A second try at Thanksgiving

Well, after the roofers incident, we left at 4:44 pm for Hattiesburg, MS. Without a flight plan, even, although we were flying along the interstate (once we got to it in Beaumont, TX)

Since I make a lousy front-seat driver, I occupy myself with my MP3 player or (this time) with the portable DVD player. Now I see why parents put on the Finding Nemo DVD and drive happily onwards. I made it through 59 songs and 3 WWII classics, and I use the term loosely. They may have been classics in Italian, even Jack Kelly and Lee Van Cleef's voices were dubbed in in English. Marty, well, she was feeding books on CD into the car's player. I can't make out what the narrator is saying, so I turn to my own devices every time. She cant stand the overflow from my earplugs so she turns up the volume and I change the audio setup to come out mostly the speaker on her side. You'd think as clearly as I mcan hear the narrator over Bits and Pieces by Dave Clark 5, I would be able to follow them both, but N-O-O-O-O!

We make it all the 3 hr way to Beaumont where we stop for gas, potty and goodies. As if I didn't eat steadily the whole trip over and back. Next stop was some Mississippi rest stop. We have to drive in the right lane you know and swing out to the left lane to pass and back again. We have to drive the speed limit (or better) at all times. This makes for a million cas passed before we get out of the driveway! That's why I lean back and sleep or listen to music or both. Except when, for example, a bull wanders onto the numberless Nebraska highway and we make the transition from a carefree 70 mph to 0 mph so he can saunter off. This is where the radio failed and gave rise to MP3 players and books-on-tape: We pushed the "seek" button on the radio and the darn thing wouldn't stop looking for a station until we turned it off.

Back to our TG trip. We tooled into Hattiesburg at 12:44, give or take a time zone or a daylight hour saved. We tip-toed into the back door of her old house. Her mother died a year or two ago and her brother and his wife who were living there taking care of mom, stayed there, inheriting the house. Wife got some family property in Tennessee. Anyway she went running around the next day while I slept. As usual we ate out for supper. As usual they fought over the check.

Next day finds us at a Hattiesburg pump to fill up and fill further up....burp. Off we go to the tune of "After 800 yards, turn right." Followed by "At the first opportunity, turn around." We were off to Montgomery, AL and the son and wife and grandkids there. Also the daughter-in-law's parents, brother and his wife, another son, his friend and his friend's wife, 13 in all. We interrupt a card game of hearts and I sieze the opportunity to play. We played many games the next 2-1/2 days. Marty made 3 pies, they bought a pumpkin pie as only I ate it...yeah, but over 2-1/2 days. They all preferred lemon ice-box pie and chocolate pie.

Well, it's time for dominoes, so this is to be continued..................................