Well, well, well. What's to say?! Been a good day on the road today, for the most part. Everybody is tucked in here at the Days Inn in Benton, Arkansas. The goal was to make it to Little Rock tonight, but we fell short by about 25 miles. Oh well. Close enough. And we had good reason to stop early.

We were able to pull out at about 8:45 this morning, bidding farewell to a very distraught Hershey Dog. He had been keeping a close eye on the suitcases all day yesterday and was getting increasingly nervous. We usually leave him home alone while we're away. He has a dog door so he can go in and out whenever he pleases, and Aunt Sue or somebody will come check on him. Still, it's got to be terribly lonely for a sociable dog such as he is. This time, however, Stacey offered to keep him at her house. Ha! Ha! Ha! That can't possibly be funny to most of you, but it's hilarious to me! If you knew Hershey, you would know half of why it's so funny. The other half is that Stacey has two dogs of her own: Cody, a Shitzu (sp?) with practically no personality whatsoever and Jasmine a Shitzu-mix of some sort that is the meanest, nastiest, moodiest, fiestiest, unfriendliest dog you've ever met. All of her bottom teeth stick out and up from her face and she hates everything and everybody except Stacey. She finally gets along okay with James and me, but it took a long time for that to happen. (Even still, I wouldn't trust her!) Hershey is the polar opposite of that. He loves everything and everybody, he's happy-go-lucky, playful, energetic, friendly (way too friendly, usually--won't leave you alone!) and all things opposite of Jas. Stacey has never been around a dog like Hershey before, I'm sure. But that's not the only reason the situation is hilarious. Stacey has also volunteered to keep her mom's Shitzu, Joey, (a sweet little guy) and Sam & Tammy's Bassett puppy, Archie! Ha! Can you imagine?! She is crazy!!! She is going to have Hershey for the full 25 days (unless he's just too much for her, in which case she'll drop him off at home again!) and ALL 5 DOGS for a whole week during the Assembly!!! She's even talking about taking them all for walks and such! Ha! She is truly a glutton for punishment. I can't wait to hear the stories.

Anyway, I had all of Hershey's stuff together (dog bed, food, leash, etc.), but he didn't know it because I gathered it all when he was outside. But this morning Katie mentioned the word "leash" and then touched it. Hershey heard the word and the jingle of the chain and was suddenly transformed from a pathetic pouting puppy to a hyper and playful dog again! ~sigh~ He thought he was going with us. He was soooooo excited. I kept trying to tell him the truth, but he had already seen the leash and didn't believe me. You should have seen his face when we walked out the door and left him behind. (Stacey was going to pick him up this evening.) It's amazing how expressive dogs can be!!! It was sooooo sad. I'm sure he had a long, miserable, lonely day today. But oh, how exciting when Stacey showed up! I'm happy he won't be home alone for such a long time.

Anyway!!! (I had no intention of talking about the dog for so long!!!) Our first stop was in Abiline for lunch. We had to drive all the way downtown to return a stolen hanger to a motel that we'd stayed at a month or two ago. We got home from our trip there and discovered it in our stuff, so we called to let them know and promised to return it on our next trip through there. Then James remembered when he flew out of Abiline one time and the credit card machine was down and he had very little cash, so when he went to leave the airport he had no way to pay for his parking! The guy just let it slide, but he's thought of it several times since then, so we drove on out to the airport and he ran up to the booth and gave the guy the $2 that he didn't have on him 3 years ago! Ha! So Abiline ended up being a longer stop than it normally would be, but we took care of some necessary restitution so that felt good. ;-)

The only other major occurance of the day was Joe getting sick in the backseat. ~sigh~ I thought we were past that stage of the game! I haven't had to clean up stuff like that in ages!!! We had to stop and strip him down, clean him up (amazingly, I still had a big tub of baby wipes in the van from way back when!), dig around in the suitcase for some fresh clothes, and go into a gas station to rinse out the nasty stuff. Ugh. He said he was feeling fine after that. We stopped for dinner and he stuffed himself, then about 30 minutes later he said, "Uh... Mom... " He didn't actually lose anything this time, just said he felt like it. That's the "good reason" we had for stopping before we made it to Little Rock. What's 25 more miles?! I'd rather stop early and be in a room instead of have the kid mess up all of his clothes and the van all over again just for the sake of a few more miles! Actually, since we've been here he says he's feeling much better. He got in the room and was wanting to play and goof around. We told him he wasn't allowed to feel good--he's "sick," that's why we stopped, and he's going to bed! Ha! Of course, that was an hour and a half ago and everybody is sacked out except him. Still laying there, looking around. Weird-o.

Wish I could remember the funny things had have happened today instead of just the time consuming and gross things! I know that I've laughed heartily at the kids several times. After dinner tonight Sam polished off a whole bowl of chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup on top (James' doing!) and then handed me the bowl and said, "I'm done, Mom. If you eat too much chocolate you'll get sick, so I'm done." Ha! He was still telling me of his marvellous self-control when he spotted some chocolate cookie crumbs by his plate. He started shoving them into his mouth as he continued his speech on the dangers of too much chocolate! Ha! In theory, he's a very healthy kid!

Okay, I'm going to join the rest of the fam and call it a night.

~Bec~