I was on the phone with my mom today and somehow, we formulated a crazy yet exciting plan between the two of us. That plan can be summed up in two words... Road Trip!!!

See, my grandmothers are getting older (they both just turned 91), and since it's been a while, we thought it'd be a fine time to pay them a visit. I haven't seen either of them in years! My mom said she wanted to see them both this Spring or Summer, and I said I'd like to join her. My younger brother, Garth, said the same thing.

Well, the plan started out simply enough -- the three of us flying to North Carolina and driving a rental car to Massachusetts (one grandma in each place). But it very quickly evolved into much, much more!

Now, the plan is: Mom and Garth fly down to my home in California, after Garth finishes his final exams. Then we drive my car across the freaking country!!! Clearly, we have lost our minds. It'll be awesome!! The idea of that kind of vacation is incredibly exciting to me. I can hardly stand it!

Mom and I are both travel freaks, too, so we're both eager to make plans and buy little Lonely Planet travel books and go crazy. I can't wait to plan this all out. I get to be the navigator, which is my favorite job whenever I travel! We're going to try to see as many relatives as possible on this little jaunt of ours. And, of course, squeeze in as much site-seeing as possible!

This road trip is my new little project, my latest little thing to gleefully obsess over, the idea that will be allowed to fill up the recesses of my brain rather than anything else that might be stressing me out. Because, believe you me, there's plenty of that going around (I may even be able to tell you all about it eventually! Heh.)!

Anyway. Road Trip. Very exciting!

I've actually been on several road trips in my life.

::Wiggling fingers, wiggling fingers. Doodladeedladoo! Doodladeedladoo!::

The first that I can actually remember (there were a few when I was baby) was when I was ten. My parents, brothers, and I (that's SIX people, mind you) piled into our minivan. We drove from San Antonio, TX to Philadelphia, PA. That was freaking exhausting!!! We did that so we could attend my grandfather's 80th birthday celebration. I'm glad we did that, because that was the last time we saw him. He passed away less than a year later, if I remember correctly.

The next road trip was when Mom, Garth, and I moved from San Antonio, TX to a town outside of Seattle, WA. Again, pretty exhausting. But much more fun! Very pretty scenery. The excitement and adventure of moving to a new town. We even stopped and saw some people. In fact, when we stopped in L.A., we all met Joe in person for the first time. And now I'm married to him!! Yay!

That road trip was insane, because we had SO MUCH CRAP piled in a plastic thing on the roof of the car, as well as a whole bunch of junk inside the car. In addition to that, we had four, yes FOUR, cat carriers in the car, each containing, you guessed it, one cat each. Add to that the fact that three of the four cats were elderly and scared and you've got some yowling, pissing cats. Yes, literally. Pissing in the cat carriers. We rolled the windows down a lot. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Oh, one more thing! Our greyhound, Flikka, was with us, too, and slept on Garth's lap the entire five day journey. Poor Garth.

While that trip was fun and exciting, I was reaching my last nerve the closer we got. We were travelling in December, which was awful in some ways. There was snow and ice in the mountains of Northern California and Oregon. It was cold, we were tired, and I just wanted to BE THERE ALREADY by that last day. I was so happy to get out of that car! Heh. I think we all were.

The next road trip was when Joe flew to Washington and we drove my car down to Los Angeles. Well, Joe did. I was just along for the ride! We piled a bunch of my stuff in my car, had lunch with my family, said our goodbyes, and headed out. Two days later, we arrived in L.A., where his place became our place, and I couldn't have been more excited. I still am. I love having stuff and a home that's ours. Okay, let's move on before I get too sappy!

Then there was the much more brief road trip I took when I moved to the Bay Area. Joe had moved up before me, because I had to finish final exams and stuff. My friend, Melissa, and I drove my car up here a few weeks later. We stopped twice to switch drivers and have restroom breaks. We laughed and talked like crazy the entire time. We didn't turn the radio on once. We drove straight to the Oakland airport, where Joe was waiting for us. As we were walking up the sidewalk of Oakland Airport, though, she made me laugh so hard I nearly fell down. She was talking about having to go through customs when returning from Europe and someone asking her if she had any liquor. Then she said, "What? Liquor? No, I didn't lick her!!!" I busted out laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face as we walked up and saw Joe who hadn't heard the joke. I was laughing too hard to form words, and Melissa just giggled at my silliness and said hey to Joe. Then she had to get back to her home in L.A., so she went right onto a plane that took her home. That was a really fun trip!

Last year, I took two road trips. The first was the trip to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with Bobbi, where we reunited with Mr. Loki Man and sent Blossom to live in a better home. It was a lot of fun! We experienced dogs, horses, doggie love, a weird guy pervy guy, the Grand Canyon, desert heat, rootbeer floats, stomach distress related to a bad pizza we got in Vegas, and much, much more!

Last but not least was the trip Joe and I made from Vegas back home to the Bay Area. That was the time we picked up my new car after I'd unfortunately wrecked the other one. We left at 5pm and got home at 2am. I drove the whole way! It was exciting and a lot of fun! The vacation in Vegas was a nice plus, too!

So, there you have it! My road trip history! And while this newest adventure isn't quite carved in stone just yet, I really hope we get to do it. It'd be fun to tack onto this lovely list I've got here. Another exciting adventure full of interesting and long-lasting memories. Here's hoping!