The Long Road Home

So my Mom and I left Florence this morning about 9 AM with her dog Gidget (aka Gidgey aka Miss Gidge) in tow.  I let my Mom drive through South Carolina, which has the least amount of traffic and is the area she is most familiar with.  When I am at my most caffeinated, I can make it from Florence to the Georgia state line in about 2 hours.  Even after she had 2 Red Bulls, it took us nearly 3 hours with my Mom at the wheel (To be fair, we did stop for a couple of bathroom breaks).

The rest of the trip went much faster.  I probably deserve a ticket at this point, but here's my general theory on speeding.  I pick a speed at 9 or 14 more than the speed limit.  Usually, at the beginning of a trip, it's closer to the 9, and my the end, 14.  If I am going 79 in a 70 and cars are continuously blowing by me, I will go up to 84.  If I am in a large group, I may occasionally go up to 89.  But I don't spend a lot of time looking out for cops.  I relax, listen to music, drink my Mountain Dew, eat my Sweetarts/Skittles/Mento's, and kind of space out.  I get a lot of thinking done on these 6+ hour trips.

When we got here, I introduced Miss Gidge to her new surroundings and attempted to get her to go to the bathroom.  Even after hours and hours in the car, I guess it should not surprise me that she was a lot more interested in partaking in the smells of all the neighborhood dogs rather than actually using the bathroom herself. 

After some initial trouble getting her to go up the staircase up to my apartment, she's all settled in now, and has barely made a peep.  If she keeps this up, this is going to be a great week.

And tomorrow, the great Christmas shopping experience continues.