The Planner and the Free Spirit

So I spent the weekend helping my baby sister and her boyfriend move to Cedaredge, Colorado.
I promised them that I would help them move. I worry about her being so far away. Between us I have always been the responsible planner; she the free spirited artist. Will she be okay so far from her family? At least they will be near to his parents, so some family will be close. I wanted to make sure she got there safe, and I wanted to spend some time with my baby sis before she was too far away for me to kidnap for a sushi dinner.

They hadn't found a place yet, so they were going to stay with his parents until they did. When she called me last week, I told her I wanted his parents' address and phone number. "Oh, we're just going to carpool, and we'll have walkie talkies."
"I want the address and phone number."
"Oh, it's really easy to get there, just 3 freeways."
"I want the address and phone number."
"....oh-kaaay. Wow, you really like to micro-manage don't you."
I had to hold back a little. With as stressed out as I've been, I really wanted to snap at her, but I had to remember that this would be the last time I see her for awhile. I very politely told her that micro managing would be wanting to know timetables and pit stops, etc., this was just being responsible. (Again, the planner and the free spirit).

Luckily for all our sakes, I'd had some time to unwind before we left Thursday night. I'd spent dinner with my boyfriend's family so by the time I met them at my parents' house I was not strung so tight, and around 9:30pm we finally got on the road.

I actually like driving very much when traffic is light. And being in the car by myself that night made the trip unexpectedly meditative. I had something mindless to focus on, and I was able to not dwell on all my stresses. I'm glad I helped them move - for my own sanity as much as for their sake.

The trip out there took 24 hours. Ridiculous, since Google Maps clocked the trip at 11 hours 46 minutes. But she had to pee often, and we stopped in Primm at just after 1pm to get something to eat, but everything had just closed save the a cafe inside one of the hotels. Getting a tuna melt turned into 2 hours. We finally made it to our designated hotel in Mesquite just before 5am. For some reason I can't sleep late when I am up late (my sleep patterns seem to be more related to the sun), so I went to bed at 5am and woke up at 7am. He slept until 9:30 though.

Once we were all reassembled and gassed up, we realized the walkie talkies were dead. Go to replace the batteries, and they still won't work... These particular walkie talkies take these special rechargable AAAs only. So we drove about an hour down the freeway to St. George, UT. First we completely unpacked the trailer and repacked it - she had not distributed the weight evenly when she packed it, so once he hit 65 it got really squirelly. Once that was done, we had to find a Wal-Mart and bought new walkie talkies, since we couldn't find the special ones the first set needed. We didn't get out of St. George until 2pm.

After that we made pretty good time... only stopped once for food, so little time was lost. Finally made it in to Cedaredge, CO at around 10pm Mountain time - almost exactly 24 hours after we left.

His parents are nice; a little quirky. They were both very inviting, and thankful that I'd helped out. My sister passed out early, but her boyfriend and I stayed up with his parents until nearly 1pm (Mountain time) talking and drinking wine.

The next day we unpacked and took a drive around the Grand Mesa, which is nearby. This is the largest mesa (large elevated area with a flat top) in the world. It was really beautiful. It had snowed the night before, and the roads had been freshly plowed, so the snow outside was piled as tall as the Expedition, but there wasn't any snow or ice on the road below us.

We chose not to do much else, aside from a farewell dinner right before Her boyfriend and I took off. We had to drive back (he had to return his grandparents' Expedition, and they wouldn't hear of him letting a young girl - that's me - drive all that way back alone) and decided that it would be best to leave for our return trip Saturday evening... the goal being to just drive straight through and see if we could beat the Vegas traffic. I did not want to leave Sunday morning, and join all the Southern Californians on their trek home... it makes the drive almost unbearable - and I commute. I slept a good portion of the way while he drove, and then we switched and he slept. I felt a little bad, because I had gone to sleep pretty soon after we left... I kinda wanted to make conversation, but I was not interested in driving tired when it was time to trade off. We made a total of 3 stops - all for gas - and were back in Norco at 6:30am. 12 hours total for the return trip.

I was excited. I planned to go home and surprise Bobby when I crawled into bed. I was sure he wasn't expecting me. But when I got home he wasn't there.

I should have known. He had Emma, so it would make sense that if I wasn't there, why go home? I figured he'd just stayed the night at either his parents' or his brother's, so I took a shower and headed back out to Norco. (Yes, back in the car again, cause on the road is where I wanted to be at that point.) It was my own fault, I should have driven by there to check when I left my parents' house... 5 minutes from his parents, instead of driving the 40 minutes home.

Sure enough, when I pulled up to his parents', his car was in the driveway. I came in, and Emma went to cheerfully announce to her dad, who had just awoken, that I was here. "No she's not."
"Yes she is."

Yes I was. He was sure I was not only not going to make it by midday as I was hoping, but that I was probably going to have to call out from work Monday. It was a happy homecoming, and I have to admit it felt a little good when Bobby admitted he'd been a little mopey the day before because I was gone.