Terrible. The whole trip was a nightmare. A trip that usually takes 17 hours ended up taking 21. Traffic (everywhere) was horrible.
Day 1
We got out later than we wanted, I knew we would. We ended up hitting DC during rush hour which of course took us forever to get through.
Have I ever mentioned my love for the Checkers (some places they call them Rallys) chicken sandwich? I love those things but unfortunately the Checkers here closed down years ago. Everytime we go through DC I make Doug stop at the Checkers near the Andrew’s Air Force Base. Doug is a Checkers chicken sandwich convert. We discover that they no longer have the chicken sandwich. This should have been my first clue that this trip wasn’t going to go well. Still sitting in the drive thru I whip out my cell phone to call Dad.
Me-“Checkers doesn’t have the chicken sandwich anymore.”
Dad-“Oh no! What are you going to eat?” (that was not sarcasm, it was real concern.
Me-“I don’t know.”
Dad (to Mom in the background)-“Checkers doesn’t have the chicken sandwich anymore.”
Mom (in the background)-“What is she going to eat?”
Mom and Dad understand my heartbreak of Checkers no longer having the chicken sandwich.
I ate my chicken sandwich hamburger and we hit the road again. We finally get out of DC and cruise through Maryland.
Delaware is where the mental breakdowns (note the s on breakdowns) started. Delaware is a tiny state and we were only cutting across the corner. Should have been a breeze. After the eleven hundredth hour in Delaware I told Doug that if his sister didn’t get married I was going to snatch her baldheaded. I do believe that “snatch her baldheaded” is a southern term. We finally decide to stop fighting Delaware and get a hotel room. The only hotel rooms that were left was $130 a night suites. We pushed on into Jersey where it started raining. I think thunder is New Jersey is louder than it is in NC.
Day 2
The next morning we headed out pretty early. We can usually get to mid Jersey in 8 & 1/2 hours, but after 10 & 1/2 hours on the road the day before we had only made it to the southern part.
For breakfast we hit the
I am no longer a White Castle virgin. I had sliders and onion rings. I was warned away from the chicken rings.
We were afraid of hitting NYC during lunch time, but NYC was the easiest part of our drive. NYC being the easiest part of our drive is saying something because driving through NYC sucks.
On to Connecticut where Doug had his first mental breakdown. Connecticut usually only takes about 2 hours to get through. Not this time. It took almost 5 hours. Doug made me pull out the road atlas and look up the population of Connecticut then spent the next hour yelling about how all 3.4 million people in Connecticut was on that highway.
We made pretty good time in Masschutes. We were beginning to think that we weren’t going to make Doug’s sister’s dance because the trip was taking so long. Sitting in Connecticut traffic put us behind by about 2 hours. We stopped in some little town in Mass thinking we’d just hop off the highway grab a quick bit to eat and get back on the road. We drove around for 15 minutes without seeing a single place to eat. Apparently they don’t eat out in the little Mass town unlike where I live where there is a McDonalds on every corner. We finally found a Subway in a convience store.
We finished up Mass and had an easy time through New Hampshire. When we get into Maine and had to pay the toll the toll worker was like “Welcome to Kansas!” I was like “No wonder it took us so damn long, you drove us to the wrong state.” I was not a happy camper by the time we got to our hotel room which we had to change because the toilet was leaking. We pretty much crashed into bed when we got the car loaded missing the dance.
Day 3 (day of the wedding)
I didn’t feel good on the trip up, but I got sick once we got there. I ended up skipping the wedding and making Doug go by himself. I was sick, the wedding was outside and it was 90 degrees. I stayed in the hotelroom watching bad TV and I do mean bad TV (Britney and Kevin the E! True Hollywood Story). Doug didn’t get back to the hotelroom until about 8:00. The wedding started at 3:30 and they hadn’t cut the cake by the time Doug left. He felt terrible when he got back. Outside in 90 degree weather in a suit. Not a good combination. Before Doug left for the wedding we changed hotelrooms again because the AC wasn’t working properly.
Day 4
We both skipped the brunch. I was still sick and Doug didn’t feel good. Later that afternoon we went out for Chinese food and went sight seeing. My camera batteries died after our first stop. I think these are from Orrs Island, maybe Bailey Island, we weren’t sure which it was.
Day 5
The day we are heading home. I wanted to go to Tim Horton’s since I’ve heard good things about them and we don’t have them around here. We get to Tim Horton’s with Doug’s family. Nobody wants to eat there so I get a strawberry muffin (that was excellent) to go. We end up at Denny’s which was very understaffed and it took us forever. We finally hti the road for home. I decide that we are going to stop in Delaware for the night. Big mistake! Big!
Day 6 (the day finally get home)
We get up the next morning and have some bug bites. The hotel (a nice chain) accepts pets so we think it’s *fleas. We put everything in the trunk thinking the heat will kill them.
The first part of the day was pretty uneventful. We stop at the
I can’t express how much I love Ikea. Ikea is the best store ever and we don’t have any here. I’m hoping some day they open one in Charlotte or Raleigh. I spent $125 and it was worth every penny.
Northern Virginia is where the trouble started. I really honestly didn’t think we were ever going to get out of NoVa. We sat in traffic for hours. At one point I threatened to get out and look for an apartment. We finally get out of NoVa and the rest of the trip was easy. Doug says he’s never leaving the state in NC again. He also says if he ever goes to visit his sister again he’s going to go around Connecticut.
We came home petted our cats that hadn’t been petted in 6 days and they thought they were going to die from lack of petting.
*the hotel did not have fleas. Have you ever seen a news segment about people who stay in a hotelroom and come home with bed bugs? Well, that’s me now. My life is a news segment and will be for 6-8 more weeks. About a week after we got back we both woke up covered in bites. Luckily since the first treatment of our place we’ve been bite free, but it takes weekly treatments for 6-8 weeks to make sure you get them all. I’m never staying a hotel again.
SewKitty 