Wednesday. I got up at seven thirty and worked for nearly an hour to help a customer with a website issue. Then I showered and got ready to go work at an on site today.
Paul and I had to be in at ten. He drove me in and was there for about half an hour before heading back. I stayed to work for several hours.
I was on site, down in Irving, and at noon Dominica texted me to tell me that Francesca and the girls had already left College Station and were really, really early and would be at our house in no time! Originally we had thought that there was a possibility of them getting done really early, like two or three, and that we might have an option of leaving tonight around five or six. But this was so much earlier than we had planned for.
Brian, John, and I had lunch at twelve thirty at Boston Pizza. They had a Beyond burger, which made me happy, and that was my lunch. It was quite good. We got back to the office at one thirty and Paul arrived to pick me up just minutes after we got there. Paul and I raced back to the house so that I could finish packing and get things ready. Dominica had the car nearly loaded already, I just had to do the final things to let us get out the door. Francesca, Madeline, and Emily arrived maybe twenty minutes after Paul and I did. I had one customer consultation call that I had to do before we could leave. Then we were off.
It was so early that we managed to get on the road. We were driving by four! We had been thinking that if we got on the road today that we would only make it a little ways, but get a head start on the drive to make the next two days easier. But this was so early and we were feeling so good that we decided to see how far we could make it.
We stopped in northern Oklahoma for dinner at the last Carl’s Jr. to get their Beyond Famous Star before leaving Oklahoma and entering Missouri where those restaurants turn into Hardees and have nothing for us to eat. This is our last Beyond burger till likely August.
In Missouri we ran into a terrible storm. Very high winds and a lot of rain. It made for some rough driving, but it was spotty and we kept going. Francesca and I really wanted to push through and got to the far side of St. Louis so that we could get up in the morning and not have to deal with that traffic. Otherwise we would likely be very sorry.
We ended up pushing all the way through to Greenville, Illinois and found a Super 8 there that would take the dog. Francesca started off with Mia in her car, but after Oklahoma she moved over to ours and was suddenly calm and relaxed and was able to travel without panting and without needing any medicine. She did great in the car.
It was almost two in the morning when we stopped for some sleep. We are over halfway now, we will easily make it to New York tomorrow. Mia slept in our room tonight, she slept with her head on my leg.