Freedom Trail: Last Entry (Probably)

Thanks to everyone who pitied rather than panned my previous post. We really were having a good time, but, dang, those 3.5 hours were intense. And that was on top of traveling with a high-needs little, and just the logistics of trying to balance what a teen needs and wants with what a toddler needs and wants, and trying to have fun with both, and also the older one has a lot of social anxiety and blah blah blah... so travel is a little more complicated than when it was just me and my adventurous little girl. Still good. Just different.

So, that night I DID sleep reallllly hard... until Mal fell off of the bed, wedging himself head-down between the bed and the wall. *sigh* He woke frequently after that and I don't think I slept much at all because every time he rolled over, I flinched and felt for the edge of the bed. We solved that the next night by sleeping sideways, which we'd done in the king bed at the hotel the night before. James and I liked that so much, we're considering trying it at home.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the Super 8 which, although it was a lot scrawnier than at the Hampton Inn in OKC, was still not too bad. I walked over to the Walgreen's to get Daphne some bottled water and to get me a soda. They weren't open at 8:30, so even though it was raining, I walked a bit further to a neat newish gas station and got a fountain drink. By the time I walked back, it wasn't raining anymore, but when I got to the hotel, it really started pouring.

Mal played with the door open all morning, enjoying the deluge and his trucks. A bit before our friend Michael met us, I went in to wake Daphne up and she was sick. She typically gets ill on every trip we take, but usually it's the day we leave or the next. This time, she was disease-free for three whole days, so it's an improvement. She elected to stay home for the day to recoup.

Mike came over after church, then we drove over to the mall in Fort Smith to meet my "oldest" friend, Pam, and her family for lunch. Yeah, the food court at the mall might not be the classiest place, but it's that whole thing about teen needs and toddler needs. Playground for Mal, the mall for Pam's girls.

It was great catching up with Pam, sort of. Not sort of great. Sort of catching up. Between Michael catching her up with his life (they meet in the community here and there as he's a police officer and she's a nurse, so lots of the same circles), Mal running around, and acquiring and eating food, a lot of it was just the joy of hanging out for a couple of hours.

During all of this, James took Mal on an electric zebra ride, and I'm super bummed that I didn't get pictures! Mal played a lot on the playground, and then he found a mop bucket to push around. Unfortunately, it was one of a half dozen buckets placed strategically to collect drips from the leaky ceiling, so to distract him when we put it back, I had to take him on an electric monkey ride, and I had to keep myself from giggling and yelling, "Woo hoo!" while we rode around the mall.


When I was a kid and then a teenager walking around Central Mall, I am pretty sure I never envisioned a day when I'd be riding a motorized animal through there. I'm still pretty bummed that they took out the fountains, too.

After we said goodbye to Pam and her family, we drove around a bit. We drove by our house in Fort Smith ("You lived in the ghetto," Michael helpfully informed me. We did. I didn't know it at the time.), and then my old elementary school. The last time I was in town, five years ago or so, it looked just like it did when I was in school. They have since added tornado shelters at all of the elementary schools, and given them security updates to facilitate more security. I loved the old look of Morrison Elementary, but time marches on.

Then we drove out to where James used to live when we were in high school. I went there quite often but have no memory of where it was, even now that we've revisited it.

Mal started getting grumpy at that point, so I managed to nurse him to sleep in the car. Mike and James dropped me off and were going to head out to Michael's house, but Mal woke up as soon as I laid him down. I went ahead and hung out with him for a while at the hotel. I ordered D Chinese food delivery since she hadn't eaten yet, but she didn't feel well enough to eat more than an eggroll.

An hour or so later, Mal and I went out to Michael's. Mal loved jumping on the trampoline, and it was so good to get to see Mike's parents again.

We came back home, and Mal wanted to walk. We walked over to Geno's Pizza (I'd eaten at the one at the mall for lunch and thought it'd be AWESOME to do pizza-by-the-slice twice in one day!) but they were closed. I got James and me dinner at Taco Bell, then we walked back. Mal went to sleep around 9:30 or 10 and slept restlessly but at least he didn't fall out of bed that time.

Monday morning, I waited until after 9 and Mal and I walked to Walgreen's to get D some iron pills. Mal was playing with the big bouncy balls while I looked for the supplements. I walked around the corner and when I came back, couldn't see him. I called for him as I walked toward the balls, and when I got there realized... he'd climbed into the big ball holder and was just sitting there enjoying himself.

I got him a battery-operated bubble machine, checked the instructions, and saw that I needed to buy batteries, too. We got our stuff and walked back to the hotel.

Mal was excitedly saying, "Bee-buh!" while I opened the box... only to realize that we needed a tiny screwdriver to put the batteries in. James walked over to Walgreens to get an eyeglass repair kit for me to keep in my purse. He finally got the battery pack open... only to realize that we needed AA batteries, not the AAA that I'd bought. SO I WALKED BACK TO WALGREENS TO EXCHANGE THE BATTERIES. And, it turns out, Mal was scared of the machine, anyway. AND, it further turns out, I accidentally left it sitting on top of the TV in the hotel when we left, anyway. So.

I really hope a housekeeper took it home to her kid.

Yesterday at 11, we headed toward Gore to see James' dad's family. We hung out for a few hours and had a nice time visiting with everyone. Mal loved the daytime firecrackers! He liked the black cats and the smoke bombs and the snapping smoke bombs. He'd cover his own ears, but when the noise would stop, he'd clap and then sign "more." I'm glad he wasn't afraid. I know some kids are pathologically terrified.

Around 4:30, we started back toward OKC. We got into town before 7 and people were already gathering at Bricktown; we could tell there would be fireworks.

We dropped D and the bags off at the hotel, then James, Mal, and I drove the car back to Enterprise and dropped it off. We weren't the first people to do that. The parking lot was full, people had double-parked, and we took the third to the last (double-parked) spot.

I'd brought the carrier, so strapped Mal on to walk to the Memorial. I thought he might prefer to walk, having been in the car for two hours (he slept the whole way, praise the Lord), but he was ECSTATIC about my holding him. He kept putting his head on my chest and making happy noises.

It was hot, but the sun was setting and we had some good shade. We saw some beautiful churches and got to stretch our legs from the drive. The Memorial is lovely and haunting and sobering and peaceful and I'm so glad we got to experience it.

James is the one who first noticed the smaller chairs. So senseless. There have been so many terrorist attacks abroad this week. It's just evil and such a waste of life. I pray that there will be some peace in the hearts of those who plan destruction, that they would find it unnecessary and give up.

James was pretty parched, so we walked back to the hotel and he hydrated, Mal watched videos, and I went to get some dinner. Daphne seemed like she was ready to eat, so that was a good sign.

Mal was ready to go to sleep just as the fireworks were starting directly behind us. James watched them out the window, but I was nursing Mal and only got to hear the half-hour show. He was so tired, it didn't bother him one bit.

Although Mal woke up as usual over the night, he slept better than he has the rest of the trip. Today, we've just stayed at the hotel, resting. He's waking from a nap now, and we'll probably head outside to do something. Then again, maybe not. It's been awesome to have a day "off" before heading home tomorrow.