Ten hours in the car is about 9 hours too long if you have two toddlers with teeth and claws traveling with you. The only thing that made the trip bearable was the big, greasy bucket of Colonel Sanders' KFC and sloppy mashed potatoes.
Bumbleboy likes mashed taters from KFC.
The vehicle's interior is now painted with mashed taters from KFC.
Whenever Brian and his friends decide to take a big trip, they do it with wild enthusiasm and absolutely no thought to budget, practicality or available vacation time. And anytime they've made these trip plans, they've committed themselve to it by immediately purchasing their airline tickets, with the notion that "If I have the ticket, I HAVE to go. There's no backing out now."
I've always envied his ability to do that - to travel on a whim and be completely at ease with that. The mere thought of spontaneous travel makes my OCD eyes twitch relentlessly. He's an amazing guy, and his ability to sieze the day is one of the many reasons I married him. I, however, could never bring myself to simply buy the ticket and go without spending four months of planning, scheduling and FREAKING OUT.
Brian looks at planning for travel the same way he looks at skydiving. Or marriage. Once you take that first step, you're committed to the jump. You can't back out. If you buy an airline ticket to Norway to go BASE jumping, YOU ARE GOING TO NORWAY. If you buy airline tickets to skydive all over Europe, YOU ARE GOING TO EUROPE. If you propose onstage to your girlfriend in front of a full house, dude, YOU'RE SO GETTING MARRIED.
For the week before we left for Thanksgiving for our trip to VA, I've been checking out reviews for a good pair of hiking boots. I learned long ago that you don't buy cheap stuff when it comes to sporting goods or ketchup. Case in point: My first pair of roller blades were about $29.99 at AMES. They sucked. They hurt my feet, offered no ankle support, caused blisters and I could only go about 100 yards before I had to quit. My second pair of blades ran just under $200, but they were WELL WORTH the price I paid. They're comfortable, I can blade for hours without blisters or ankle pain, and 6 years later, they're still in tremendous shape.
Second case in point: Heinz Ketchup. No other ketchup can compare to Heinz's ketchupy goodness.
I knew I would have to sink a decent amount of cash into a good pair of hiking boots in order to stay comfortable and not injure myself while hiking. I've worn hiking boots practically all my life, but I've never owned a pair of GOOD hiking boots. And because I'm going to be hiking in both summer and winter, I figured I'd have to buy TWO pair of good boots (winter & summer).
I've had no luck finding ANY decent boots here in Rochester. EMS closed. Dick's and Gander Mountain are the only stores in the area that could have carried the styles I was hoping to buy, and they didn't have them. So while visiting my sister in Virginia, I decided to check out her local sporting goods stores. Unfortunately they didn't have the boots I was looking for - but they had something better. Heh.
Originally I had planned to check out boots from North Face, but I wasn't completely sold on them after reading a few negative reviews.
Instead I found this pair of snow/earth-kickin' leather foot clouds. The guy who sold them to me swore on them, and told me he'd never hike in anything BUT those boots. After I tried them on, I was sold. They're EASILY the most comfortable boots I have EVER worn in my life, and I can wear them for summer and winter hiking, both.
As I hopped into the car, my sister asked, "So, what was the damage?"
"$214.99" I sighed.
"Dude," she said as she rolled her eyes, "you just bought an airline ticket to Norway. I hope you like hiking."