Getting to Oki, the not-so-easy way...

This is gonna be a long post... so hunker in folks and prepare for the craziness...

So, you all must be wondering how the trip here went, and well, I am gonna tell ya how it went for us at least. I'm sure not everyone has as much fun as we did, but please do not let my drama deter you from visiting, the long trip is well worth it!

Our day started off packing up our TLF, or temporary living facility. Mike's dad was in town to help drive us to the airport and to take Mike's truck back to Texas with him, so he was there helping Mike pack up the truck as I was inside packing up our suitcases and cleaning up the joint. We had to be out by 10, and the oh-so-nice cleaning lady was happy to knock on the door and remind me... twice.

As I was packing, I hear screaming coming from Mike. Somehow, our dogs got out the door and were running down the road!! He tried tempting them with a ride in the car, which sometimes will get them back... but oh, not this time. They took one look at Mike as to say, "Screw you buddy, I'm goin' for a run!" I immediately go running out the door and try chasing them down the little road through the TLF buildings. As I am running down the sidewalk, screaming at my two black streaks barreling down the road, a cleaning lady screams at me, "Oh no, they supposed ta be on leashes!" I very nicely screamed back at her, "I would love them to be on leashes right now, thank you!!" and I continued running as best as I could down the road to catch them.

At this point, Mike hops into the rental truck we had, flies down the road and picks me up, all the while our dogs are running through 4 lanes of traffic on one of the busiest roads on Keesler AFB!! I fly into the car and I scream at Mike to hang a right back towards the TLF since that was the direction they were streaking towards, and I jump out the car to try and hollar at someone to help. The dogs had stopped to take a breath at this point and were about 2 feet from a guy, who when I hollard at him to grab/distract them, he declined and said he just had surgery... now, on what body part, I still do not know, but I so very nicely thanked him the only way a New Yorker knows how... and no, not with a middle finger, but with extreme sarcasm.

So onward the dogs bolted again but this time in our direction. They stopped in the middle of a 3-way intersection and I slowly walked towards them as all the traffic around us came to a halt and everyone threw on their emergency lights. I, in my best mommy voice, sat in the middle of the road and called to them to come to me. Apparently in their 5 minute escape, they forgot just how much they missed me and came plopping towards me. I immediately snagged them both by their collars and dragged them back to the car... and I don't think their little front paws hit the ground the entire way as I dragged them. Now don't get me wrong, I am totally against any type of animal cruelty, but I cracked them so hard they are lucky to have fur left on their fannies!!

So, to sum up the story, the door wasn't shut tightly, and if you know my dogs, you know EXACTLY who pushed the door open with HER nose to get out... they visited the entire TLF complex, the running track, the bank, the bank drive-thru, almost the commisary, and two major roads on their little venture. Yeah... great way to start off the day. All I kept thinking was that if one of them got hit, there was no way I was staying one more day in MS while they were getting patched up by the Vet. They would have been left behind!! Ok, so not really, I sound tough but I was soooo thankful they were okay. My adrenaline was through the roof and Mike was three shades of purple, but everyone was ok. The dogs however were shoved into their kennels and had to sit there until we loaded up in the car to fly out.

Ok, that was a huge post so I am gonna make you all come back again to ready about the next portion of the saga... it will include the scoffing form the skycap, why we got paged in New Orleans, and how many times it took us to get off the runway in dallas... to follow that portion of the saga, we will go into the arrival into seattle and my fight with a cabbie... and lastly, leaving seattle and our trip to Oki. Lots to talk about that happened in those 24 hours!

I hope you all got a little chuckle from the story. I in no way do it justice just writing it, you really had to be there to witness just how funny it was, especially that very nice African American cleaning lady throwing up her finger and shaking her head at me, all the while telling me my dogs were being bad... like I didn't know that! Too funny... anyway, more to come.

On a lighter note, we will have vonage and internet the 10th of April! Woo hoo!