Motherhood: It's Not Just a Job, It's an Adventure Part 2

So the summer after Andy's sophomore year of college he got an internship with a different company working on a highway project down in Florida. So again we loaded all of his necessities for a summer away into the car, this time heading south. We stopped outside of Atlanta to spend the night, having secured a reservation ahead of time at the motel. We checked in with a clerk who barely spoke English, and who didn't really address us at all because he was busy talking to a couple of shady characters. When we backed the car up to the door of our room, said shady characters appeared by our car and started asking all kinds of questions about why we were there. Already feeling uneasy about our stay, we immediately decided to find a different motel as we firmly believed Andy's belongings would no longer be in the car come morning. We drove to the south side of Atlanta, which was probably smart as we would not have to deal with rush hour traffic in the morning.

I had reserved a nice one bedroom condo right on the water for us to stay in while we searched for an apartment for him. It was great to be able to have the kitchen so we did not have to eat all of our meals out. This time I had some apartments lined up ahead of time for us to go look at, since he was in a major metropolitan area and this was actually an option. He ended up selecting the one that was on a peninsula near St. Petersburg, which meant crossing a loooong bridge every day. But I have to say the area was much cooler with the ocean breezes, and it was not as congested as Tampa. The bridge didn't end up causing him too much trouble as his hours were such that he was rarely in rush hour.

Because he was in such a great place, Katie and I flew down to spend a week in July. She and I had a two bedroom condo on the beach at Madeira, and it was awesome. Well, except for the hurricane that came through. I had to lower the hurricane shutters and the whole nine yards. We did not end up having to evacuate, which was great. But it was a scary experience nonetheless. Andy had to work every day, but he spent each evening with us so it worked out pretty well. Katie and I even managed a visit to Busch Gardens, which we felt was a bit over-rated.

This time when Andy was ready to come home, he suggested that I pay for a plane ticket for his girlfriend, Megan, to fly down and help him drive back. Worked for me - I was going to have to buy a ticket for myself anyway. So Megan flew down and they were able to spend a little time together before driving back, and he dropped her off at her home in Indiana before coming back to St. Louis.

The only down side of this internship was that the apartment owner claimed that Andy had "ruined" the brand new (not!) couch cushions, saying they were all out of shape and wouldn't fit the cane frame anymore. So they refused to give us back the deposit. Since he was already back in St. Louis when they made this claim, there wasn't too much we could do about it. Whatever...