Driving that long stretch of I-95 toward our Florida destination, I couldn't help thinking about how much nicer the ride had become since the last time I made this trip... many years ago on my annual leaves from the Navy base in Jacksonville to see the old folks back home. I looked across the bench seat of my pick-up truck and watched her sleep... the greenish glow from the instrument panel painted her sweet face with a smooth glow.
"We could stop here for the night," I had suggested 200 miles ago. "I get bonus trip rewards at Comfort Inn."
But, no... she wanted to keep going. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get this vacation started," she had argued.
And there she was, asleep, and there I squirmed with an urgent need to untie a knot and make the ol' bladder gladder. I slowed down and eased my truck onto the exit ramp. She must have sensed the decreased speed, or the down-shifting, and shook herself awake.
"What's up doc?" she cooed groggily. (No, I'm not a doctor... we both like cartoons, and one of my favorites is Bugs Bunny!)
"I feel the need... the need to pee," I told her in my really bad impersonation of Tom Cruise from that old Top Gun movie.
For an interstate convenience store, this place looked practically deserted except for the two or three customers inside. No one at the pumps. But, then again, at three in the morning, I reckoned that would be normal. She waited for me to open her door... (just a habit I have; opening doors for ladies, throwing coats over mud puddles...) and hand-in-hand like high-school sweethearts, we strolled through the double glass doors of the Sunoco A-Plus.
"I'll catch up," I said, and made my way to the men's room.
It was good to get all that coffee out of me, but with another 517 miles to go, there would be more coffee, and more pit stops. I returned to the store's main room and saw her standing in an aisle of grocery items, toward the rear of the store near the pop coolers.
