Road Trip Log: Day 3 (with mileage update)

Total miles so far: 1171 miles

Yesterday was day 3. You know, it doesn't take many days on the road to make me forget how many days we've been on the road.

But let me tell you about the evening of day 2. We stayed in Halfway, MD though the address technically was Hagerstown. My beloved Indigo lives in Baltimore, so he and his partner Doug drove inland, and we drove toward the coast until we met at Fredrick, MD. It's a lovely, quaint old town, but the roads are seriously messed up. I got quite befuddled. C accused me of being lost, and it took about 15 minutes to find our way to where Indigo had parked. I refuse to admit that I was lost. C may have been, but I wasn't. I just wasn't sure how to get from where I was to where I wanted to be. Mildly confused, but not lost.

We ate at a charming place, a micro brewery and restaurant that Doug found. I have pictures, but don't have time to load them now. I promise a picture-ful post in the near future.

Yesterday we had many more adventures in which I was befuddled and C was lost. He's about sick of my adventures, so today we plan to follow the detailed directions that Google gave me. And let me tell you something else about choosing one's navigator. In addition to informing said navigator of his duties, one should choose a person whose eyesight is adequate for the task. C has a congenital eye condition involving his retina that limits his effectiveness as a detail-oriented inspector of maps. He mentioned that reading glasses might help. HELLO! Tell me these things, darling! After breakfast yesterday morning we found a Wal-Mart and bought some maps (also a good thing for a navigator to have) and some reading glasses for the dear man.

We got through Pennsylvania quite handily, having found a good Pennsylvania map in southern Pennsylvania. However, there wasn't a New York map at the southern Pennsylvania W-M. Once we crossed the border things got a bit befuddling. I also bought a road atlas, though, which has maps of all the states. It does not, however, give much detail about Schenectady, so we had some challenges once we neared this city. We finally found the hotel, unfortunately.

The hotel. O.M.G. I have pictures which don't show the worst of it. When we got back from dinner last night we discovered which unit is selling the drugs. Thankfully it is on the ground level, and we're upstairs. We locked out door to the best of our ability (photographic evidence forthcoming) and stayed inside. Smoking is allowed in this room, so C didn't have to go outside for smokes. However, there is art on the walls, so it could be worse. (Again, photographic evidence to follow.)

There is more I could say, but it's after 10:00 already and we have some driving to do today. We also have maps and detailed directions! Navigation promises to be easier today. So after coffee and donuts (and maybe a touch of something healthier) we're off to Massachusetts.

:: Extra Bonus Experience :: I'm learning how to spell all sorts of long words, like Schenectady, Massachusetts, and gustatory.

Road Trip Log: Day 2

(posted Friday morning because the cheap, nasty hotel we stayed in that night didn't have WiFi)

Total miles so far: 667

Tonight we are in Halfway, Maryland. Halfway looked like a good stopping point.

Birdie had a good idea. I need to give C the camera and let him take pictures while I drive. Wish I’d done that today. We drove through the Shenandoah Valley, and OMG is it beautiful!

I designated C to be the navigator for our trip. When I needed his assistance as we were approaching today’s destination, he failed miserably. But that probably has something to do with the fact that I inadvertently forgot to tell him that he was my navigator. He fussed at me, saying that a navigator is the guy who tosses a rope off the back of the boat (no, he didn’t say “stern”) and counts the knots, and uses the astrolabe or some dumb shit to look at the stars. No, no, I said, that’s only on the sea, and clearly we are on land. Remember all the talk about asphalt, trucks, and speed limits enforced with airplanes?*

We’re roughing it with our nightly accommodations, staying in really cheap places. Tonight we’re in a Hotel 6. They spend so much money on the electric bill when they “leave the light on,” they have to scrimp on other amenities. There are complementary “bars” of soap not much bigger than a postage stamp, but no shampoo. Silly C failed to bring shampoo. That’s another story right there. There is no art on the walls in our room, which C finds unnerving. The bedspreads are so loud that I doubt any cheap motel art could compete. Oh, and the mattresses! Holy Cow! The edges are hard but there’s barely any support within. I sat on the bed and fell in. Glad I have my own bed, because if I had to share, both of us would slide to the center. It’s what (I think it’s) Garrison Keillor calls a deep valley bed.

The most significant deprivation, though, is lack of WiFi. WTF?? This is the 21^st Century, people! I am typing this on a Word doc, and will copy/paste it onto the blog when I have access to the internet.

So this hotel is across the street from some major shopping action. There is allegedly a mall over there, and I saw a Penney’s. Next to that, though, is Target and Michaels! (Who said “Tar-zhay” in his head?) We went to Target to pick up a few things, like shampoo for C. More OMG here. He spent the longest time finding just the right shampoo. Please, doll, just grab something shiny and let’s move on. Then he had to find a brush. This about killed me. After five minutes I asked him what he’d do if I gave him a 60 second time limit, then started humming the Jeopardy tune. He insisted that it was very important to get the proper brush, especially since he doesn’t have one at home. Oh, in that case I’ll sing the Jeopardy tune twice. s

*The signage in Virginia informed us that speed limits were enforced with airplanes. We speculated that the highway patrol has small engine planes with mounted guns, maybe bazookas. If they see a speeding car, they shoot it. That would probably deter speeding. C suggested perhaps they use helicopters with strong magnets to literally pick up speeders, removing the offenders from the flow of traffic.