East we went

After so many trips to the West we finally went East. My son Manuel graduated from Army boot camp and we went to his graduation. I had never been East so this was exciting for me. We, my husband, oldest son and daughter, left on Wednesday for a long car drive. You would think that we would be entirely bored but the car trip was pretty fun. Driving through Alabama we talked like Forrest Gump. In Georgia we looked for Paula Deen. We also almost lost Mousey. For anyone that knows my daughter they know that Mousey is a stuffed pink mouse. She thinks it's a living, breathing, thinking creature. She talks to Mousey and says that Mousey has feelings. She and I was sitting in the back seat and we had stopped to fill up on gas, we left the gas station and were already on the freeway when I heard her say "Where's Mousey?" I just turned to look at her and the next thing we all hear is a loud scream -- you know the kind like when someone has just been told a loved one has died. I told her that we never opened her door so Mousey could not have fallen out but then I remembered that her father did open her car door. We had to pull over to the side of the road to look for Mousey. She was crying and we were trying to calm her down telling her we would turn around and go back to the gas station. But after searching the car Mousey was in the very back of the car in the luggage area by the back window. She stuffed Mousey in her back pack and poor Mouse never saw the light of day again until we got back home.
We stopped in Georgia to get someting to eat and buy some lottery tickets. I always write on the ticket the city I bought them in. I asked the clerk what city we were in and he said Martin "ez". I asked "Martinez", he said no Martin "ez", Martinez is Mexican and we have no Mexicans in Georgia, we pronounce it Martinez in California but since we have no Mexicans here its Martin "ez". I said well it's my last name. He asked are you Mexican? I said yes. Apparently folks there are no Mexicans in Georgia.
I'll post more Manuel's graduation later.