Spain again after nine months

IT has been 19 years since I last delivered a child but one of the things I remember is that when you get to the nine month deadline you are READY for it to be over. We are at almost ten months of time away from home, and although we are still having a great time there are signs of being READY to go home.
Sign #1: We got to the Barcelona airport after traveling by train from Florence to Rome at 7:52 am then taking a 12:40 bumpy flight. We picked up our car, a diesel Opel station wagon that we have unaffectionately named the Russian wagon. We were on the highway thinking that we were being tailed by a hovering aircraft before we figured out that the loud noise canceling out the full blast radio was our engine. What a tank this vehicle is! It is stick shift with the weird arrangement of six gears with the move from five to six always grinding badly. The navigator and the pilot of the Russian tank had a few tense moments finding our way to a road out of town, but eventually we were on the road. In our nine months on the road there have been few tense moments between us, but this tank probably doubled the number.
Sign #2: Jonny called tonight about car problems. We wanted to keep him on the phone as long as possible. There is no doubt about it- we miss our kids. We had a fantastic visit with Caitie, who left for Sylvania when we left for Spain. We need to look up on a map to see where she went because our geographically challenged selves have no idea where this new Eastern European country is, but she traveled there by train for a four day visit with friends. I think she was sorry to see us go, just as we were sorry to say goodbye. She finishes finals at the end of next week, then spends a week in Boston on her way home to being picked up at the airport by us on May 15 when we all meet back in Seattle.
Sign #3: We are getting lazy about our laundry. After nine months of doing our laundry in the bathroom sink every night we are now gauging whether we can make it until the end with the remaining clean clothes. Our laundry is now on a need to wear basis rather than, "this is dirty so I need to wash it".
Sign #4: We have no idea when to sleep anymore. It started on the ship...sleeping in late than not being able to sleep the next night. That required a nap, which then caused us to be awake at night. We were on opposite schedules. The one of us that could sleep did so soundly while the other counted sheep. We had that largely sorted out until we hit Spain again. Tonight's dinner reservation, made by the hotel clerk on our behalf, called for dinner at 10:00PM. How is the world can you go to sleep at midnight when you get back to your hotel? This morning, when we went in search of coffee at 9:00 AM when we were up and showered, was a real search as most places did not open until 11:00 AM. We are ready to have our meals at the times our bodies crave food. And to sleep at normal bedtimes.
I am sounding like this is not fun, but that is not the case. Tonight we are in a town that did not fit the guide book's description, Tudela. It is dirty and crowded, but yesterday we were in Montblanc, not too far outside Barcelona and it was spectacular. The town was clean, the people friendly, and the hotel inexpensive. The guide book only had a sentence on Montblanc. Go figure.

It is 12:30, so I'm off to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. Until tomorrow...
Deanne