Chapter 383: Feb 13 – on the road again
The weather hasn’t helped but that isn’t why we didn’t make it to Pembroke today. Traffic is rotten. Plus, we’ve been stopping at nearly too many DGs to count. Looking at the map this is how it has worked:
We were at the first DG in Pensacola, FL right at the 8 am opening. We added three more in Pensacola then re-routed back onto 98 due to construction that had lanes blocked but no workers operating the equipment. Two stops in Gulf Breeze and two in Navarre then one in Mary Esther, FL and it wasn’t even lunch time yet. We stayed on 98 to avoid whatever was going on at Eglin AFB that was sending angry drivers on every road away from the base.
Next came a stop in Miramar Beach, then Destin, then Santa Rosa Beach where our own patience started wearing thin; traffic along 98 was bumper to bumper. Thankfully I know my Florida and as soon as I saw it, we turned north on 331 and headed back to US90.
Our next stop was in Freeport and the next two were in Defuniak Springs. We stopped in Ponce De Leon for fuel, bathrooms and something that resembled deli food at the gas station. From there it was on to Caryville, Bonfey, Chipley, Marianna, Grand Ridge, Sneads, Chattahoochee, Gretna, and Quincy all in quick succession. And then we hit Tallahassee and stopped at three DGs as we made our way around the snarled traffic and lunatic protesters marching and blocking the highways.
It was getting late, but we made good time because there weren’t any DGs along US90 until we got into Monticello. There was a convenience store across the intersection, and we decided it was prudent to top off the fuel in the van, use the bathrooms at the fuel station, and grab cold drinks because we are needing the caffeine. Vit insisted that I drink milk instead of coffee and nearly kicks himself for not thinking of it sooner. Luckily we have NIDO and KLIM powdered milk from purchases I made along the river as well as our stops at grocery stores in the New Orleans area.
We made another stop in Greenville but suddenly there are a lot more item limits appearing on all the shelves and the shelves where the paper products were don’t even have any dust left to wipe off. They are completely bare as are most of the sodas and things like bread and sandwich meat. It looked like people were prepping for a hurricane rather than a pandemic.
Madison is the last DG for the night where instead of the paper products we were planning on buying, we purchased charcoal, lighter fluid, and their last two tanks of propane. After a short debate we decided to drive on rather than try and find some place to stop for the night. The news on the radio has gotten progressively more disturbing.
Live Oak, FL’s Walmart was still open, so we made another stop. We were familiar with the store because we were sometimes forced to come this far west to find supplies for the family. It was very busy but thankfully the contents of people’s carts didn’t look strange. Mostly it looked like holiday shoppers who were late picking up a Valentine gift for their significant other. That isn’t to say there weren’t gaps on the shelves as we had seen in other places. Toilet paper is gone and there are limits being strictly enforced on all the remaining paper products and the cleaning supplies still on the shelves. Vit and I used separate carts and we each took our limit and since there were no limits on pest control items, I took all but one of the remaining large sticky traps for mice and rats as well as bait and poison, something I had only started to do midway through our DG stops.
Vit picked up some things in the hardware section. I passed by the snack and candy section and just blinked at how everything is positively picked over. Again I assume it was for Valentine’s Day but in all honesty I can’t say that for sure. Certainly the bread and breakfast cereals aisles weren’t empty for that reason. I’m glad we grabbed what canned meats that we have along the way because there were limits on everything and one can of tuna is not going to go far if you have a family to feed. Vit and I both did a double take on the sign when we saw it. Some limits make sense with the problems before us, and some are outrageously unreasonable.
There are limits on canned veggies and though we have a lot I left nothing to chance. There are also limits on all the staple ingredients such as sugar, salt, flour, and cornmeal, but with Vit filling his buggy and me filling the one I was pushing we were at least doing a little better than had we combined things. I noticed we were not the only ones in the store doing that. Store management caught on as well and they put a sign up that ADULTS ONLY could ring through a cart. The sound that emanated from the mouths of some people in the store can only be described as squalling, and that would be a kind description at that.
Canned fruit was limit one per type and brand so I could get a can of store brand fruit cocktail, a can of Delmonte brand fruit cocktail, etc. It was like that wherever we looked … rice, pasta, potatoes, dried beans, sauces, muffin mixes, baking mixes, condiments … it was surreal.
Vit passed me looking triumphant. He’d gotten the last large bag of rice, sugar, and flour. He nodded in approval when he saw I had found the international food aisle and gotten several brands of shelf stable milk, table cream, dried milk, and ghee. He had several cans of soup. We both had packages of diapers and I’d thought to throw in diaper wipes and a few other baby-related odds and ends. He saw them and headed back to that aisle to double my forethought. It made me feel quite strange but I’d also put in my basket multipacks of the baby outfits called onesies and some baby socks in white so they could be bleached as necessary.
Having done shopping for the family while we were living in Pembroke House we were already well-versed in how to get in and out of such as store in as little time as possible. Neither Vit nor I are what you would call casual shoppers. It allows ridiculous items to jump into the cart running the bill up. As it is I became nauseous as I was checking out. I’m sure it was stress-related and not just pregnancy-related but the amount of the bill would have nauseated anyone on a budget.
We were in there a little over an hour, exited through different register lines. Mostly the time was due to the fact that the people ahead of us in line for the cashiers hadn’t believed they’d get caught not abiding by the limits. The self-serve registers were limited to ten items or less, and closely monitored, but they were just as backed up as the limits were built into the item readers and an alarm would sound every time someone rang something that was over a limit and a manager would have to come and check their entire order. They also caught a couple of shoplifters. It was a mess. I also heard people complaining that their cards were being declined. Ugh. Luckily we had sufficient cash but my cashier just stared at it for a moment like they’d never seen cash before. They even called over a manager.
