Oh my gosh! Is that a????

Turns out there are some very immature men in the south. I was behind a GMC Jimmy that wasn't driving fast so I passed him. Now keep in mind that when I passed him my mother made no faces at them, no obscene finger gestures, nothing of the sort. Then this goofball passes me and slows down. This little dance happens one more time before we make it to 95. So once on 95 I pass him and think I'm far enough ahead for it to be over. Not so much. He not only passes us one more time but his buddy in the passenger side starts waving a pink pearlized dildo at us. It was very shiny and caught the sunlight quite nicely. Well we had no idea what would be in store for us next so we got off at the next exit and got back on to 95 again.

Well that should have been a trip omen but I chose to ignore it. Shortly after I was changing lanes and couldn't avoid what looked like a strap or flat hose. Well there was something hard and mean stuck to that strap because it made an awful noise when I hit it. I asked my mother if I should get off at the rest stop to check the tire and she said we'd probably be alright. Well we might have been alright on other days but not this day. About 5 miles later the tire started making an odd noise so I slowed down and pulled over while rolling on the rim. Luckily we were right before an exit ramp so we were pretty safe. We immediately called AAA because even though we know how to change a tire, the jack in the trunk looked pretty small and difficult to use. Thankfully the good people at Lexus saw fit to put a full size spare tire in the trunk so we didn't have to immediately drive to a tire place. A state trooper stayed with us for a while but the tire changing people took way too long so he left after about 45 minutes. Finally they showed up but even that was sketchy. Mom and I are sitting on a beach blanket and this old, dark minivan pulls up. I got nervous because I had no idea who was in the van or what they wanted. Turns out it was the auto guy, his wife and small child. He had the tire changed in no time and we were on our way.

The rest of the drive was thoroughly uneventful. We listened to a Bob Newhart comedy CD which had 2 or 3 good bits and the rest was pretty dumb. Friday night Dana took us to a great restaurant called Lucky 32 which, sadly, is only in NC. We started with the Bayou Shrimp cakes, Dana got the shrimp and grits, mom got the suffolk chicken and I got the herb chicken & goat cheese pizza. Yum! After dinner we watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend on one of Dana's DVDs purchased in China. There was a quick silhouette of a head (a few rows down from the camera operator) towards the end which turned out to be the absolute best part of the movie. That was one of the WORST movies I've ever seen and I'm glad I got a 15 minute nap during it. The next day we ate at Pei Wei, shopped a bit, saw 300 (very bloody, lots of bare chests-male & female-but pretty good) and finally got to Trader Joe's. It was brand new, spacious and well stocked. I got all kinds of good things so I was pretty excited.

The trip home seemed very quick and could be because we didn't spend an hour sitting on the side of I-95.