My mom retired Friday, November 14. Yay!! So, Dusty and I packed Niran and his many necessities and headed up to Reno for her retirement party and Thanksgiving. We left the house at 7:50 Arizona time, ten minutes earlier than Dusty had requested. About an hour into the trip, right underneath the planes coming in for landings at the Phoenix Airport our car blew a tire. The bad omen shouldn't have been the flat tire, but Dusty saying we need to get a new one before we leave town. So, after unloading the trunk, replacing the tire, reloading the trunk and driving to the other side of town, we hung out at Wal-mart waiting for them to get a spare tire. When we finally left we were about 3 hours behind schedule and the planned stops to feed Niran were a little off since he ate before we left Wal-mart...the idea of finding a nice quiet fitting room is great!!
We decided to drive until he woke up ready to eat...mistake...when we stopped he had a blow out in his diaper. That was not fun changing on my lap either! The next mistake was thinking we could get through LA quickly and then changing his diaper...again another diaper blowout due to traffic because of the 4 fires we drove past. This time I changed it at In-N-Out, with him screaming his lungs out probably because of how cold it was in the bathroom. I was slightly embarrassed when the employee walked in and said "Oh" before leaving quickly. No, I was not beating my child in the bathroom.
Again we pressed on into the night, me behind the wheel and Dusty sleeping finally. But it isn't a happy ending yet. When I took the wheel I noticed it pulling, but I thought it was due to the single new tire. Right about Stockton I had to wake Dusty up. The pulling was getting to rough and I was having trouble staying in the lane. We pulled off the highway and into a gas station and at 12:30pm Arizona time, we had another flat tire. 16 hours after the first flat tire. At this point I think Dusty was ready to take a bat to the car.
We decided we didn't want to drive the rest of the way to Reno that night. We couldn't get a tire fixed that late and we didn't want get stuck on the pass without a spare, so we called my mom to let her know we were getting a hotel room and we would come up the next day. Well, being on a tight budget we had to settle for a Motel 6, this was after the first one had shady people walking the parking lot and the other hotels were getting a little too close to $100 for one person. After checking in we went straight to our hotel room and climbed into bed. Dusty was out as soon as his head hit the pillow and I slept next to Niran and took about 5 minutes to get the little guy to settle down and sleep before our neighbor started yelling at someone outside. Immediately, Niran was crying, Dusty was mad, and I was frustrated that I have to calm Niran down again. What was this guy yelling about? Some woman in the parking lot called him a "bee with an itch." Apparently this was soooo terrible of a name calling that they were threatening to get family members, friends, and possibly gang members involved. After some more yelling and running up and down stairs that shook our room the yelling was put to a halt by the threat of getting kicked out of hotel rooms by the hotel manager. Finally we were able to sleep get some rest. Well, some of us. I was the only one to wake up to an earthquake while a train went by, but after that passed it was smooth sailing.
The next morning we got up and headed straight for Reno, stopping by Denny's for a late breakfast. We very happily made it to Reno at 5:00pm Arizona time. Why do I say Arizona time? Reno is an hour behind Arizona now. We were happy to finally be out of the car and in a room where we didn't have to be concerned a gun would go off while we slept.
My mom's retirement party on Monday was nice. I was able to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while, even a friend I have been going to school with since elementary school. We shared good stories and there were even some tears. My mom is fully done with the credit union. She has to turn in some keys and finish up some paperwork from the new branch she just finished, but for the most part she is done. She is having a rough time realizing she's retired, but I'm making sure she enjoys the start by having her spend extra time with her grandson, making Christmas cards, baking pies for Church, making homemade chicken and dumplings and just simply relaxing, which I don't think she has ever done in her life.
As for Dusty, Niran and I. We're all doing well. It's a nice little break for us. We're just barely getting our chance to meet with friends and family, but we are rested from the that very unnecessarily long road trip we started out with.
