Road Trip (Part 3) - "Lesson Learned"

Third stop – Annapolis, MD. Contact: My Aunt and Uncle. Duration: 1 Night.
Goal: To pick up my sister and have a good meal and say good by to my Aunt and Uncle.

Seamless. Went off without a hitch. Halearious was an hour late on her plane, but we rolled in to Jalepenos (jalapenosonline.com) for an amazing Spanish / Mexican dinner with my Aunt and Uncle at 7:30PM.

My Aunt and Uncle are great peeps. A loving shelter and Republican stronghold they let me spend some time during my homeless stretch with them. We had a great time, lively debates, lots of laughs and a series of great Friday nights at Jalepenos. If you owned stock in either Cuervo or Twizzlers, you can attest to the period o f October 2009 through December 2009 as a golden era of stock ownership. Sonny’s will never be the same, and I am still not gay, but it’s good to know that they would support me either way.

It was going to be both great and sad to see them, since this was both hello and goodbye packed into one night. Thankfully everyone present was a mix of Irish or Finnish so we focused more on the hellos than the goodbyes.

Halearious and I were to be on our best behavior – two margaritas each – that was it. Easier said then done. We had about four a piece. The difference is that I’m 6’, 190 lbs and she’s 5’4” and ~130lbs.

We woke up the next day at 7AM and packed the car and were on the road at 9AM. Within an hour, Halearious was having me pull over so that she could throw up. The hangover had gotten to be too much. It just so happened that we pulled off in Potomac, MD, which turns out to be the richest town I have ever seen (or very close). The houses were ridiculous. After 10 minutes of searching, we found a classy floral shop (behnkes.com), and Halerious was off like the wind to puke and deuce it out. Such a classy place was never going to be the same. Turns out I started to have sympathy pains and decided that I needed to take a load off and walked into the men’s room. I felt bad for the next person who walked in there. Halearious and I were laughing when we thought of the rich people walking in there and getting a smell of some Irish roses. They didn’t know what they were in for – and neither did Halearious. It was her first road trip. I tried to warn her the night before that being hung over on a road trip sucks when you’ve got a long day of driving ahead of you. But you live and you learn. Halearious learned her lesson on day one.

I also learned my lesson. I thought having a partner-in-crime on the road trip would be nice – you know – break up the monotony of thousands of miles of asphalt. Turns out when your companion is hung over they end up sleeping for most of the drive and you’re stuck with your thoughts and the wheel. Luckily, I’m used to being alone, and Halerious did wake up for food stops.

Speaking of which, Sonic sucks for food. ONLY go there for drinks. Cherry Limeade etc. The food is lackluster at best. When you’ve never been somewhere and you have a friend who loves it, and you text them asking what you should get, and the respond Cherry Limeade and make no mention of food, that’s your hint. Get the drink and go across the street and get Wendy’s or something. We didn’t realize this until it was too late. But now we know, and now so do you. Better late then never.

Halearious came around on the second half of the drive, and our spirits were buoyed by the unexpected time change we got shortly after arriving in Tennessee. With the time change, we rolled into Nashville around 8PM central time – safe and sound and ready to get down.

-Groundswell