finally, we straggled out to the parking lot. Nothing ahead but a last drive home and then.... life, again. Unpack, finally. And clean. And back to swimming lessons and popsicles and....

Bear fell asleep in the back. I scrolled through the camera, looking at all the pictures.

"I look tired," I said, peering at one of me in a garland. "My eyes are smudged and pouchy," I complained.

"No," CD argued. "Beautiful."

I wrinkled my nose at him.

"You need a good night's rest," he admitted.

"Bear farts in his sleep," I told him. "Also? He kicks."

CD laughed. "Kept you up?"

"Yeah." I reached over and held his hand.

"Were they good trips, though?"

I nodded. And he smiled. And we went home.

Share: Delicious! | Stumble It! |   Slashdot It!