February 6, 1996 my mother gave me the birthday present of a lifetime. When I came home from school on my 13th birthday, I had presents on my bed in my bedroom in Stanton, Kentucky. I had a pack of AA batteries and a portable cassette player that was unwrapped laying on my twin bed.
Mom had also left note for me on the tape player that said for me to meet her at the car. When I walked outside from our apartment, the white Oldsmobile we had was packed so tight that there was barely any room for my uncle and I to sit in the car. Apparently, it was very important for us to take all of our possessions with us.
There were boxes, bags and suitcases full of junk on top of the car, around the car and even in the car. I swear we looked like hillbillies moving from state to state. If someone else saw us in that car, they may have thought we were complete idiots. I was so embarrassed.
my uncle and I sat in the backseat where we had a tv between us and my uncle would push it closer to me and I would push it closer to him. Neither of us wanted the television anywhere near us. I was so annoyed with the tv that I would whine and cry to my mother about it. My whining and crying of course, did not make the trip any easier on my mother.
The trip took us 2 and a half miserable days. My mother and step dad tried to stop for sleep but Uncle Clay and I were so anxious to get to the trip over with. Stuff was piled all around me and I felt very claustrophobic. I wanted to be free of the debris that was piling up my space.
Every time mom or my step dad would stop to get some rest, uncle clay and 13 year old me would pitch a fit because we would have to sleep on the floor. I wanted to be somewhere where I was comfortable and happy.
Once we got to Oklahoma, my knee had locked up. I could not move it. Finally, I decided to try to get it back into place. However, it would not pop so I had to hobble around. This made my trip even worse due to the pain of my knee hurting.
Finally, after mom and my step dad decided to travel straight through instead of stopping to sleep, we reached Kingman, Arizona. After a few hours of looking around the town for a place to stay, my whole family was given a little efficiency room where we could at least rest from the long perilous journey. I was glad to have that trip out of the way.