Freedom Trail, Part Deux

You know what I miss? The days when I could travel and not have a major emotional breakdown at least once during the trip. Seriously, what the heck?? I think it started with Haiti and has become my "thing" now. I don't like it!

So... after Mal's nap yesterday, we walked over to Bass Pro Shops. He was still so tired and didn't want to walk. so even though James is using his cane right now, we took turns carrying Mal because he just wouldn't budge... or he'd wrap himself around one of our legs so that no one could walk.

Ooh, look at the beautiful nature!

We had a neat time window-shopping at Bass Pro (I'd upload pictures, but the connection here stinks, so will wait until we're back in OKC). Then we went across the street to get Mal some "deedah" and French fries. After that, we serendipitously wandered into Triple Play Trailer Days or something sponsored by the Dodgers in the parking lot next to the Thunder baseball stadium. It was a bunch of food trucks, live music, and bounce houses. Mal danced around a lot, saw dogs, and had a good time. James got "Chicago-style" tacos which involve some kind of red meat and thin corn tortillas, and then we shared a slice of Southern Bourbon Buttermilk Pie. 

When we got back, Mal watched some videos before bedtime. Then he ignored bedtime and stayed awake pretty much all night, waking and crying soon after nodding off each time, so we all kind of slept like garbage.

This morning, we got up, had breakfast, tried to get Mal to swim, but he was just exhausted and unwilling, so I went to get our car while James packed up the room. We reserved and paid for a sedan, but ended up with a super sweet Chevy Tahoe! It has third-row seating, rear-view camera, and a ton of features James could tell you about because he read the entire owner's manual online on our way from OKC to Van Buren.

Okay, so here's what happened with me and my stupid hormones and stress and stuff. Last night, I got a really bad feeling about the hotel I'd booked five months ago for our Arkansas stay. Like really really "don't stay there" bad. So I canceled and booked a suite across the river.

First, stupid Priceline... they told me I'd have to cancel through their booking partner and, no you can't do it online, you have to call, and while I was on hold with the booking partner, I found the website and searched and found a place to cancel online, and told the chat help she was wrong, and she totally ignored that. I've always had good luck with Priceline, but this was just dumb.

But anyway, so today we got our car and headed out early. D was awesome, getting up and being ready to go super quickly. Her hours are so different from ours, but she's a trooper on trips and has said that even though she doesn't participate in everything we do, she thinks getting out of the house and having a change of pace is nice for her.

We got into town at 12:30, and stopped by the hotel to see if we could check in early. They said no, they'd been sold out last night and were sold out again tonight and just couldn't swing it. No worries, we'd be back at 2. I went to the restroom where Mal hung out with me. I wanted to freshen up, so I put on some powder and eyeliner. Mal started freaking out about the fan in the bathroom, so I gathered up my makeup and we went out to the car. I could tell that the eyeliner had smeared because of my having to carry Mal around (looking up and stuff, which I can't do until it dries) so when we got out to the car, I wiped my whole face with a baby wipe and decided to start over after I was cool enough not to be sweating. I had thrown my make-up into the passenger seat of the car, then shoved it over to sit down while James went into the restroom and we decided where to eat.

D had kind of fallen asleep, so we were waking her up and I was putting my makeup back into my purse when I realized I'd been sitting a bit on some bb cream I have that is in a pump, and a lot of it had squeezed out onto the (fortunately leather) seat and all over the left leg of my pants. We were supposed to see James' family later, I only have one outfit for each day, and I might have uttered the F word repeatedly as I jumped out of the car to assess the damage.

I chalked this up to having not had much sleep for the past two nights. I was just done, emotionally. We walked across the street (down the road and across the street, and it was 100 degrees and NASTY) to Braum's for lunch. That place was filthy and the people working there were either slow or inept or both. After we ate, we killed time in the grocery, then James and I decided to get ice cream. The guy had never made what James ordered, and kept looking at the menu to see what was supposed to be on it, and it took so long James just told him to forget it. This was after he dumped one of my scoops into the floor because he wasn't paying attention to how he was holding the cone.

My point is: we were all hot and tired and ready to relax in our hotel. We walked back at two and apparently our sheets weren't dry yet. We were told it'd be another 20 minutes (it was more than half an hour). We hung out on the stairs. D played a game on my phone, and Mal just played. It's all the same to him. But he was so up-and-down and we were ready to be comfy.

I finally asked if we could just move our bags from our car into the room, and when we started doing that, James asked me where I was going to put Daphne. I said, "In the bed in the room, and we can sleep on the pull-out couch." He said, "Which room? There's only one room. Come look." 

Well, the picture on the website shows the bed in a separate room, but apparently that's only the king suite with the hot tub. I told the lady we needed two rooms. They were sold out. I called another hotel in the area and they had rooms available tonight but not tomorrow night. I was exhausted and hopeless, and we were just going to get our bags, get back in the car, and figure out what to do.

The lady at the front desk, when told we were going to leave, said she'd show me one more room they had. It's a suite with two beds but they're just separated by a wall. We need a door. D has weird hours and she's a teenager who isn't related to James by blood. She needs her own space. I told the lady we'd rent another room, they didn't have to be connected. She said that she could have rented me the suite and its adjoining room, but they'd just sold it. But somehow, after being very concerned about how much I was crying, she managed to make it work and we were in our rooms by 4 PM, cranking down the functioning a/c. The suite where we were supposed to stay didn't seem to have a very effective unit, as it was set to 64 and pretty warm. D's room is set to 64 and it feels like a refrigerator case.

