this is a retelling of the trip I took to San Antonio with Amanda, Bobby, Danny, and my Nana. I thought it might be kind of fun to retell it like a story (a la Louisa May Alcott). I will leave it up to you to determine who is who. ;-)

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"A Tale of Two Cities: Misadventures in San Antonio and Kerrville"

---chapter one---

The story you are about to read is true. the names have been changed to protect the innocent......


This is the story of four siblings--Emily, Aaron, Jason, and Jane--and their Nana (who we will affectionately call "Nana") and their journey to a place that, while only hours from home, may very well have been on the other side of the world for all the difference that lay between the one place and the other.

Our story begins on a Wednesday evening in the Campbell living room in a little suburb just outside of Dallas, where the four are in a frenzy, tying up last-minute strings as the time of departure draws nearer...

..........

"Emily!" Aaron called, "Emily, WHERE are your bags? Where are you?!?"
Emily emerged from her bedroom, dragging a half-open weekender behind her. "Hey guys? Does anyone know where my other brown flip-flop is? I kind of really need those..."
"No, you do not need flip-flops! Are you not packed yet?? We're leaving for Nana's in fifteen minutes! If you're not ready by then, we're leaving without all your crap."
Emily looked imploringly at Aaron, "I'm almost ready, I promise. I've just gotta get a few more things together. I'll be ready on time...say, do you think there'll be room for my guitar?"
"NO GUITAR!!" Objecting in unison, Jason and Jane came in from the dining room, shaking their heads at Emily. Jane crossed over to the guitar case and moved the instrument to the first bedroom in the hallway.
"Are we gonna keep the cooler in the car," Jason asked, "or do we have to keep it in the trunk? I say keep it in the car...if there's too much junk in the back, I won't be able to bring my fishing poles. You girls better not bring a million bags of crap and girl stuff...'Oh! I have to bring all my clothes! Oh! I need eight pairs of shoes! Oh! I have to pack my iPod and every single freaking one of my CDs, even though I don't even know if there'll be a CD player where we're staying!!'" And on that note, Jason went to fetch his one bag. Emily shrugged and didn't mention the two full CD wallets that were in her bag. Jane bit her lip and quickly stuffed the last of her 12 outfits into her suitcase.

By the time they were supposed to go, Jane was ready, Jason was bored, Aaron was agitated, and Emily still hadn't finished packing. She was out by the car, re-arranging the contents of the trunk when she remembered she still had an unfinished tote bag to pack. Aaron saw that Emily had lumped all the family's "trip snacks" in the box he had set aside to hold all his personal "Aaron snacks". Already frustrated, this sent Aaron to madness. He decidedly picked out each of the communal trip snacks and dumped them, one by one, onto the curb.
Jane saw this and fussed at Aaron, following after him to and from the trunk of the car..."Put that back! I paid for all that soda! Don't you drop them, they'll go flat! What are you doing?!? Put the Oreos back! Put it ALL back!! PUT. IT. BACK! I'm sooo telling Dad when he gets home! Don't you leave those there!"

Aaron looked up at her with a lackodaisical air. He shrugged and said, "Okay. Then I'll put it back."

And so he did. Jane went back to fussing, "No, leave it there! Don't you pick that up! I want Dad to see what you did! DO NOT TOUCH THOSE TRISCUITS!!"
Jason just stood on the lawn and watched.

It was onto this tumultuous scene that Mr. Campbell stumbled as he pulled into the driveway.
He was only slightly taken aback by the mayhem that lay before him. Jane and Aaron were both known to nurse a hot temper, and clashes between the two were not uncommon.

He was working to calm the quarrel when Emily came out with the forgotten tote bag, wholly ignorant of the trip snack debacle. "Okay," she said with a huff, "I'm pretty much ready now. Are we all set to leave?" Aaron leered at her. Emily stuffed her bag into the trunk. Jane went to her father to kiss him goodbye, and he called the other three over to him. "I think it would be a good thing," he told them, "if we prayed before you guys headed out. Bow your heads, guys..." and Mr. Campbell prayed for the travelers' co-operation and comraderie, as well as for their safety.
When they all said "amen", the loving father took each one of his children to his chest, hugged them tightly, and bade them goodbye. It would only be a four-day seperation between father and children...but they would miss each other.

The four climbed into the car and departed, heading toward Nana's apartment, where they would stay until morning, at which time they hoped to squeeze into Nana's five-passenger sedan and drive south to San Antonio.

Thursday morning found the family in still another grouchy mood. Enjoying the company and too excited to sleep, not one of them had gone to bed before 12:30, and they were all insistantly roused by the alarm clock promptly at 6:00. All that is, except for Miss Emily, who essentially refused to be coaxed out of bed, and thus left Aaron with the notion that he had no choice but to bring her out by force. And so lazy Emily was jostled about, threatened with ice water, robbed of her pillows, and exposed to copious amounts of light and sound.
Finally, she relented, slinking out of bed and slothfully plodding in the general direction of the bathroom vanity, where she would take the curlers down from her hair and brush her teeth.


By 8:30, the gang was packed up and on the road to San Antonio, but not before first arguing emphatically over how much luggage was too much, arguing emphatically over how they were to fit everything Emily and Jane had packed into Nana's little Dodge Neon, arguing emphatically over how they were to fit five people into Nana's little Dodge Neon, deciding not to argue anymore (despite still-heated feelings), driving out to Nana's office to drop some things off, driving 45 minutes towards their destination, realizing Emily had left her wallet, meeting traffic on their way back to retreive Emily's wallet, collectively scolding Emily with understandable frustration, and, finally, turning their eyes once again to I-35.
They were an hour and a half behind schedule.

Now, they were all quietly recovering from the frustration of the morning. Aaron and Jason donned headphones, laying hold of the charms that might soothe the more disagreeable disposition which was tempting them both with much force this morning. Nana chatted with Jane about the myriad benefits of a match with the latest boy she had picked out for Jane to marry. Jane listened with animated interest. Emily sat squeezed between the two adolescent boys, trying to sleep, but finding her mind unable to quiet as she listened to the conversation in front of her, The Monkees' "I'm A Believer" coming from the car's stereo behind her, as well as the tinny drone of Biggie Smalls' "Juicy" and Mark Cohn's "Walkin' In Memphis" emitting from headphones to her left and to her right.

Many miles later, the general mood had lightened and the five passengers were happily engaged in a contest to see how many times they could get the truck drivers on the freeway to honk their horns. Aaron had challenged Jane to try for ten honks before they arrived in San Antonio. Jane ultimately tallied only eight. "Dang," she said, "I can't get hardly anyone's attention. What's with all the truckers keeping their eyes on the road today?"

Eventually lunchtime rolled around...



....but we will discuss that at a later date. ;-)

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Keep an eye out for the next installment!
Actually, if any of you dear readers would like, I will send out an e-mail notification to anyone who requests it when I upload a new blog post. If you would like to have your e-mail address put on a mailing list, just shoot me an e-mail at ProvGirl31@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to keep you up to date!


Until we meet again,
~Ashley Michele~