The drive home - July 26

So, as Holly said, we slept over at Laurie's (thanks again Laur) in Northern VA so that we could get an early start on Sunday for the long drive home.

We (the adults) were up at 5:00 A.M. and loaded the kids and dog into the car around 5:30 - hitting the road at 5:45. We made Holly's important deadline.

The drive was relatively uneventful. All humans and canines fell asleep about half an hour into the drive - save for me, the driver. We made our usual stop in NJ (right about half way) to fill up the tank and empty the bladders, so all was well and we were on pace for a nice 7 hour drive.

Enter Connecticut. And cue Eric...

Eric: "Daddy - I really have to pee."
Daddy: "Eric - you just peed in NJ...174 miles ago. you can hold it."
Brandon: "Yeah, I kind of have to go to the bathroom too."
Daddy: *grrrr*
Bailey and Ellie (together): "Daddy - we have to go too!"
Daddy: "There is a rest stop in 16 miles...hang on"
Eric: (nearly standing in his seat now) "Ohhhhhhhh...Da-a-a-a-a-a-ddy! C'mon -- I really, really, really have to go!!"

*errrrrrrrrrr* (screeching tires sound)

Daddy: "Okay we'll get off right here at this gas station."

Eric jumps out of the car and right there in the parking lot starts peeing into the grass...hands on hips. No shame.
Meanwhile, I take the other three inside (like humans) to use the toilet. Of course there is only 1 bathroom, and 1 toilet...and there are 2 people in line ahead of us.
Ellie first says, "DADDY, I HAVE TO GO NUMBER 2!"
"Okay sweetheart...shhhhhhhhh. We have to wait a few minutes."
I take Ellie in; like a good girl she is done in about 90 seconds.
Next is Brandon.
"Daddy - I'll be a few minutes...I have to sit down."
*roll eyes* The line behind us now is 4 deep.
Brandon was pretty quick.
Then comes Bailey, "Daddy, my stomach hurts."
"Of course it does! Why don't you grab a newspaper on your way in!"

Anyhow - the long and the short of it (mostly long) is that all three of the non-grass urinators felt the need to leave stool samples about 2 hours away from home...causing us to be delayed nearly half an hour.

We finally rolled into Nashua around 1:45 PM on Sunday which gave us plenty of time to introduce our new dog to Toby the very cool cat. Toby wasn't too pleased at first with the new roommate but after a couple of days, they are hanging around together and tolerating one another. No major incidents to report.

What a vacation, what a drive, and what a fun time.

Holly promises to post a few more photos tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for following us on this silly blog. Hope you enjoyed reading the Jamieson adventures.

Cowboy Baby!

Okay. I can't even begin to explain what a great concert Kid Rock was. I mean, REALLY?

Oh, Lynard Skynard was first, and they were great, but Kid Rock was AWESOME! I can't get over what a great show it was. I think even Brad, who isn't that big of a fan enjoyed it! We got dressed around 5, to leave by 6-ish. Here is a photo of that.

Now, I am not a fan of posting pictures of myself anywhere. I weigh a lot. But it is a great story. I went out and got some cutesy new shoes for the concert. I wanted to look nice. It was my first Kid Rock concert, and certainly not my last, but I wasn't sure what to wear. Let's just say we were WAY overdressed. Wearing clothes we were way overdressed! The majority of the people (that were clothed) wore shorts, short skirts, and tank or bathing suit tops! I guess they gave the 106 degree weather some thought, unlike me. All sweating aside, we had a fantastic night. It will be a great memory for me, since I basically planned my WHOLE road trip/vacation around Brad taking me to see Kid Rock in Raleigh, NC.

A huge thank you to Gramma, Poppa John, Auntie Gayle, Auntie Nae Nae, Auntie LoLo for taking care of the kids so that Brad could take me to see the concert! I got an awesome t-shirt, that I can't wear in front of the kids because it has a "swear" on it, as my kids would say. I had so much fun, and when we got home, since the girls were still up, we sat around and chatted about it. We didn't crawl into bed until past 1, and I knew I was going to feel it the next morning.

Funny, I do remember thinking to myself that we probably shouldn't leave on Saturday, because I thought I might be "TIRED" from the concert, but since we brought up the cute little MUTT from Texas, and had her in a kennel, we HAD to leave on Saturday. The kennel didn't have a Sunday pick-up option that worked for us. So, we packed up, said our goodbyes and thank-yous and left for the kennel.

