Homeward bound and back

Wow...it has taken me nearly a month to get over the trauma of driving the guys home to PA for my vacation. It all started with me nearly losing my voice before we got out of Shelby County (where we live). Five minutes into the ride, "Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?" followed by a continuous pounding of little feet in the back of my seat. I was regretting the decision not to medicate them. A hundred dollars at the dollar store for activity pads, coloring books, stickers, etc. did nothing to amuse them. Apparently it was more fun to kick my seat, pull my hair, and clamber around in the back seat.
We finally made it to Denmark, TN, where I stopped for a bathroom break and some drinks. It was fast and largely uneventful except at the end when Derf plowed into the sliding doors because he wasn't paying attention...at least it took some of the wind out of his sails. They were relatively mild mannered until we stopped at Bojangle's in Nashville for the all time best fried chicken in the world. As I had been looking forward to this stop for several weeks, I was well aware of what I wanted to eat. Not so for them. "I want this, no I want that, oooh, I want what he's having, I'm not hungry!" Arrrrgggggggghhhh!!!! Forty dollars later I managed to cobble together a bunch of random menu items that my little connoiseurs seemed to approve. Fortunately it was enough to fill them up and put them to sleep since I hit bad weather shortly afterwards.
I decided to stop in Bristol, VA about one in the morning. As I was checking in, my car alarm started going off, the horn was honking incessantly and there was a banging on the windows. After tucking her eyes back into her head, the clerk informed me of the pet deposit. I assured her it would not be necessary, as I planned to lock them in the trunk overnight. She just kind of looked at me and took my money anyway. I guess she figured they could nail me in the morning if I had any "pets" in the room. Not to be though...mwahaha!

So, the next day dawned, and we continued our drive north, stopping again for, more Bojangle's. This time I made sure to put some Benadryl in their Bo-berry biscuits. What a great idea! That got me almost to Winchester, VA before they came out of their drug induced haze. It wasn't that bad until we hit West Virigina and the speed limit went back to 70. I cranked the music and opened the sunroof only to see a small pair of red Speedos hanging out about fifteen minutes later. The other 3 decided Derf could be easily persuaded to "fly" out of the sunroof. Fortunately he got snagged and I pulled him back inside and put him in the center console to prevent any further temptation. So we just kept on driving toward PA. When I called mom to let her know we were about 100 miles out, it started all over again. "Are we there yet? Where's Grandma? I'm tired! I have to pee! He's pushing me! No I'm not!" For a hundred miles. Driving down the street, the anticipation building, it was all I could do to keep them in the car. We pulled in the driveway and before I could set the parking brake, they were piling out, hellbent on terrorizing central PA. The rest of the time passed mostly in a blur of shopping, family visits, helping mom with yardwork, etc. Fast forward to August 2010....