Mardi Gras Weekend
Back from Burlinton.
Well that was an interesting trip that almost didn't exist. We were in a car for eleven hours on a route that is normally 3.5 hours.
Step one out to Worcester from Springfield. 45 minute drive in the opposite direction of which we we intended to go, another 5 minutes to find our fellow traveler, Marge, it's my girlfriend Nikkis' best friend. She is not at the house we picked her up last time out, what the hell is going on? Apparently, she moved.
"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that" was all we were offered in response. So there is another few minutes to go get her from the new place. Car is packed, everyone is in. We are back on route. It's about 9:30 a.m. and we should be in Burlington about 1 o'clock.
We have to take route 89W out of MA across New Hampshire for about 2 hours to the White River Junction in VT where this route meets 91N. It's about an hour and a half from there.
An easy ride for the most part, but I have never been a big fan of long car rides and find it hard to doze off with two hyperactive gals in the back seat.
A stop for breakfast at about 11a.m. proved interesting, seems that Wayne accidentlly swiped a few things from the wrong bag on the counter of a MacDonalds. It happened to be a traffic cops bag. Ooops. There was some construction work going on right at the exit we just pulled off of and there was half this towns' police force directing traffic out front. 4 cops, all shivering and red faced. Sorry guys, but there is beer to be drunk up north.
A weather check the morning we left had us expecting snow and biting cold the whole time, they weren't kidding. On the road for just shy of two hours and about 20 miles away from the connecting junction near Lebanon NH the car lurches and begins to stall. An 18 wheeler rig just passes us by as we start to slow to a crawl. The snow is beginning to pick up. Wayne is frantically shifting gears, we have nothing. Finally 4th gear kicks in and we are scratching our heads. My head is out the window looking for a blowout on the passengers' side and Wayne is glued to the rear-view for oncoming traffic. Luckily, everyone has slowed somewhat due to the snow.
Okay, we don't know what the hell just happened, after a quick stop there is no undercarriage leaks and no smell of burning liquids of any kind, and no visible sign of damage.
We have one working gear. Top Speed is about 50 miles per hour, it feels like a crawl. Cars, trucks, everything is breezing by us even at their slowed for the snow pace. We have one option and no real choice. Chug along to the junction and head towards home. It would be 90 minutes north to our original destination or two hours at regular speed to home. We have to get home. Wayne looks at me with an unspoken question and I answer yes in the same tone.
"Yes I am ready to walk for help if need be."
Cut here to avoid taking up all of friend's pages with my tail.
I don't know about the girls. They sure wouldn't want to walk in this weather and I wouldn't want them to wait in this car. We have to get as close to home as possible, by whatever means this ride will take us. The further south we go, the closer the towns become, let's hope the car lasts.
We don't even know exactly where we are.
Calls are being made, we need a location and a diagnosis, and if we are lucky, a possible solution. Wayne and I can improvise any kind of building or repair project to a functional degree. Automotive however is neither one of our strong points. I can tell you how an internal combustion engine works but I wouldn't know a carburetor if it was giving me a haircut.
It's 11:30 and we finally get some calls returned. Bad news all around. No one is home to check map quest or any of those sights. First diagnosis on the car is that a pin has slipped and it's not as bad as one may think. Try being in this snow and think that.
We reach the junction about noon and head south towards home. One risky stop to make before we head out. Stopping the car is easy, we just need a long runway to get going again. Everybody hits the woods; whether they need to or not, force it out, the woods being our only option.
It's about an hour from here to Bratelboro, VT. A familiar town to the other three which is good to know just in case. Springfield, MA is an hour south from there. That's all by normal travel speed in our current condition if we keep going, we'll be home by 3 o'clock, if we are lucky.
The plan now is to get home and hopefully find another way up there. A strange bit of optimism and determination drives that thought, but it's oddly comforting. Another call comes in with another diagnosis, this one doesn't seem as comforting as the last. Again, a fixable problem, but more complex then my confidence desires.
Snow is letting up and we get a call from another group that we were going to hook up with this weekend. They were just about passing us heading north at the time and we didn't quite have an answer to whether we would actually be there or not. One plan had us borrowing a car from Waynes' father but that proved useless as he was on his way to one of the regions' casinos and was not home to swap keys. Another plan was to invite a friend along who had the weekend off, she turned us down when the trip first came up and sounded a bit offended when we wanted her with us just because we needed her car. She had an argument, but our intent was not selfish, she was still more then welcome to join us for free. .. That's one of the reasons we were still trying to go, the hotel was booked and we had a lot of promised freebies coming our way.
The other plan was to get Marges' mothers' van.
I never met her, but I guess she is a bit of an eccentric. A bit over-protective at times and leery of strangers. We couldn't talk while she was on the phone with her, too many paranoid question would have to be answered.
