four energy drinks, a cop, and a pay phone...

arrrr. the drive back to mississippi suckedddd. i didn't leave charleston until right at two. i always do that. i procrastinate leaving a place if i really like being there. home. bristol. and apparently charleston. i stopped by starbucks before i left, and everybody there made me cry. tears fell for twenty miles up 26.

the drive took approximately twelve hours for eight hundred some-odd miles and five stops, only four of which were planned. the fifth one involved being stopped by a cop less than thirty miles from jackson who felt the need to let me know that the back end of my truck was wider than the front end and that i should keep an eye on my lanes. he was really nice about it, so i didn't feel the need to inform him that the reason i was iffy about keepin' it between the lines was because i was nodding off as i passed him. i just said, "yes, sir, thank you, sorry," and kept on goin'. i freakin' love mississippi cops. they never *knock on wood* write me tickets. i think it's the wink. just kidding.

my cell phone battery lasted just long enough for me to call my mama right before birmingham to find out what kind of weather i was headed into. there was crazy awesome lightning, but i basically wanted to know if it was gonna be raining the whole way in. turns out, i was headed into tornado warning territory. excellent. we just all slowed to thirty and used our flashers for a dozen miles or so. right before my battery died, i received a text from bank of america that my debit card had been temporarily suspended because of "curious activity" on my account. dear bank of america: south carolina and georgia are next door neighbors. it's completely possible to travel amongst the two states in less than twelve hours, so please refrain from putting accounts on hold if there's spending going on that close to each other. ya poops.

so because i couldn't use my debit card, and my cell phone was dead, and all of my chargers were packed into the back of a 16' moving van, i actually had the privelege of using a pay phone tonight. i know, right? i was surprised they still had those, too. i was almost worried about catching something from it, but i figure it was probably last used about eight years ago and any germs that were living on it then are probably dead by now. so i call bank of america and verify my email address, blah blah blah, and the guy says that he'll put a temporary travel notice on my account. i told him he might want to make it more than temporary because within the next few months i'll be traveling a lot. he asked me to list each state, and bless his heart, i think he lost count when i got to pennsylvania. he then just asked for a general route, "so will you be going from south carolina to new york city?" and i said, "nope. georgia to maine."