Here goes nuffin.

Here it goes......

Soooooooo here is the end result of my horrendous experience of packing for a 5 week trip across the world.

My mom and I left promptly at 3 after saying goodbye to my dad and getting the old 
"Call me if you have any, and I mean ANY problems, and I'll be over there as soon as the next plane can take me.  I mean it"
lecture.


It's the Larry Singletary version of Taken waiting to happen,
but thankfully I don't think I have anything to worry about.


My legs might be short, 
but they're strong.


Also, they're longer than the average Japanese male's.
(not true.)
But I'm pretty sure I could do some damage


Anyways,


My mom drove for about an hour and a half to Striplings....
we stopped to get some Stripling's Beef Jerky "for my homestay family."


Oh, don't worry.  We got them some too.

But we needed a lunch/dinner snack.


Mmmmmmm

It was raining like we were riding through the middle of a hurricane.

And it kept getting worse.

This does not make for fun car ride to ATL.

And as it got worse, my mom started freaking out about not being able to see.


I kept telling her to pull over but she ended up stopping for about 10 minutes off of an exit.


We got back on the road and it was progressively worse.


I forced her to pull over and I drove for about 15 minutes and we FINALLY got out of the rain.


With our two stops we made it to Atlanta in 4 hours, which is pretty amazing.  There was SO much traffic, but we found our way to the hotel without any problems.

I get to tote all of this around Japan!!! HOW ESSITING!

Our city view was pretty awesome,

TWO QUEEN BEDS YO!

And a huge TV.....

We ordered some derricious chinese

...and as usual it was way too much food.

We polished off the night by running through various parts of:

The Chronicles of Riddick,

Men In Black II

Talldega Nights

and

Juno.

A banner night for AWFUL movies apparently.....

if it weren't for the fact that I get complimentary internet and my own bed this hotel would have run me off with its cable selection alone.

A beautiful sunset made a pretty dreary day better....

I'm still not completely sure that I'm ready for this

but here 'goes.

3:00 AM wakeup call....
Airport ETA = 4:15


Very unscheduled updates to follow.....