Fashionista Goes to Texas Part 2

After eating our faces off in Memphis we started our journey in the rainy mid morning. We slept in as long as we could in hopes of recovering from a fabulous small dinner party at one of our favorite places, The Webb's. We had fabulous food, wine, and conversation. So fun! Pigpen slept first in the BOB (we took it into the Webb's beautiful home), and then on the floor on a cozy palette.

I knew that we had about 5 hours to go until we hit Texarkana, and that meant that my hopes of getting a Scholtzky's sandwich for dinner could possibly be reached. We left Memphis around 11:00 since it was close to Pigpen's nap. Poor little guy's schedule had been shattered in the past week, so we were trying to do the best we could. He fell asleep fairly quickly in the car, so we drove and drove and drove! I typed Schlotsky's into the GPS, and luckily it found one in Texarkana....just as I had hoped! It said we would get there at 4:30pm. I know we wouldn't be able to make it that long without stopping, so we decided to just play things by ear. I couldn't believe it when I found myself looking for signs for McDonald's. We knew that we would have to stop somewhere to let him run around a little whenever he woke up. Where is the perfect place? A mall, a playground, a nasty whore infested truck stop? Hmmmm, so may choices, and so many unknowns.

We hit the jackpot, so we thought, when we got to a town just south of Little Rock. A Chick-fil-A popped up on the GPS. Chick-fil-A is usually clean, and better for you according to all of the radio and television shows who compare fast food restaurants. It usually makes the, "not guaranteed to make your arteries clog" list. And....they usually have a playground thingy. We exited the highway, and saw it in the distance. It was so shiny and pretty. The little playground was so sweet and inviting, and I could almost taste the waffle cut fries and lemonade that would soon be in my belly. Then.....tragedy struck! We realized that it was Sunday! Yes, it was Sunday, and those nice Christian folks who started Chick-fil-A still stick to the old adage of, Sunday is for the family and worship......Crap! What about people who are traveling long distances and need a place for their 19 month old to run and dig? What about us!?

There was a McDonald's across the street with a super advanced over sized hamster's dream in the front, but it was outside, and it was starting to rain. Talk about rain on my parade! We headed back across the highway to the Burger King that we saw when we exited. We noticed that the sign said playground. It's funny how you notice these things once you have children. I would usually drive by a Burger King and just think, "gross", and now I've developed some sort of sonar for indoor playscapes that may not include hypodermic needles and perverts.

So, Burger King it was, and to our surprise and delight, the play area was glassed in, and secured with a door. We ordered a chicken salad and let Pigpen run wild. The actual playground was too advanced for him, it was another over sized hamster project, but he had fun running around and looking in all of the tunnels that he was too small to climb into. It was really nice.

After that, we made it to Schlotzky's where I managed to drop my entire cup of half Sprite and half Orange Soda all over the floor. It basically exploded when it hit the ground. I tried to blame it on Pigpen, but he was about 3 feet away when I did it. I have become a serious "dropper" since I've been pregnant. The sandwich was delicious, and totally took my mind off of the horrible traffic on 35, and the monsoon that was taking place outside. After our scrumptious feast, we loaded back up, bypassed the highway as much as possible on our way to Starbucks, and then headed for Boerne. Traffic thinned out after Texarkana, and we drove until we needed gas. I slept a little with Pigpen's stuffed alligator as lumbar support, and Piggy as a neck roll. Nothing like nodding off to sleep in the car with the faint smell of your child's slobbery stuffed animal behind your head.

Our next stop was in Hillsboro along with everyone else. We stopped at a Whataburger to let the boy run around one last time. This was the best idea so far since Whataburger was selling plastic trains. Pigpen spotted them immediately from across the counter and screamed out repeatedly "choo choo, choo choooo, choo choooooo." We were only able to buy one at a time, so my husband bought a strawberry shake, and then I went up and bought a small fry.....Pigpen got an engine car and a caboose. He played with these on the filthy Whataburger floor as I went out to the car to get his PJ's. No changing table in the bathroom, so I changed him into his PJ's right there on the plastic bench seat that is bolted to the ground. As I was stripping him of his clothes, I thought what the hell....might as well change his diaper too....it was just a tinkle diaper, and no one was in there. I could just pretend like I was from another country and didn't speak English if someone said something....right?

My husband drove until he couldn't stand it anymore, and woke me up to take over right when I had finally fallen into that really nice REM sleep mode. I took the wheel outside of Round Rock, and drove us all the way to Boerne....we got there at 2am, and immediately went to bed! What a journey! I made it without going into labor in Arkansas, and we didn't even have one disagreement or tift....not that we ever do, but someone is a little more bitchy these days....not gonna mention who...