Glad to be back in Greenville

Hi all. It's Saturday afternoon at 2:50 PM. I'm just now getting some free time after returning last night. Our job in Waycross Georgia that was supposed to take about 3 hours ended up taking 12 hours. We got on site at 10:00 AM yesterday from the Hotel, worked straight through until 10:30 PM and then decided to attempt the drive back as opposed to taking a room at a hotel for the evening and losing another day away from our homes and all of you guys. The GPS says that the drive from Waycross, GA (about 10 miles from the Florida line) is a 10.5 hour drive. Needless to say, I disagreed. I'd been making good time on all the other legs of the 1500 mile trip so I made it a plan to shave off an hour and a half over the course of the night. We gassed up in Waycross, stopped by Wal-Mart to get some supplies and then we took HWY 82 to 95 near Florida. The rest... well that was a blur. Tim snored continually for the trip, not that I had much hope of it being otherwise. My cell phone was in roaming so I couldn't call folks to keep me awake... so I just stocked up on cigarettes and put the accelerator to the floor. In the end, I shaved 2 hours and 40 minutes off a 10 hour trip. I just wanted to make it home before the sun came up. I wanted to be asleep before dawn or I knew I'd never sleep well. Long story short, I got in at 6:38 this morning, gave April a hug, crawled in bed beside her and slept like never before. I woke up for some reason at 11:00 AM this morning, even before the clock went off and shortly later, Doc showed up. He's asleep on the couch with the baseball game on the TV. Ive folded and hung 4 loads of laundry, washed 3, dried and folded 2 more at this point, cleaned the kitchen ( somewhat) and made with the domestic for a few minutes. Currently I'm making sweet tea, drinking coffee, and typing to you guys. I missed my friends a lot on this journey. There were places, incidents, scenery, that brought thoughts of all of you to my mind from time to time. When I looked over the still waters of the mountains, I thought of how much April would love it; how Bannag would think it was beautiful but too cold, how Marisa would just go "uh huh" and keep on with her conversation, undaunted. Marion, well that one's just a given. However, I have to admit that most of my friends wouldn't have truly enjoyed parts of it. I however, enjoyed the fact that for a change, I had REAL food. The steaks were cut from the animals on the farm. The eggs came from a chicken about 15 minutes before hitting the pan. The sausage was the remains of the last pet my sister had. The butter was fresh made from the milk that came from the cattle the day before. It's just nice to have a real reminder of what life used to be like. You can't imagine the work load in that kind of environment though. Between my Dad, Becky, adn 3 capable children, it's all they can do to finish the daily chors in the daylight hours. Morning begins at 5:45 in the morning for everyone in the house and bedtime comes at 10:00 PM. Aside from 30 minutes prior to bedtime, there's really not much free time to be had throughout an average day. However pleasant and altriustic this part of the trip was, I was nonetheless happy to get back behind my Comptuer, GPS, Digital Phone, and other toys of the modern world. Now that I'm back at home at a reliable internet connection, I'm going to post some more pics of the trip. You'll most likely be reading this last, considering the way that the blog posts new posts on Top.. so just pretend you're reading all this backwards, and you'll have it the way I actually intended it. My hello's and thanks go out to all those who called, or left their best wishes on my trip. Bannag, Ding, Shak, Agent M, Tracy, and of course April. Hope to see you all tonight. At this point, I think Todd, Sameena, Doc, Myself, and April are going to watch some movies, drink a little, and maybe even have a cook out. You're all welcome to attend. You know I love the company. More coming soon... love all my scoobbs.