We woke up the following morning with a few bugs crawling on us since we hadn’t set up the tent the night before. There was a bit of tension in the air from last night’s marital discourse regarding where to place the sleeping mats. I started rolling up the sleeping bags and deflating the sleeping mats while RJ struck up a conversation with our campsite neighbor whom we had noticed the previous night sleeping sans tent. The man was from Minnesota and was on a guys-only trip with a few of his buddies. He asked about our bike, where we were from, and where we were going. He and RJ got to talking about motorcycles and RJ discovered he owned a bike as well. After adding each other on Facebook, told us to contact him if we ever make our way to Minnesota so he could ride with us and show us around.
I had finished packing so I grabbed my clothes for the day and walked over to the shower room. By the time I was finished getting ready, RJ was supposed to have the saddle bags on the bike, the tent and sleeping bags packed, and everything ready to go. But, as I rounded the corner to our site, I immediately noticed something was wrong. The tent and sleeping bags were bundled and the saddle bags were on but the contents of the trunk were spread on the picnic table. RJ was frantically pacing back and forth and searching for something on his phone. Now, remember in the previous entry ( Little Rock, AR ) when I mentioned the Arkansas mug ended up costing us the most money?? RJ had taken everything out of the trunk to organize it and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, he thought that setting the four coffee mugs on the motorcycle seat was a safe place 🤔. The Arkansas mug fell on the ground and broke into several pieces.
RJ was shooketh; he thought surely his wife was going to curse at him and beat him up. (She would have too [she’s strong], had they not been at a campsite filled with people.) Instead, the loving and compassionate wife I am, consoled him and dried his tears telling him everything was ok but he better order another mug real fast-like.* He called the Arkansas capitol and the same lady whom we had struck up a conversation with in the gift shop answered the phone. RJ told her how we were traveling on our motorcycle and how he was packing the trunk when the mug just jumped off that bike seat and onto the ground, breaking into pieces. (You guys, the picnic table was literally one foot away from the bike. I’m not sure why he thought the seat was the place to balance the coffee mugs) The lady remembered who we were and was more than happy to send us another mug (just two easy payments of 29.99 and the mug is yours!!) RJ, in a relieved voice told the lady, “You just saved my marriage.” The lady replied, “Oh honey, if your marriage is hanging on by a mug, you’re already in trouble.”
We left for Texas as fast as we could in hopes to get out of the muggy weather, but only made it to Baton Rouge before we had to stop at a McDonald’s where RJ needed to get some urgent work done. It worked out perfectly as we narrowly escaped a sudden downpour that began right as we pulled into the parking lot. It was the coldest McDonald’s I have ever been to in my life… bar none… period… full stop. Dreaming of the equator and other warm things, I wrapped myself into a human burrito with my extra falsa blanket. I’m sure the customers thought I was some kinda crazy wrapped up in my blanket when it was so hot outside!
By this point in our journey, it’s worth mentioning that I was no longer allowed to buy food from our stops. RJ was spouting some kind of bologna like “dude, you ordered $10 of food off a dollar menu.” or “I said get a *snack*, you just ordered a full meal… for a small family!” RJ was also very happy that the mid-west has a dearth of taco bells because I “have *zero* control.” Either way, I was cold and hungry and need some sustenance, so I politely asked RJ to order breakfast for us… or I tried to sneak breakfast, and he took my wallet away, I can’t really remember. RJ subsequently ordered the cheapest items he could find on the menu: the critically acclaimed McBurrito… yuummmm (can you hear my sarcasm). This was rather unfortunate considering that I don’t like eggs and the primary ingredient of the MB is the egg substitute or maybe that’s called McEgg, who even knows. After almost two years of marriage you would think he should know about my distain for eggs.
After, I begrudgingly finished my soggy burrito, I waited for RJ while he dutifully completed his tasks. And then I sat there and waited. I waited. And waited… And waited some more. Breakfast turned into lunch and the lunch rush came and went. And still I waited. I ordered a chicken sandwich and fries, ate it, and waited some more. I thought we might end up staying in Baton Rouge for the night. I waited. FOUR FREAKING LONG HOURS LATER** we finally left that iceberg of a McDonald’s. I think RJ finished his work.
Before leaving Baton Rouge we stopped for a proper lunch.
After our bellies were full, we drove to Houston without much happening in between. It was there we just so happened to stop at another McDonald’s and RJ took out his laptop for an hour of work.
We had hoped to make it to Austin that day but with how swamped RJ was with work it just hadn’t worked out. We debated on driving the two and a half hours to Austin in the dark but it would be late and we needed to find a laundromat as we had no more clean clothes to wear the next day. We didn’t feel like camping again so RJ said if we could find a cheap hotel then we would stay in Houston and leave early in the morning for Austin. After a few minutes of searching we found a cheap hotel and decided to stay there for the night. And this is where the story gets interesting…
*Those of you who know me, know I’m very sarcastic and I’m not strong enough to even bruise a baby’s arm.
**I’m actually very thankful for RJ’s job and his ability to work from anywhere. His job (and his understanding boss) is the reason we are able to be gone for a month at a time.
Cheers!
~em and rj