I'll have a blue-ew Christmas....

Welcome back! Spurred on by fieryboots, I felt I had to post something new. It's tempting to post more frequently on the goings on in my life, but mostly it plods along in a succesion of mundane details. It's only when some time has passed do I realize that I actually accomplish anything.

D & I made our whirlwind Thanksgiving car tour. We usually just go to Philadelphia for a couple of days, but every few years, I like to make sure we get up to Massachusetts for the feast, and time with my nephew. And some Dunkin Donuts coffee. Alright, lots of Dunkin Donuts coffee. And the accents :)

I picked up the rental car after work, and packed most of our stuff in it while waiting for D to make it home from work. He'd been working 90+ hour weeks for over a month at this point, and his office was moving to a new location, so I felt a little bad making him take almost an entire week off. Not that he didn't need it, but if he got fired for taking time, I'd feel really guilty. Still, he brought his work laptop with him, and tried to work from the road during the trip.

We headed out of Pittsburgh on leg #1 of our trip - ~ 3 hrs. on PA-76 east to a town just outside of Harrisburg. 76 is the turnpike, and kind of boring visually, but it was dark out, and I'd booked us a room for less than $50 (thanks, AAA!) We were only 1 hr behind schedule, and managed to keep to that time pretty well, despite some uncomfortable driving. I was trying out a new-to-me rental model (Ford Focus), and I didn't figure out how to raise the driver's seat up so I could look down over the steering wheel. Also in play: 1) it was very foggy going over some of the mountains & I had to slow down to ~35 mph, along with everyone else on the road; 2) it was raining & I caught some hydroplaning at certain points, as Hertz had neglected to check the tire inflation & all four were really low when I checked the next morning); and 3) there was some kind of oil on the wiper blades that kept smearing across the windshield - combined with the rain, dark & oncoming headlights, visibility was pretty crappy. We tried to wash the stuff off at a gas station, but it just came right back. D thought that someone had Armor-alled the wiper blades.

So, not real happy with Hertz at that point. Plus, can American car makers possibly make cars with any bigger blind spots? I thought it was just Dodge, but this thing was awful from that perspective. We got to the hotel, and went out again for a really good meal at a little casual place near Carlisle, PA. It was actually ~ 11 miles away, but the only thing open that had drinks & food past 11 pm. I was expecting awful bar food, but was presently surprised by he homemade stromboli. We had pepperoni, black olive, & mushroom - yum!

Afterwards, we got some sleep, and got up reasonably early in the morning. Although I like lounging in bed as much as the next person, when I'm in a new situation, or traveling, I always prefer to get up early. This has, in the past, been a point of contention between D & me, as he likes to sleep until noon-ish even when we're on vacation (see: Disastrous Seattle vacation, in which Ericka gets super-pissed that someone slept until 2 pm (2!) when she wanted to go to the art museum, but not by herself). But this trip worked out pretty well. Plus, when I looked out our window, I was greeted by the sight of cats-in-the-mist. Between the hotel and the highway onramp (it was only $45 after all!), there was a small field, and three cats were sitting out there, all just sitting and looking in our general direction. It made me smile, and miss our cats at the same time.

We got some breakfast at Wafflehouse (where the waitress obviously liked D alot more than she liked me) and then hit the road, picking up some highway or other (81, I think?) through Harrisburgh and northward. We listened to science fiction podcasts on the radio through D's handy FM transmitter & his iPhone, and did okay despite having to stop to inflate tires mid-morning. Early in the afternoon, we hit traffic around the change to 84, and tuned in to the news. There was an accident up ahead, and 16 miles of backed-up highway. We happened to be right at the turn-off for the Taconic State Parkway, so we took a chance and headed off on an adventure. I'm glad we did, because this was a much prettier drive than the larger highways, and we ended up at the Mass Pike anyway.

So we got into Arlington only a little bit after we'd planned, and got to see some new terrain in the bargain :)

I'll post more of this soon, I promise - it's just getting a little long for a single entry.