Balthazar and I headed out this morning at about 6:30am for Pensacola Beach. Against all odds, we’re finally on our way to this “vacation.” As mentioned in a recent post, we’ve had a string of bad luck lately. Yes, I did finally get my car and things seemed as though they might be on the up-and-up. But Just one day before departure for the beach, Balthazar contracted an ear infection in one ear. His temperature soared to over 104° when we arrived at the doctor’s. So, now I’m driving over seven hours with a sick child – by myself. Amy couldn’t come with us due to some overlooked scheduling problems; weddings, Art Camp, etc.
Being sick, Balthazar has done marvelous on the trip. He didn’t go back to sleep until we were well outside of Atlanta. There was just too much excitement with construction, overpasses, trucks, and buildings. He wanted to talk all about them as we went. He slept until we hit Montgomery, where we grabbed some breakfast and stopped to stretch our legs a bit. As predicted, he didn’t care to get back in the car, but he was no match for me in his pittiful state. He didn’t, however, sleep for the rest of the trip. There was more to see, and apparently Alabama charges a $500.00 fine for “dumping rubbish.” I told Balthazar to speak of nothing for fear that someone would mistake his wisdom for rubbish. Having reached I-65, our trip was about half-way over. He amused himself as much as he could, strapped in the backseat of the Mazda3. We listened to “The Point,” which was one of my favorite childhood stories. His patience finally waned when we had reached Cantonement. That’s very near our destination, so I was lucky. He was all too ready to get out of the car by the time we made it to the condo. My mom greeted us with Wooly. It’s been tough for him to get used to everything, but it’s helped that he’s met people very gradually and had a long nap before meeting anyone new. I think he’ll begin to have fun with Carter and Gus, Abigail and Orin’s children, tomorrow on the beach. He seems eager to want to play, and readily took up some of their toys to play with. He hasn’t left my lap for very long, however. It’s after 11:00pm now, my time, and Balthazar is sleeping. Hopefully the night will pass uneventfully and we’ll both get some good rest for tomorrow.