Finally, Mal got to watch his videos and I took a shower. Then the three of us headed out to see James' aunt and uncle. D stayed at the hotel to unwind. We actually tried to stop at Kopper Kettle Candies, but they're closed this weekend for the holiday.

Mal fell asleep in the car right before we got to James' family's house. He woke up when we got him out, but was just sort of whiny and "off" and nursing every five minutes for literally 6 seconds at a time, and asking for stuff we didn't understand, etc. He was sweet and cute and tried to be friendly and charming. He loved the dog, and was very interested in the bird. But he was spent. 

I ended up following him outside, and he walked down to the pond. We spent some time gathering duck or goose feathers before it was time to go out to dinner. On our way back into town, Mal fell asleep again. We decided to drop James off at the restaurant, and I brought Mal back to the hotel so he could sleep.

Turns out I only had the key to D's room, but she let us hang out with her for an hour. I think it helped that Mal was asleep. James got home, let us out of the meat closet, and Mal's been asleep ever since. I'm hoping he sleeps better tonight, and I definitely need to get to bed NOW to monopolize on his exhaustion.

Freedom Trail (or: Our July 4 Vacation)

If you want pictures, they're here. If you care for a summary, keep reading.

Some idiot thought it'd be a good idea to take a toddler on a train. That idiot was me. And, actually, it definitely beat flying or driving, so although it was a challenging trip, it was no more challenging than our regular life, except that we didn't have the option to pack it in and go home for a breather.

Getting to the train station in Austin was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. We parked (for free!) three spaces away from the terminal. We only had to be there half an hour early. Then we were on the train and ready to go. Mal and I went up to the lounge car for a while, then James joined us. D slept pretty much the whole way, having been warned in advance that the heartland trains are for some reason the only ones left without any wi-fi.

After the third stop, Mal kept signing, "All done!" like he was finished with the train and wanted off. This was a problem, since we still had about two hours. We took turns distracting him, then let him video call Nana because he was ready to see her and kept crying for her, and finally he went to sleep around 1. After an hour-and-a-half's nap, he was up and ready to go again.

Nana and Pappy drove to Fort Worth to kill our layover with us. We walked to Flying Saucer and had a fabulous lunch (thanks, Pappy!) then enjoyed a bit of Sundance Square, as much as we could in mid-90s and full sun (there is a fountain, but Mal is the only one who got a little close, and even he wasn't going for the full Monty), then headed back to the train station to wait it out in the air condition.

After bidding Nana and Pappy adieu, we were on our way to OKC. This trip was longer... it turned out that it was A LOT longer, I guess because of construction on the rails. We were supposed to get in at 9:23, but early on it was showing we'd be here at 9:07. We actually got here around 10.

This trip was more tiring than the first leg, because Mal would not sit down for more than a couple of minutes. He was up walking, playing, enjoying himself. So James and I handed off chasing duties, and it still beat his being upset and wanting off of the train.

He fell asleep around 8:45, and woke up shortly before we arrived, gagging and dry heaving like he had done the night before at the same time. I have no idea what that's about; I was dreading having to call off the trip if he kept being sick, but after 9 the night before, he seemed to feel fine and had no sick symptoms. We'll see what he does tonight.

We got to the OKC station, and it's undergoing reconstruction. Good gosh, we could not figure out where to walk because they have construction fencing set up on the sidewalk, making it impassable with rolling luggage (or a girth of anything more than a scarecrow). We ended up traipsing up one lane of a six-lane street with all of our luggage.

It's wasn't far to the hotel, but after a long day and hauling so much gear, we were beat. Then the keys didn't work. The kids and I set up camp in the hall while James got new keys, and we discovered that the vending room has super chilly air conditioning (and takes credit cards!).

Mal was awake for at least an hour before James turned out the light, and who knows how late D stayed awake. Our room is nice and has good sound insulation, apparently. I would have slept very well if it weren't for a sweet, over tired, mysteriously barfy kid waking up every twenty to thirty minutes wanting mama juice.

Still, we got some rest and were ready to go this morning. We went down to our complimentary breakfast, and I took Mal out to see the fountain in the front. He wanted desperately to climb in, so it seemed like the perfect time to swim!

The pool here is indoors, has a beach entry, and has several water features. After an hour or so, Mal was getting pretty confident splashing around by himself. He also found a ball in one of the filters.

After James and I both showered, the three of us walked down to the American Banjo Museum. They had a "petting zoo" with a couple of samples banjos, and Mal entertained several people and played for about ten minutes before someone came over and said they were going to have to ask us to be quieter. Mal can't play quieter, so that was the end of that.

He looked around at the banjos but was frustrated that he couldn't get to them. There was an open bass banjo upstairs, with a note reading: DO NOT TOUCH. Mal fell on the floor crying two or three times before I decided just to take him downstairs and watch the Steve Martin retrospective on a loop three or four times. It was interesting and he seemed to enjoy it.

For lunch, we stopped at Pearl's Crabhouse. We got a crab dip appetizer, then James got crawfish etouffee, I got pecan crusted Idaho rainbow trout, and got shrimp Fettuccini to bring home for D. Mal manager to amuse himself pretty well for Mal, and we ate an entire meal until we were full. It helped that when Mal was sitting in the table, the waitress was so cool about it and didn't act like we were putting anyone out. Really good food and we have leftovers for later.

We came back to the room, Mal took a nap, and now we're getting ready to head over to Bass Pro Shop... we can see it from our eighth story window!