sept. 20.  2012

day 11

up at 5am, everyone got ready and packed up the suitcases.  grabbed some food from the breakfast in the hotel, caught a taxi, and caught our first train from the rome termini to torino.  we thought we would only be taking three trains today, but turns out, four.  from torino, we caught a train to chambery, and then chambery to lyon part deux, and then from there to montpellier, france.  11 hours on trains, not including dragging everyone on and off them, just including riding on trains.  we got in at 8:30pm, caught a taxi(hopefully for the last time!), and headed to the airport where our rental car was-20 minutes from the train station.  oh, the beauty of the end of the day fiasco’s when you are tired and hungry and have to go potty.  but since we caught all our trains, i guess some things had to happen.  i got in the rental, but had to go tinkle so bad and couldn’t find the emergency break to turn it off and drive the rental up front so we could load it, and i had to hop out and run into the airport(which we were by) and came back.  i almost backed into the mercedes behind me when trying to pull out(it’s been about 14 years since driving a stick shift-and never in a mini van).  then girls needed to go potty while we were trying to fit 6 people, 7 suitcases, a large bag and six backpacks into a small minivan.  when coming back from the toilette the second time, i see jarom has the car loaded, his arm on the passenger seat overlooking his shoulder to back up, and the car moves forward!  oh, holy crap!  but luckily he didn’t hit anything, and i told him “no driving!”  he’s not on the list as a driver for the rental anyway!  ok, so we are driving a french car in france with french highway signs, and thank goodness for a gps from home.  we find the tiny village, and are driving the narrow pathways, and i disagree we are to walk our luggage up a steep hill, albeit short, to our home…(this is an old village where all the homes are stuck together and they are on narrow streets.)  i get the brilliant idea, that if we keep following the road around, we’ll come back to the road we needed at first.  so i drive, and then we come to a dead end, but can’t turn around, there’s no room.  jarom says, “look, follow that road!”  i didn’t even see it.  so I proceed to try and turn onto it, except it’s really this sharp turn down steps for people who are WALKING!  not driving.  so we’re stuck down this steep incline, and hardly any room to turn around.  it’s about midnight, everyone’s awake, hungry, exhausted, and we’re stuck.  the very nice people living next to where we are making all this commotion come out.  they help push the car while i reverse it, he moves his car so we can back up ours, and we get out, lug our luggage up the steep hill, jarom finds parking, we eat pasta we found in the cabinets with indian curry sauce on it because we are hungry and don’t care, and we fall into bed.

and, it was my birthday!  it was a great, exhausting, and fun day.  and the best part, i thought i was turning 37, but after some calculations, i turned 36, so in my mind, i just saved a year!  except the lines appearing on my face tell me otherwise, but i will try and not cry over those too much.  i can’t believe how old we are getting, we have four kids and one is a teenager, and i still feel like i’m in my 20’s.  i’m excited for each new chapter, but am in disagreement with how my body is taking it.  c’est la vie.