The Journey Begins

Despite our usual delusions that we can actually pack leisurely and ahead of time, we were up till 2 am last night packing for the trip. The self-imposed deadline of swim class was becoming tricky because of car trouble. I took the Subaru in for emissions testing on Monday in order to renew my registration and it failed! It actually passed the emissions part, but it failed the pressure test, meaning there's some kind of slow leak in the gas system. So I had to take the car to the shop, where it was diagnosed with a cracked roll-over valve (the valve that closes the gas tank off if the car rolls over). They couldn't get the part until Thursday (cue nail biting) which is, of course, the day we leave. But he assured me he could have it done before we leave. Great. But it adds complication to the day's schedule because I work until 2:30 and swim class is at 4. We figured out that it will be practically impossible for us to pick up the Subaru, drop it off at home, and get to swim class by 4, ready to leave from there on our trip. If you don't see why that isn't possible, just trust me. With rush hour traffic, last minute loading of the van...we'd be late for swim class. I guarantee it.

If I didn't have to get a ride to pick up my car it'd be different. That part really complicates things.

So we'll have to go home after swim class, negating the miles and time we could have saved by leaving for Benson straight from the pool. But at least we can have dinner at home instead of on the road. One last chance to clean out the fridge...

Here's this evening's route:


Our first destination is the KOA campground in Benson, Arizona. About 150 miles from our home in Phoenix.

Oh, as if getting only 3 hours of sleep isn't enough before a big trip...I had to go work out this morning. I'm taking a fitness class at the community college which requires me to log a certain number of hours in the gym. It's a relatively low number (17) due to limited summer session hours, but since I'm going to be gone for a significant chunk of the summer, I'm trying to squeeze in my 17 hours while I'm here. After today, my only chance will be the week I come back in July for the workshop training. You can only log a max of 2 hours a day, and the gym is only open Monday through Thursday. Which means the most I can log during the week I come back is 8 hours. As of yesterday my total was 8 hours. So to get 17, I had no choice: I had to go in this morning and work out for an hour.

Picture "Night of the Living Dead" set in a fitness center. That's how I felt.

Oh! And I'll sweeten the pot even more. When I crawled into bed at 2:30, Bella woke up and had trouble falling back asleep. So she kept me awake for about an hour, tossing and turning, talking, getting water, etc. So I didn't fall asleep until about 3:30, and my alarm went off at 5:30, so that I could be at the fitness center when it opened at 6, so that I could work out for an hour and be at work by 7:30. Nice!

Weird thing. I'm writing this at work, and after the crazy week (I had an evening class for the past 3 nights which I haven't even mentioned yet) and the crazy morning, here I sit basically killing 5 hours of time. It's like the eye of the hurricane, the calmness in the middle of the storm. Cristina is frantically taking care of last minute errrands and packing, and I'm sitting in an air conditioned room, deciding what movie we're going to watch.

One thing is for sure. I will sleep well tonight. As long as we're in Benson.