"No Mom, no one is picking one you." came out a few times, why she would ask that I don't know. "No Mom I never said I hated John." Apparently she did at one time express a dislike for Nikkis' mother's boyfriend who happens to share a name with me, and that is where the confusion began and ended. Both Wayne and I offered to meet and talk to her but the "are you crazy?" look from Marge spoke volumes.
How eccentric is this woman?
She had to consult "Dad" and let her know. This would possibly be an an interference with an regimented routine of shopping on Saturday.
Sure, whatever.
Passing by Brattelboro things are going as smooth as they could, then a smell hit the car, transmission fluid. Didn't last for more then a minute and there was no smoke rising from anywhere but that was one long minute. More then likely it was this van that had passed us by with a rattling sound that got our hearts originally pumping.
Snow seemed pretty much done for us now and the cloud coverage was letting up. Looking to be a pretty decent day at least in this part of the state. Marge calls home again to see if the van is a go. It's a little after 1:30 and we just passed into Greenfield, MA, maybe another hour on the road for this leg.
Good news, we get the van.
Plan is to drop the car off at Waynes' sisters house, which is our closest option, get a 5 minute ride to Marges' parents and head back out. Problem is a lot of starts and stops in the city.
2 p.m.
Finally we are safe. Wayne's brother-in-law one of our first diagnostic contributors is out for the first look. We transfer our gear to the quick ride and stretch for a bit. We give as much info as we can and he explains his clutch theory to ignorant ears.
We say our thanks and are off again. Dropped off at Marges' to get the van and the road is almost under our feet again.
2:30-3 p.m. Quick stop at the gas station and Wendy's and we are off again. Some road trip. About 300 miles in an odd circle and I have eaten fast food twice. There has been four stops for coffee and just as many to relieve ourselves. I should be sipping my first beer right now at Flat-bread, the only waiting I want to do at this point is for the waitress up there to put a nice fresh stone cooked pizza in front of me but no, I am at a rotary waiting to get in.
Marge drives like a maniac. Nikki sitting shotgun packs a bowl of weed for the two of them. Wayne plops down on the bench style back seat because watching the road with Marge at the wheel is a little too much for him right now. I make myself room to sprawl out in the way back with the gear. I smell the weed and open up a back window to have a smoke. I'm not one for that shit on any kind of regular basis, just not my thing. Sometimes on trips like this it helps me sleep, but that isn't until 2 a.m. after a night out and I am locked safe in a hotel room.
Somewhere on the road, more then a few times. Wayne and I give it right back to the gals.
"Are we there yet?"
"Are we in Vermont yet?"
"Are we out of Massachusetts yet?"
"How much further is it?"
We are bombarded with a barrage of food bags, pens, pocketbook clutter and anything else that can be thrown at us in annoyance. It's a fun light-hearted trip considering what has gotten us to this point.
Folks we were supposed to meet up with call and the tale is re-told. We will be there about 7 p.m., keep a seat warm for us. They told us that the closer we get the worse the weather will be, they weren't kidding. Not a major storm just the wind was kicking up major waves and drifts along the highway. Marge still drove like a maniac.
I think I actually managed to doze off a few times which helped, but what I really needed was a shower. Didn't get one this morning, no time really. Figured I could take one after the road. Always nice to do that after long trips. Sure it was only supposed to be just shy of four hours it was now ten hours later when we checked in. I was third in line, that first beer is going to be much later then anticipated.
What more could happen?
Well try reservations. Got them, but not the ones we originally paid for. Seems that because we were late our reservations were switched. We went from a double with two queen beds to a single and a roll out. If I was wayne, whose card this room was booked under, I would be tossing molotovs by now. I think he was just too out of it to argue.
Up in the room shower #1 is doing her thing. This leaves us to figure out what we are going to do about the sever lack of breathing room we now have to endure. The room itself wouldn't be bad if it were a single .. oh wait, it is. It's about 12 feet wide, the queen bed in the middle of the room is 4 feet wide. Between the end tables and other useless crap there is two feet of walking space on either side of the bed. Okay, it's not bolted down so we are no rearranging the room to accommodate the roll away that is three feet wide. 12 feet - 4 feet - 3 feet = 5 feet walking space divide by 2 = claustrophobia. Submarines have more elbow room then we just had to force. Nikki and I take the roll-away, figure we can sleep close without awkwardness. Wayne and Marge although there is a mutual attraction, just never gave it a shot really, for whatever reason.
Shower #2 is just about ready, but Wayne is putting his coat on asking me if I'm ready for a beer. Yeah, but I'd rather have a shower first. Well he has sacrificed enough this day sofar, I might as wee kick the vanity to the curb for one night. I'm alright, I just have that road feel on me. So out the door we go.
