We Survived!

...but the car seat didn't. Carrie and Quentin flew Delta (as in D- don't, E- expect, L-luggage, T-to, A-arrive) and our car seat literally came out bouncing down the baggage belt. Carrie watched it roll towards her and was thinking that can't be ours because ours was in a bag and had a tag on it (and isn't the shape of a bowling ball and therefore shouldn't be ROLLING at me!). This one appeared as if it had been run over. It came out with no tags, no bag and the sides, handle and cloth had been dragged for what appears to be miles or at least long enough that the plastic was so worn down that it is no longer usable. The part of the car seat that interlocks with the seat belt has been worn down so far that the seat belt won't go through it any more. Carrie goes to complain, the agent makes a quick phone call and comes out with a brand new car seat, but it's not the same brand and our car seat was part of a set that goes with our stroller and base for the car. They offered compensation that won't cover half the cost of a new one, which we have to buy because we can't drive the Qster around without a car seat. AHHH! Where is the compassion one is used to receiving from the airlines? Oh, right, the airline industry; the only customer service business in the world that doesn't provide any customer service, not even a smidget of empathy. Umm, lady we can't leave the airport unless we have a working car seat. So my sister has two kids and car seats galore to get us by. We will go and purchase a new one right after writing several angry letters to Delta today.

Lucky and I made it and had a pretty uneventful drive in comparison. Would you believe he was a better driving companion than camper? He was so exhausted by the time we arrived at our campsite in Kentucky that he crashed right next to the fire but every noise he would hear elicited a bark. Ya, this is camping - as in the woods where there are lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) making noises. I don't think any other campers were sad to see us packing up the next morning as they spent the night listening to our fearless guard dog barking every two seconds all night long, which also meant we didn't get much sleep. Lucky was a good companion in the car, though. He settled down after the first 40 miles and by the time we clocked 250 miles it was pretty clear to him that he wasn't getting out of the car. He would sit down on the back seat and rest his head on the top of the headrest looking out the back window staring at the cars behind us entertaining the drivers coming up from behind. For me it was nice to have the company as we spent endless hours discussing world events. (Lucky thinks people should stop supporting the China economy by boycotting Wal-Mart and someone should drop a bomb or two on N. Korea sending them back to the stone age). For the most part it turns out, I agree with his politics. At the campsite Lucky saw several deer (he barked at them), a big old tom turkey (he barked at him) and a boy scout troop (and of course he barked at them too).

We drove 800 miles the first day taking 12 hours and went through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Georgia again, back into Tennessee and stopped south of Louisville in Kentucky. Yesterday we got up early and finished it off going through the remainder of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois (worst traffic jam ever in Chicago) and finally the great cheese haven, Wisconsin. We drove just shy of 500 miles the second day and in all clocked 1,293 miles. Black Beauty handled the open road like a champ.

Quentin once again charmed everyone on the plane and is becoming a seasoned traveler. He was awake a lot longer of the time yesterday and participated by helping his neighbor read the paper (his favorite toy) and playing peek-a-boo with the woman sitting behind him laughing endlessly. Hopefully, he will be that good on the way home. He was still charming passengers down at the baggage belt as they couldn't get enough of him. What a great baby. With the time change though, he's getting up between 5-5:30 am, which makes for a tired mom and dad. Tomorrow Q will get his longest car ride ever so we're hoping he survives that. It will also be our first trip as an entire family (Luckster included). My folks were gracious enough to take us all in (their poor cat with Lucky on the prowl) and they allowed us to do some horse trading. We gave up Black Beauty for their Tahoe for the Wisco road trip. They gain some gas mileage and we gain some square footage. Today we are taking Lucky out to the farm to run him around a bit and do some fishing. Quentin will get his first picnic as well. It was a freezing 61 degrees when we arrived so we hope the Florida sunshine is only lagging behind us by a day.