I went to Danbury, CT this weekend for a couple of the reasons, the main one to see my niece Anna get Baptised. I'll post about that separately since it was a great ceremony, and as is typical for our family, had some ancient history tied to it.
I left on Friday to go to CT. After the fiasco last time with the 'hired car', where the guy changed the price of the trip on me half way down I-75, I had a cab bring me to the airport. Of course the cabbie didn't like driving on the highway to it took almost twice as long.
The plane ride was uneventful except for the young lady waiting for the same flight. She had a t-shirt 'I'm totally worth it'. I'm guessing she was late teens since she was giving her mother a bunch of attitude. I was seriously tempted to ask her what it meant, but I'm afraid it meant that guy from Nightline was going to start asking me questions ;-)
I started reading a great new book 'World War Z', which is a fictional account of how the Zombies rose from the dead and how the world finally beat them back. It is written in the first person with each story being a couple of pages. It is really good so far.
Friday night we went to my Dad's to celebrate his birthday. It was the first time in 3 weeks I'd seen the kids so I spent most of the time playing with them. My Dad has a slight hill on the side of his house (nothing like the one on Strawberry Hill though, so no go carts!) and Christopher would ride down the hill on his little plastic car and I'd carry it back up for him to do it again.
Saturday was spent having lunch with my Mom and going to see 'Get Smart!'. For someone who grew up with that show, the movie was great. I think even if you didn't know the series you'd think it was funny. Saturday night Deb, Christopher and I went to her brother's for dinner. Deb's nephew is 18 and was having a blast with Christopher.
Sunday was all about the Christening, so I'll write about that in a separate message.
Monday started out with a bang. Literally. As the alarm went off at 5:30, a massive thunderstorm started. It raged for about 20 more minutes. We finally got everything (and everyone) loaded and on the road by 7:10.
The TomTom is great. It told us how far we had to go and estimated when we'd arrive. According to it, we were due to arrive at 11:30 pm when we left. At one point I was driving well enough that I got it down to 11:00 pm. Then typhoon Christopher struck.
Still don't know why, but around 2 pm he vomited. Twice. All over the inside of the car. Not just a little on his shirt, this was a 'we drank how much Jagermeister?' projectile vomit. He didn't say a word, gag or give us any other indication it was coming. So I did a rather quick exit at the next gas station and we cleaned up. For 45 minutes. During this, the dog just stayed in her spot and ignored us.
The whole time we're cleaning up, there is a guy in the car next to us smoking his cigarette and reading his paper. Quite surreal.
We finally got back on the highway. Christopher usually falls asleep while on a long trip, but not this time. He finally fell asleep for about an hour and half, then woke up screaming. We stopped again, let him get out of the car seat for a while. Another 30 minutes later, we got moving again. He still wouldn't go to sleep. Around 10:30 I looked back at him and he waved at me. Deb and both girls were out cold, he was sitting there watching Curious George. He finally fell asleep about 15 minutes later.
When we finally got home, he woke up again, but as soon as he saw we were in his room, he smiled and fell asleep instantly. He's spent most of today playing with every toy in his room. Vomit aside, I think he did great for a 2 year old.
The girls were great as well. No drama with them, just some tired kids this morning. Deb just wanted to get into her own bed. And take a shower in her own shower this morning.
Some random thoughts from the hours behind the wheel
- VA has the worst drivers. I swear every time we got above the speed limit someone would camp out in the left lane and slow us down
- VA doesn't allow radar detectors, so it was unnerving to see a state trooper on the side of the road without having been warned ahead of time. The best defense I was ready with if I got pulled over: 'Officer, I wasn't paying attention to my speed, my wife and I were discussing if the baby had pooped or it was the dog farting again'
- the Grand Caravan is not the Mustang. Even flooring it merging while going up hill isn't fun
- about half the people in VA had vanity plates. Some were easy to figure out, others were bizarre.
4 comments:
Sound like you had a good trip. I am heading to IL now. I hate long car rides. You drove 16 hours with the kids! I hope you have a DVD player! I grew up going to St. Mary's in Bethel. What a small world! -Dawn
Glad you all made it back safely. And with only one projectile incident!
Sounds like you had a great trip home.
and VA just lasts forever it is almost the entire drive or it seems like it anyway
Just caught up on the flickr photos. Great shots! Your dad and mom look exactly the same as they did the last time I saw them. Looks like everyone was really happy to be together.
Was gonna make a trash-talking Yankees comment, but that pic of the girls with their Gramps was just too darned sweet! Plus it's their last year in that park. Gotta show a little respect, I suppose.
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