I'll finish this next entry.
Well that was an interesting trip that almost didn't exist. We were in a car for eleven hours on a route that is normally 3.5 hours.
Step one out to Worcester from Springfield. 45 minute drive in the opposite direction of which we we intended to go, another 5 minutes to find our fellow traveler, Marge, it's my girlfriend Nikkis' best friend. She is not at the house we picked her up last time out, what the hell is going on? Apparently, she moved.
"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that" was all we were offered in response. So there is another few minutes to go get her from the new place. Car is packed, everyone is in. We are back on route. It's about 9:30 a.m. and we should be in Burlington about 1 o'clock.
We have to take route 89W out of MA across New Hampshire for about 2 hours to the White River Junction in VT where this route meets 91N. It's about an hour and a half from there.
An easy ride for the most part, but I have never been a big fan of long car rides and find it hard to doze off with two hyperactive gals in the back seat.
A stop for breakfast at about 11a.m. proved interesting, seems that Wayne accidentlly swiped a few things from the wrong bag on the counter of a MacDonalds. It happened to be a traffic cops bag. Ooops. There was some construction work going on right at the exit we just pulled off of and there was half this towns' police force directing traffic out front. 4 cops, all shivering and red faced. Sorry guys, but there is beer to be drunk up north.
A weather check the morning we left had us expecting snow and biting cold the whole time, they weren't kidding. On the road for just shy of two hours and about 20 miles away from the connecting junction near Lebanon NH the car lurches and begins to stall. An 18 wheeler rig just passes us by as we start to slow to a crawl. The snow is beginning to pick up. Wayne is frantically shifting gears, we have nothing. Finally 4th gear kicks in and we are scratching our heads. My head is out the window looking for a blowout on the passengers' side and Wayne is glued to the rear-view for oncoming traffic. Luckily, everyone has slowed somewhat due to the snow.
Okay, we don't know what the hell just happened, after a quick stop there is no undercarriage leaks and no smell of burning liquids of any kind, and no visible sign of damage.
We have one working gear. Top Speed is about 50 miles per hour, it feels like a crawl. Cars, trucks, everything is breezing by us even at their slowed for the snow pace. We have one option and no real choice. Chug along to the junction and head towards home. It would be 90 minutes north to our original destination or two hours at regular speed to home. We have to get home. Wayne looks at me with an unspoken question and I answer yes in the same tone.
"Yes I am ready to walk for help if need be."
Cut here to avoid taking up all of friend's pages with my tail.
I don't know about the girls. They sure wouldn't want to walk in this weather and I wouldn't want them to wait in this car. We have to get as close to home as possible, by whatever means this ride will take us. The further south we go, the closer the towns become, let's hope the car lasts.
We don't even know exactly where we are.
Calls are being made, we need a location and a diagnosis, and if we are lucky, a possible solution. Wayne and I can improvise any kind of building or repair project to a functional degree. Automotive however is neither one of our strong points. I can tell you how an internal combustion engine works but I wouldn't know a carburetor if it was giving me a haircut.
It's 11:30 and we finally get some calls returned. Bad news all around. No one is home to check map quest or any of those sights. First diagnosis on the car is that a pin has slipped and it's not as bad as one may think. Try being in this snow and think that.
We reach the junction about noon and head south towards home. One risky stop to make before we head out. Stopping the car is easy, we just need a long runway to get going again. Everybody hits the woods; whether they need to or not, force it out, the woods being our only option.
It's about an hour from here to Bratelboro, VT. A familiar town to the other three which is good to know just in case. Springfield, MA is an hour south from there. That's all by normal travel speed in our current condition if we keep going, we'll be home by 3 o'clock, if we are lucky.
The plan now is to get home and hopefully find another way up there. A strange bit of optimism and determination drives that thought, but it's oddly comforting. Another call comes in with another diagnosis, this one doesn't seem as comforting as the last. Again, a fixable problem, but more complex then my confidence desires.
Snow is letting up and we get a call from another group that we were going to hook up with this weekend. They were just about passing us heading north at the time and we didn't quite have an answer to whether we would actually be there or not. One plan had us borrowing a car from Waynes' father but that proved useless as he was on his way to one of the regions' casinos and was not home to swap keys. Another plan was to invite a friend along who had the weekend off, she turned us down when the trip first came up and sounded a bit offended when we wanted her with us just because we needed her car. She had an argument, but our intent was not selfish, she was still more then welcome to join us for free. .. That's one of the reasons we were still trying to go, the hotel was booked and we had a lot of promised freebies coming our way.
The other plan was to get Marges' mothers' van.
I never met her, but I guess she is a bit of an eccentric. A bit over-protective at times and leery of strangers. We couldn't talk while she was on the phone with her, too many paranoid question would have to be answered.