“I went to the bank thinking cash would get us through the line faster,” I complained vacuously to try and hide what we’d been doing. “She doesn’t even act like she knows how to count money.”
The cashier was immediately defensive and said, “No one uses cash anymore. It’s stupid and dangerous to carry it around.”
I looked up and down the registers and saw lots of people using cash and turned back to look at the manager who was a harried man that looked like he was barely keeping what he wanted to say behind his teeth. All he did was run the bills through a counterfeit detector and then rung up the sale and handed me my change, ignoring the cashier completely. When the man behind me said he would be using cash as well the manager sighed, but I didn’t hang around to see what would happen next as it was like a crash car derby to get out of the doors and through the parking lot. And I needed out. I overheard a situation brewing as I waited my turn to exit.
The parking lot had a few angry people in it that I studiously avoided, and I made eye contact with no one but did remain situationally aware and it saved me from nearly being backed over by two different vehicles who weren’t looking where they were going.
Vit was faster than I. He’d already loaded his bags into the van and was coming back to me. I whispered, “Let’s go. Quickly. Two women just got caught doing what we were doing and now they are going around the store marking the signs ‘limit 1 per family’ instead of just ‘limit 1.’ What a nightmare.”
We loaded quickly but neatly to save us work on the unloading and left the parking lot, only stopping once again to top off the fuel tank and fill the two reserve cans that Vit had added to his cart at the last minute. He’d wanted to pick up another one or two propane canisters, but they were completely out.
Just down the street was a Dollar Tree, a Tractor Supply store, and a Lowe’s. The only thing I got at the Dollar Tree was the last five jars of nasty instant coffee Charlie liked, several tubes of toothpaste, a package of floss picks, two multi-packs of toothbrushes, and some country ham that was hiding in the bottom of the cooler section. Locusts had denuded the store of nearly everything else and there were limits on what was left so perhaps it is incorrect to say “only.” Either way it was less than I had wanted.
At the Tractor Supply I picked up bare root seedlings of just about every bush and tree they had for sale, a giant bag of the dog kibble that I knew Charlie’s dog ate (Vit made some noise after he realized I must have lifted it myself), Vit picked up a trickle charger and some other odds and ends, and insisted that I choose some of the roses they had since there were no limits on them. Yes, I know it was an expense that we hadn’t planned on but it was an expense already in the house budget, so we just moved some “pennies” around.
At Lowe’s he had me wait in the van while he ran in for more odds and ends like screws, nails, etc. That’s my engineer. He went out through self-check and no one made note of his accent since he just grunted and nodded if they said anything to him at all.
We got back on US90 and took it straight into Lake City where we stopped at another Walmart. The store looked as picked over as I have ever seen such a store be. We got a few grocery items and then Vit hit the meats. Not that there was a lot to choose from because it went out as fast as the butchers could stock it, but Vit got everything, from fresh to frozen, that would fit in the cooler that we had to empty out once we got back to the van. As well as the second one that he bought while we were in the store. We got the last two bags of ice as well.
At that Lowe’s there was once again no propane, but Vit got a large bag of charcoal and I did the same in my cart. We picked up more matches and Bic fireplace lighters. There was no limit on the firelogs at this store so we both got two cases and would have gotten more but the van was getting loaded down and both of us could tell the difference in how it was handling when it was on the road. Vit also got two more fuel canisters with the intent of filling them at the gas station on the corner.
While he was doing that, he sent me into the garden area and asked me to get the seeds and whatever else I could need for a garden since Tractor Supply had had only flower seeds which had been really strange and worrying. Why we hadn’t been doing that I don’t even know. I suppose that I have been too used to Angelia taking care of that part of the planning. I cannot do that anymore. It isn’t going to be just Vit and I from here on out.
Vit came to find me and said we should get some more for the baby and then get back on the road. I used cash to pay for what was in my buggy. Vit decided to use our debit card since we are reaching our limit on the amount of cash that he had set aside. We still have cash, but it is reserved for other necessities.
We are in line for fuel, so I decided to write to calm myself down, but it isn’t doing much good. It is not far now but the radio talks of curfews and lockdowns. The one case of the illness in Southern California has turned into many cases throughout that state all showing up in immigrant populations which means that there are probably far more cases than are being reported. The news say authorities are now going house to house in the barrios and finding entire families down sick … and still refusing to willingly be taken in. It turns out most of those are illegals that did not self-deport when they had the chance. Now the government will have to decide how to deal with them. California’s state government is withholding the information from the feds due to who is currently in office. The Whitehouse has now locked down California … no flights in or out, private or commercial; military checkpoints on the interstates; many private businesses are refusing to send merchandise into the state; the trains are no longer running into the state either. The swiftness this has happened makes it appear that it was an existing plan that was just now put into effect.
I will admit that I am scared. Reading the history of it, the initial reaction to the last pandemic seemed so arbitrary and haphazard with some people being contrary just because suggestions didn’t come from their political party. Now that it has been found in the US it seems the exact opposite reaction is taking place. Doors are slamming so hard I swear I can hear them. And it is also frightening how swiftly the government is instituting controls of websites and social media. Even some of the media personalities look concerned and gave a PSA that there may be delays on live broadcasts and limited access to their branded websites. Many youtube stars have simply been taken off the air, either by youtube itself or because their home country is censoring the internet in general. Neither Vit nor I can determine whether it is simply a power grab or whether they know something about this pandemic they are not telling the general public as of yet.
Ugh. I’m going to put this down. It is getting too dark to type anyway. Oh Pembroke, you cannot get here soon enough. We will this make our last stop and pray we can continue on without interruption or serious risk.
. I am looking forward to it.