my travel karma is back

I have bad travel karma.  It is usually just about air travel.  But since I have mostly eliminated that from my life, it has decided to affect other methods of vacation travel.

Ladybug and I went off to my parents' for the weekend.  At the end of the weekend I will return home but Ladybug will stay for the weekend.  I am very anxious about this.  Five whole days without her????  I think I will miss her.

We had planned to leave right after work -- about 4:30 pm.  However, at 1:45 pm I received a call from her camp.  She was sick.  She needed to go home.  I was not completely caught off guard.  Actually, I was not at all caught off guard.  On Tuesday I had taken her to the doctor because I knew she was getting sick.  He agreed but didn't want to medicate her.  On Thursday I called and said it was getting worse and I really wanted to medicate her.  The doctor was out for the day.  On Friday he called in the prescription for me and I picked it up at lunch.  So when the phone call came 45 minutes later, I was prepared.

I picked her, strapped on her bike, went back to the pharmacy to pay (because they let me leave with the medication even though I had forgotten to bring my insurance card and just asked that I come back later to show proof of insurance and pay), got gas and drinks and started the drive.  By Michelle's (my GPS) calculations I should have arrived at about 6pm.  Not too bad.

However, about 2 hours into the drive we ran into an accident.  A logging truck (empty) and a car had a disagreement.  They moved off to the side of the road and we could have passed.  But the car in the front of the line refused to drive by the accident.  For 22 minutes.  So we all waited.  For 22 minutes.  Until a rescue worker finally told the driver that they had to pass the accident.

Late by 22 minutes isn't bad.

Then when we were about 30 minutes from my parents house, Ladybug announced she had to go to the bathroom.  And she meant right then.  She could not hold it 30 minutes.  She wasn't even sure she could hold it one minute.  As I frantically looked for an option we (AGAIN) talked about the idea that she has to give me some warning time.  But I finally found a gas station and we rushed into the store.  I asked for the bathroom.

Sorry, no public restrooms.

She is about to pee her pants.  No public restrooms.  She pointed me in the direction of the nearest one -- 2 miles down the street.  So we got back in the car -- with tears streaming down Ladybug face and drove the 2 miles.

We found a bathroom -- a one stall bathroom.  But she made it.  And apparently her stomach was bothering her too.  So as she sat on the potty -- for 10 minutes -- I began to realize that I had been headed to the bathroom (at 1:45 pm) when I had gotten the call that she was sick.  I never made it to the bathroom.  So now several hours later I really had to go.  But she was on it.  I coaxed her off and used the potty.  And then she got right back on -- for another 10 minutes.  The 20 minute bathroom break when we were 30 minutes from our destination.

Back in car and driving.

When we were 10 miles from the house we got detoured.  The bridge over the highway was out.  The detour was clearly marked.  And easy to follow.  But my parents live in the middle of nowhere (their town has about 600 people in it) so a detour isn't like just going a block out of the way.  It was going 10 minutes out of the way.  On streets that likely have not been worked on in over 20 years.  But the detoured was clearly marked.  And Michelle guided me -- well except for the part where she told me to take a left and cross over a farmer's field to get to the next road (I didn't listen to her at that point).

We arrived -- 50 minutes late.

Mean Mama