"No Mom, no one is picking one you." came out a few times, why she would ask that I don't know. "No Mom I never said I hated John." Apparently she did at one time express a dislike for Nikkis' mother's boyfriend who happens to share a name with me, and that is where the confusion began and ended. Both Wayne and I offered to meet and talk to her but the "are you crazy?" look from Marge spoke volumes.
How eccentric is this woman?
She had to consult "Dad" and let her know. This would possibly be an an interference with an regimented routine of shopping on Saturday.
Sure, whatever.
Passing by Brattelboro things are going as smooth as they could, then a smell hit the car, transmission fluid. Didn't last for more then a minute and there was no smoke rising from anywhere but that was one long minute. More then likely it was this van that had passed us by with a rattling sound that got our hearts originally pumping.
Snow seemed pretty much done for us now and the cloud coverage was letting up. Looking to be a pretty decent day at least in this part of the state. Marge calls home again to see if the van is a go. It's a little after 1:30 and we just passed into Greenfield, MA, maybe another hour on the road for this leg.
Good news, we get the van.
Plan is to drop the car off at Waynes' sisters house, which is our closest option, get a 5 minute ride to Marges' parents and head back out. Problem is a lot of starts and stops in the city.
2 p.m.
Finally we are safe. Wayne's brother-in-law one of our first diagnostic contributors is out for the first look. We transfer our gear to the quick ride and stretch for a bit. We give as much info as we can and he explains his clutch theory to ignorant ears.
We say our thanks and are off again. Dropped off at Marges' to get the van and the road is almost under our feet again.
2:30-3 p.m. Quick stop at the gas station and Wendy's and we are off again. Some road trip. About 300 miles in an odd circle and I have eaten fast food twice. There has been four stops for coffee and just as many to relieve ourselves. I should be sipping my first beer right now at Flat-bread, the only waiting I want to do at this point is for the waitress up there to put a nice fresh stone cooked pizza in front of me but no, I am at a rotary waiting to get in.
Marge drives like a maniac. Nikki sitting shotgun packs a bowl of weed for the two of them. Wayne plops down on the bench style back seat because watching the road with Marge at the wheel is a little too much for him right now. I make myself room to sprawl out in the way back with the gear. I smell the weed and open up a back window to have a smoke. I'm not one for that shit on any kind of regular basis, just not my thing. Sometimes on trips like this it helps me sleep, but that isn't until 2 a.m. after a night out and I am locked safe in a hotel room.
Somewhere on the road, more then a few times. Wayne and I give it right back to the gals.
"Are we there yet?"
"Are we in Vermont yet?"
"Are we out of Massachusetts yet?"
"How much further is it?"
We are bombarded with a barrage of food bags, pens, pocketbook clutter and anything else that can be thrown at us in annoyance. It's a fun light-hearted trip considering what has gotten us to this point.
Folks we were supposed to meet up with call and the tale is re-told. We will be there about 7 p.m., keep a seat warm for us. They told us that the closer we get the worse the weather will be, they weren't kidding. Not a major storm just the wind was kicking up major waves and drifts along the highway. Marge still drove like a maniac.
I think I actually managed to doze off a few times which helped, but what I really needed was a shower. Didn't get one this morning, no time really. Figured I could take one after the road. Always nice to do that after long trips. Sure it was only supposed to be just shy of four hours it was now ten hours later when we checked in. I was third in line, that first beer is going to be much later then anticipated.
What more could happen?
Well try reservations. Got them, but not the ones we originally paid for. Seems that because we were late our reservations were switched. We went from a double with two queen beds to a single and a roll out. If I was wayne, whose card this room was booked under, I would be tossing molotovs by now. I think he was just too out of it to argue.
Up in the room shower #1 is doing her thing. This leaves us to figure out what we are going to do about the sever lack of breathing room we now have to endure. The room itself wouldn't be bad if it were a single .. oh wait, it is. It's about 12 feet wide, the queen bed in the middle of the room is 4 feet wide. Between the end tables and other useless crap there is two feet of walking space on either side of the bed. Okay, it's not bolted down so we are no rearranging the room to accommodate the roll away that is three feet wide. 12 feet - 4 feet - 3 feet = 5 feet walking space divide by 2 = claustrophobia. Submarines have more elbow room then we just had to force. Nikki and I take the roll-away, figure we can sleep close without awkwardness. Wayne and Marge although there is a mutual attraction, just never gave it a shot really, for whatever reason.
Shower #2 is just about ready, but Wayne is putting his coat on asking me if I'm ready for a beer. Yeah, but I'd rather have a shower first. Well he has sacrificed enough this day sofar, I might as wee kick the vanity to the curb for one night. I'm alright, I just have that road feel on me. So out the door we go.
I'll finish this next entry.