Where In The WORLD Is The Rogenmoser Family... And WHAT Time Is It Anyway???

I was really glad that our flight was an afternoon one. Perhaps this would help me to avoid my normal pre- trip melt down. Everyone had plenty of time to get any last minute details ironed out and make their way to our house or the airport. Now, all we had to do was to make our connecting flight...get our van...and find our way to our rental house...NO PROBLEM (I hoped...)!

With 10 people (and one being a 9 month old...), there was any number of things that could go wrong; I was just hoping that we were in for smooth sailing. I was still wishing for this as we sat on the plane at our starting point with mechanical problems. Oh well, we had a 2 hour layover in Dallas; everything should still be OK. And it was, as we found out where our connecting gate was located and headed that way to eat before boarding our next plane and longest leg of the trip. As we were finishing our dinner and just kicking back, Codi came up and said, "Hey...I think our gate has been changed." WHAT?! Ryan and I jumped up, ran over to the board to check our flight status and sure enough...our gate had been changed. Here we went...I had to call Robby and Justin to locate them and then we were off again! We made it to our new gate in plenty of time to board the plane. Ahhh...I just KNEW that since this plane was larger, we would have televisions and I was ready to watch whatever movie would be playing. Making my way to my seat, I buckled in only to find that there were no televisions on the flight...ugh! Oh well, I guessed I would just read some more. The flight was pretty uneventful...EXCEPT for the fact that 2 of the flight attendants got in a smack down of sorts. Yep! I thought I was IN an episode of New Jersey Housewives. The hollering altercation between the two took place when they were serving beverages right beside our seats. I'm pretty sure there was no love lost between those two, however, they continued with cabin service and a smile on their faces to the customers. At about the same time, the 3 orientals sitting in front of me took out some sort or "cabbage-based" food item and began to eat it. If you have ever cooked cabbage, then I need say no more...the smell began to permeate the cabin. Justin, Sarah, Caitlin and Parker were sitting behind us and did not see the individuals with the "stinky cabbage food" and Justin was first to ask, "WHAT is that smell?" I stuck my head around and answered him with a shush. IMMEDIATELY, Caitlin asked, while holding Parker's butt up to her nose, "WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!" "Shhhhh!!!!," I said. I was beginning to have problems controlling this crew; hopefully this was not a bad omen.

It was 9:45 p.m. when we landed in San Diego...their time, that is. It had been a long day of traveling for everyone and my body still thought it was 11:45. We had to retrieve our luggage and then get our rental vehicle...a 12 passenger van. Hmmm...although we had one reserved, what was the chance that they actually had one waiting for us? After loading and unloading an entire Avis bus with our luggage and only one suitcase getting rolled over someone's toe, we sat and waited to find out the verdict...would they have our van? One of the other customers had reserved a 12 passenger van too and they were desperately trying to locate one for him. As they brought his around, I was hoping that it was not OUR van he had just driven off in. I suppose the woman saw how haggard we looked and finally came up with one for us too. They rinsed it off real quick (it was still wet...) and gave us a discount because it was not filled up with gas. I sure hoped I didn't have to get out and push that 12 passenger van. It was now 11:00 p.m. San Diego time...1:00 a.m. my body's time.

We did pretty well with the first part of our Map Quest instruction to the house where we would be spending the week, however, the actual road where it was located was not on there. NO PROBLEM...we had the owner's name and she had said to just give her a call when we got in if we had any problems. I dialed the number and handed the phone to Robby. Her voice mail picked up and the next thing I knew, Robby was leaving the following message: "Yes, this is Robby Rogenmoser. I am renting your house, but cannot find it. We have been driving around and around up here looking for it and hopefully you will call me back. If you don't, I guess this redneck from Louisiana will just have to pitch a tent and sleep on the side of the road. Good-bye." OH MY GOSH!!! I said, "You did NOT just leave that message, did you???" He did. The next day, the lady told us how funny she thought that message was and that she had actually listened to it more than once.

We eventually found the house around midnight (San Diego time...2 a.m. my body's time). THAT'S when Robby decided that we needed a "few groceries" for the next morning. OH, WHAT THE HECK?! Robby, Justin, Ryan and I all headed out to the grocery store. Before we knew it, our "few groceries" turned out to be "quite a few groceries". But this would probably be a good thing...after all, who wanted to wake up the next morning (IF we ever went to bed...) with no coffee in the house AND have to head out to get groceries. I thought that this was most likely a pretty good idea...UNTIL we noticed that the only cash registers open were "self check" lanes! And there were SO many people at the store at now 1:00 a.m. (San Diego time...3:00 my body's time!) WHY were all of these people at the grocery store at this time of night?! After spending quite a while at that self check out lane, we loaded up and headed home.

As I laid my head on my pillow, it was about 2:30 a.m. (San Diego time...4:30 my body's time). I could hear Robby breathing and everybody in the house was in bed too and NOW I wasn't sure if I could go to sleep! Ugh...maybe if I just shut my eyes I would doze off and be able to sleep in, the next morning. I DID end up dozing off, but sleeping in was wishful thinking on my part, because "my body's time" woke me up on Louisiana time...no matter HOW tired I was. All of the traveling woes had been worth it, though...the house was BEAUTIFUL and so was San Diego! Let the FUN begin...for our BIG, FAT FAMILY VACATION!