#14..On the Road Again

I love road trips. I love that feeling the night before when you're trying to fall asleep, but the anticipation and excitement just make it impossible. This is especially true if you're going somewhere you've never been before. Well, it is for me anyway.
I start planning weeks ahead IN my head. What will I take? What will I wear? Where am I going to eat? What books to take? A million details. I never actually get around to packing until the night before. Then, I do laundry, pack, re-pack and jump into bed to spend a sleepless night waiting for time to leave. I figure in the twenty years of my current relationship/marriage, we've logged about 40 road trips. Most of them have been to Florida and most of them have been good. HE would not agree, just because HE hates road trips. He doesn't like driving, but doesn't like riding either. We have now decided that it's just best for me to get a head start and pick his ass up at the airport. I'd be fine if I never flew again, but that would somewhat hinder my secret plan to go to France and Italy. Massive amounts of liquor will be needed before I board that plane and I won't sleep for weeks before that trip, if it ever happens.
So, somewhere along the line, I started taking my precious daughter on road trips--either with husband, with my friends or just the two of us. I have to say the latter two of the three are preferable, for the reasons listed above. She and I have the best road trips. The last trip we took to Florida, we left at 3AM and had to stop in East Texas for a little shut eye, but we persevered.
Most of the time, we can keep ourselves entertained, but there was one trip where we were just flat bored and read the Atlas to each other for about 6 straight hours. We've gone through some hellacious storms on the road. One time, we SWEAR we were in a tornado in Southeast Texas. The sky was green--and it was raining so effing hard that we couldn't see shit. We pulled over at a convenience store and made a run for it, only to be told by the cashier that if the power went out, she'd have to kick us out. Thankfully, we were spared.
We've seen some strange sights. I will just say that a lot of those sights brought the word "Deliverance" to mind. We've had some great food and some of the crappiest crap food along the way. A word of advice....McDonald's, Tallulah, LA.....run for you life. You'd be better off eating off the floor of the filling station bathroom down the street.
What you see above are known as "love bugs". They become permanently attached to your vehicle sometime around September here in Texas/Louisiana. They are disgusting, vile, pornographic creatures and they deserve to die. I only wish it was on someone else's grill!
We've been to some interesting tourist attractions and frankly, most of them had something to do with boiled peanuts. Don't ask me why, it's the south. Boiled peanuts, btw, taste like shit.
It looks like my next road trip will be to Kansas City. Haven't been there in a while and we're going for HIS high school reunion. I think massive amounts of liquor might have to be consumed before that trip too.