Back in the U.S.S.R/C Part 2

I awoke this morning at seven to find a thick fog covering the town, I thought to myself "Self, This could put a damper on my plans." Christian and I went ahead and packed up our stuff anyway. I couldn't fit a few boxes of books in the car but my brother said he would pack them when he comes out this way, very cool. After the car was all packed I took a shower while Christian took a little nap. When I was all clean and shiny we said our good bye's to my brother (more like "see you soon's") and got into the car, the fog had lifted and we had a nice overcast drive out of town, we even spotted a couple of hot air balloons on our way out which made me really happy. We made a few stops along the way, one of which I picked up some petrified wood for my kids and on another fossillized sharks teeth and yet another some postcards. It's not much but its going into the monkey heads I have mentioned before and so they will have a lot of little things to go through and learn about. Through out the drive we went into and out of light to heavy rain and when we stopped in Flagstaff, the lightning was so close the thunder was defening, but we played in the sunflowers and took pictures anyway. The drive was great together although I did find myself drifting back to thoughts of not wanting to be on the 40 going west. I had had a great time where I was with my brother and my sister and there respective families. I even got a new friend. There were things I didn't do as well because I figured I had time, like hang out with old friends or even contact others. I guess that just shows me how much time I have, I waste, and will never get back... Anyway, so we roll into Barstow to pick up Christians car as I'm thinking of all that stuff but also I'm building up Ridgecrest and California telling myself it won't be that bad if I keep an open mind and keep it positive. She gets in the car and the battery is dead. California, strike one. I actually thought it was kinda funny and thought to myself "Self, it's good shes not here alone like she was supposed to be." So I was ready to leave the car and continue on to deal with it the next day when I remembered... I'm a AAA member. I pulled my card out of my wallet and for the first time since becoming a member 4 years ago, I called for assistance. It took the guy five minutes to get there and we were all set. There was some accumilated bird poop on the windshield so we stopped at a corner gas station for the squiggie and when we pulled up we didn't see it. I went inside to ask about it, figuring maybe they had a theft problem with it in the past so they kept them behind the counter. The conversation went like this, "Excuse me, do you have those squiggies to clean windshields?" I ask. "No." Is the quick response, I wait for more, like a sorry or something and get nothing so I say "Uh, ok well um, do you maybe have some windex or something I could borrow real quick?" "Yea, what's on the shelf." She says sacasticly, seeming proud of her "quick witted" reply. STRIKE TWO CALIFORNIA! I was so pissed I actually left with out saying a word and it put me in a pretty bad mood the rest of the way home. I know strike three is just around the corner. Needless to say I am in R/C safe and (mostly) sound. I hope this makes sense as it is very late at the time of writting.