The Mouse On The Windshield

They say that getting there is half the fun. I'm fairly certain that we'll always remember that adage from this vacation. The return trip home was a reminder that God has His hand of protection around us and we're so very grateful. The accident that we saw was so horrific that Becky had a nightmare and woke up crying, and I'll be haunted by it for the rest of my life. 

It's the trip to Maine, however, that we'll laugh about. We left for vacation at 11:30 PM and drove all night. Sam drove for a few hours, but since he'd just worked until 11:00, he was exhausted. I took over and let him sleep. There is very little traffic in the overnight, and the kids sleep. It's such a win in our book that we'll probably always choose to arrive at vacation destinations this way. The downfall is that one tends to get tired in the wee smalls of the night, and when nobody is awake to talk to, boredom will also set in. 

That's why, at 4:30 AM when I saw a bug on my door, it was kind of a big deal. It was probably there all night, but there were a lot of street lights on the drive around NYC. The newly lighted interior alerted me to the fact that a bug was on my door staring at me just like I was staring at it. While staring at the road. I was convinced that it was going to jump on me so I woke Sam to get me a tissue so that I could squash that thing into oblivion. He did. So I did. The nephew was awake and just rolled his eyes at us.

Things like this are kind of a big deal when you've been driving for 5 hours with nothing to break the boredom. Well, except for running over the Great Unknown Thing at 2AM and putting a hole in the passenger side door, but we didn't know that at the time.

The bug incident kind of blew over and I was losing the adrenaline high when I saw the mouse. There was a mouse just walking across my windshield like it belonged there. In all my years of driving, I've never seen a mouse walking around on the windshield, whether I was driving or not, so I wasn't sure how to handle the situation. Plus I was really overtired. And caught off guard. Nobody expects a mouse at 5 AM to walk across their windshield when they're driving around New York City doing 70 mph. I did what anyone would do.

"A MOUSE. THERE IS A MOUSE ON THE WINDSHIELD. LOOK!"

Sam, being awakened from sleep yet again, was very nonplussed. How the heck?!

"Turn on your windshield wipers."

So I did. Except that the mouse was down in the wiper well area and all I managed to do was smear bug splashes. Epic fail. And the mouse was gone. So much for that. Right up until it emerged again.

"LOOK! THERE IT IS AGAIN!" And I flipped on the wipers. But the mouse was faster than I was because I was still in the "caught off guard by a mouse on my windshield at 5 AM while driving 70MPH around NYC" stage and I fumbled in finding the right lever for the wipers. We've only owned the van for two years. 

The third time is a charm, though. When that unfortunate mouse came up out of the depths of the van front, all I could think of were the brown droppings it would leave behind everywhere it went in the van, and how disgusting it was, and how I hated that mouse. I flipped on the wipers, the mouse rode the wave to the top and then let go. It couldn't have been planned any better. It soared over the top of the van and was never seen again. Our little country mouse is now a city mouse.

I will admit to throwing both hands up in the air and cheering. Its what one does for entertainment at 5AM when you've been driving all night.