I'm sure you're all wondering how sister-friend Stephanie is doing in her cross-country drive.  And I suppose if you aren't wondering, well, you may as well stop reading right now because that's exactly what this entry is about.

Before she left Maine, we had a little conversation in which I told her she was to check in with me every night once she reached her overnight-stay destination. Trust me, there was a reason for this ... Remember, we drove across country together in the opposite direction three years ago.

I know how she can get lost! Or sidetracked. And as much as I love her - bless her little pea-pickin' heart - she does have a habit of not exactly paying attention and has been know to fall off of ladders, step in holes, drill through her own thumbs ... you get the picture.

So to rest assured that she was in one piece and had arrived safely where she was supposed to arrive, I asked her to call me every night.

She left Maine on Friday and Friday evening when I hadn't heard from her, I naturally started calling.  Fortunately, she did have her cell phone turned on and charged (yeah ... she has been known to forget those tiny details) and right on schedule, she was in New York state.

When I asked her why she hadn't called, her response was "Oh. Were you serious about that? I thought you were kidding."  HA! Darn tootin' I was serious!

I guess I scared her because she has called every night now. So far, she's only managed to be almost run off the road once (by a hundred year old guy in Massachusetts ... go figure!); got lost once (okay, she said the directions were wrong); ended up being stranded at some motel in Indiana because the roads were flooded; and she has only lost one day on her schedule. 

Once she reaches California, she's going to spend a week with her daughter and then head out here for a couple of weeks.  After that, she'll be on her way back to the Maine wilderness.

So I figure I've got another two nights of tracking her before she hits the West Coast, then a week respite; then about four more nights of tracking and a two week respite while she's here; and then another four nights of tracking and she'll be back home.

I think I need to look into one of those thingamajigs the FBI uses to keep track of mobsters.  Anybody know where I can find one?