The day was June 24th.  It would be my first day of leave.  The last time I was on leave was for my PCS leave back in October of last year. (Change of Station)  I had requested the 24th of June to the 12th of July, today being the 12th.  My rough plan consisted of driving to TN from CA, next item on the agenda would be to "Kidnap" Stickisituation.   While "Kidnapping" her, we would hang out until my little brother's wedding (spiffyspud  at which point she would accompany me.   I sincerely wish that i had a personal camera that i could have used during the drive.  There were so many interesting things to see, so many beautiful sights to behold.  America is beautiful, you don't always get to see that if you hang around the same place all the time.  (or you might if your observant for things that are right in front of you).  Somehow I mad the drive in two days.  At the end of the second day I would visit with spiffyspud and crash out on his couch.  After showering and shaving I set out into Virginia for the afore mentioned mission.

THE KIDNAP

I donno why I wanna make it sound all... well make it sound the way it does, but thats how i'm leaving it.  Continueing on..  

During random times during the drive i would call people with my nifty itsy bitsy cell phone* and talk for as long as they were available.  While there are lots of things to look at while driving, doing so for long periods of time can lull you into a zombie like state.  Not good to be in while driving.  And yes its not good to talk on cell phones while driving either, but on my defense I had a handsfree device that i used while talking, allowing me to drive with both hands and have all the same ranges of motion i would normally have.  So the only hinderence was that I was slightly distracted, much better i think than to be in a stuper.  Well, back to the tale. 

While driving i was trying to nail down the final little details about the little trip I was taking stickisituation  on.  It was my intent to stop by her house, meet her, meet her parents, take a little break from driving, get comfortable in her presence and hopefully have her feel the same, and then set off again in search of grand adventures.  Unfortunately, I was unable to meet her parents as I had showed up earlier than expected.  Rather than wait for an unknown amount of time to meet up with her parents I decided that we should head on out. (now meeting the parents would have been the right thing to do at that point but hindsight is hindsight)

To be Continued....

 *technically a cell phone, its a pay as go go "go phone" from cingular that suits my needs.  No cameras, no music, no internet, just a phone that DOES happen to have text message capabilities.