Georgia was groomed while in the kennel, and when they brought her out, she was SO pretty and soft and fuzzy and brushed. Gone were the burrs and matts and DIRT that was all over her before. She looked so PRETTY. I will get a pic of her up here soon. She jumped into my arms once again, and wagged and wagged for the kids. All of the kennel personel were moved and said what a sweet dog she had been. They agreed with their Texas sidekicks that NH definitely has better weather for her type of fur. So, we got on the road soon after that.

Does anyone remember my FIRST post? When do I like to/need to leave? That is correct - SIX a.m. Any time that I have left after 6, I always hit traffic, and this is exactly what happened to us. We picked up Georgia around noon, and started out. At this point, we had about 13 hours of driving to do, putting us arriving home at 1 in the a.m. Not happy, but we chugged along. Not too long over the Virginia border, we hit traffic. We were NOT happy. We hit it again and again. When we finally got near the DC area, where Laurie lives, we had a decision to make. Do we get off and go to Laurie's house (after we call and ask if we can and if a dog can stay in her garage) or do we just keep going.

We decided to stay, get some sleep, and HEAD OUT AT 5:30 A.M. It was a good decision. We got to see Lanae and Laurie and the kids one more time, and we stayed up and talked about the vacations and dog and all of that good stuff. We also had not been looking forward to trying to introduce Toby, our cat, to Georgia, the dog, at 2 o'clock in the morning! It also gave us a chance to eat chicken at this Peruvian place that Laurie introduced us to years ago. The sauce that they give you is so spicy and probably so fattening, but SO GOOD! You also get rice and beans and it is just delicious!

Bedtime was later than we should have, but it was good to see sissies and kids and talk. The dog did great, and Laurie was nice enough to let her stay inside. She pointed out that the dog had just been treated for fleas and ticks, and then groomed, so we weren't really worried about her getting the place dirty. We took her up to the craft room, where we were sleeping, and she settled in on the floor. Laurie has a neighbor that started talking on his cell phone, in Spanish, around 2:32 a.m. The dog got up, looked out the window, and started to growl this really low mean growl! I was really impressed! She sounds big and mean! I love it.

More on the drive home later, hopefully by Brad, since he writes better than I do.

Hanging out with Mom

We've spent the last couple of days in Wake Forest, NC. It's been awesome.

Highlights:

• Visiting the "marble museum" in Raleigh. It was chock full of interactive things for the kids to play with. We had to drag them out of there.


• The food! Mom, Auntie Gayle, Lanae, Laurie, Poppa John - everyone is such a great cook. We've had yummy steaks on the BBQ, shrimp skewers, salad...all that good home-cooking that you can't find on the road.


• Of course -- the pool and waterslide. The kids have been swimming themselves crazy. They will be heading back to NH much tanner and blonder than they left.


• 9 cousins. Save for a few arguments Bailey, Brandon, Eric and Ellie have been getting along great with their cousins Nicole, Lindsay, Cole, Luke and Mallory.

Heading to Kid Rock tonight in about an hour. Looking forward to that. Making a quick stop at a tattoo parlor on the way.

P.S. - kidding about the tattoo parlor.

Pics of waterslide:

GA to NC - July 21

Got an early start out of Duluth, GA and drove to Charlotte, NC to visit with Holly's family. Holly blogged about her visit there last time and she was on the money. As usual, they were all very sweet and welcoming and I got a tour of the new house.
We got to spend about 3 hours with Holly's sister Susanne and her new finance Ed. And we also got to spend time with her 2 daughters, the beautiful Kaylee and Rio, and her strapping son Tory (Toto). We are also very happy to Grandma Paulette (Holly's stepmom) stop and spend time with us.
We had a delicious pasta lunch with garlic bread and hit the road again for Wake Forest, NC.
By the way - Susanne has two huge dogs with loud intimidating barks so our new dog was content to stay in the car (doors open and in the shade) during our visit.

Made it to Wake Forest around 6:00 PM on Tuesday July 21...dropped off the mutt at a kennel and got to Grandma's in time for dinner. Ahhhh, it was nice to be "home" with all the family. In addition to Mom and John we also had Lanae along with Cole, Luke and Mallory and my Auntie Gayle is out from California too.

We stayed up late vi sting and rolled into bed circa 1:00 A.M.

Texas to Georgia

We left Beaumont, TX in the morning and arrived in Duluth, GA (outside of Atlanta) in the evening. Go ahead - google map that -- yep that's 733 miles. Loooong day of driving, yes - with the new dog. She was great.

Some highlights:

• Driving through the bayous of Louisiana. At one point we were on a bridge only about 20 feet above the swampy marshes for about 25 miles. The kids were looking for aligators, but alas found none


• Mississippi. They simply beat to a different drum there. We stopped for lunch at a Hardees and we had a few strange looks at the New Hampshire license plate.


• Montgomery, AL. For some re-donk-ulous reason, the GPS thought it would be cool to get off in downtown Montgomery at rush hour instead of take the simple highway junction to I-85. However, we did drive past Rosa L. Parks Blvd. where history was made some 50 yeras ago.


• Atlanta at night. Beautiful city. The kids really liked the lights of Hot-lan-ta.

We finally got to the hotel around 9:30 and ate our wonderfully nutritious McDonald's for dinner. Awful sick of the fast food now.

One more exciting highlight - as a result of my trip to the planet Mercury (the beach at South Padre Island) my back now has raised and exploding blisters on it and sweet Jesus - does it itch! So I went out at 12:30 AM to the only store that was open - WalMart - to get some advil and some anti-itch lotion. Have you been to a WalMart at 12:30 aM lately? I noticed that there aren't many nuns that shop at that time of day.

Apparently there were several teenagers to twenty-somethings in gang attire that were also in pain at that time. The pain reliver section of WalMart was extremely popular. They seemed healthy from the outside, but who am I to judge. Anyhow, made it back to the hotel in one piece and slept comfortably.

More tomorrow...

"Georgia" on my mind

Anyone else like the name "Georgia" for new dog?
The kids are really stuck on Angel, which was fun to call her when we weren't the dog owners, but I think Georgia fits her.
Comments please! :)

Houston - We have a problem!

(written by Brad)

Well, we got up fairly early on Padre Island. We had to leave early so that we could head back up to NC.
The drive back was pretty uneventful...drove by some of the same small Texas towns and cool ranches.

Well - this drive was made a little longer by a stop in Austin to pick up our new friend. Yes, we went back to the Austin animal shelter, filled out some paperwork, and added a new passenger to the minivan.

The dog doesn't know that I exist at this point but I have to say, as an outsider looking in, it was a touching reunion. The shelter worker brought "Angel" out (we aren't keeping that name - stay tuned) and as soon as she saw Holly and the kids her tail almost wagged off her body. She made the happy whimpering sounds that dogs make and she licked Holly's face so much that you'd think she had peanut butter on it.

Even the workers at the shelter seemed genuinely moved by the reunion. Since she appears to be part husky, everyone agrees that New Hampshire is the perfect climate for her.

Say it together - "it was meant to be".

So then we drove to the Houston area to see Holly's friend from her days at Chili's, Rick. He and his lovely family live in a Houston suburb, Cypress. We pull up to their house, the kids open the side door and (start "Benny Hill" music here) the dog takes off and pees on every front lawn in the neighborhood. Actually the house on the corner got an extra treat - rhymes with "log grit".

Ahhhh, what a great idea.

Everybody, including Rick's two daughters whom we never met, are chasing this dog trying to help us out. Everybody except Eric, that is. Eric had already walked into the house on his own, because Eric is nosey and likes to see the inside of other people's homes.

Well after the dog relieved herself several times, she jumped back into the van on her own and wouldn't get out. Rick and his wife Tracy were so kind, they locked their two dogs in their bedroom so that our mangy mutt could hang out. "Hi, we're the Imposers...I mean Jamiesons - where's dinner?"

We had a fantastic time with them. The kids went swimming in their beautiful pool. They played classic video games on Rick's handmade 80's style stand-up arcade game (that didn't require quarters), we ate nachos and chili dogs - Texas style, and Bailey and Rick entertained us with guitar playing.

Of course - we left later than the Brad Jamieson tight schedule indicated we should, but it was worth it. We ended up getting to our hotel room at 12:30 in the A.M.

(As Brad said, the drive and all was uneventful, until said 12:30 a.m. arrival when I discovered that BRAD had left my toiletry bag, with brush, lotion, deodorant in the hotel lobby on SOUTH PADRE ISLAND!) It's been fun for two days with no brush, lotion or anything essential, including my meds!) Oh, and it is costing me $70 to have it sent to Raleigh. Thank you Rene and Heidi! They didn't check out until Monday, so they were able to retrieve my bag (that looks like a trash bag according to Brad) and mailed it from somewhere in Texas.

Lazy dog on Rick's floor.

Rick, Tracy, Chole, and Carrisa - oh yeah, and Ellie...she's part of our family

Rick and Bailey playing Kid Rock's "All Summer Long".