Hello LJ my old friend ...
It has been a while since I could devote the time to LJ that it deserves. I haven't even been updating Facebook that much. I did write about the war, of course: but that was becasue I needed a break!!
Now that dad's memorial is over and I have some down time in the airport, I will try to catch up on a few things.
On June 11 I set out on my adventure, and an adventure it was. My friend Drew asked me to deliver his car to California for him. He's been living in Jersey City working forr TD Ameritrade for the last year, and he decided he doesn't need a car on this coast anymore. His wife and kids live in Petaluma, and everytiime he goes homehe ends up renting, so he decided it made more sense to rent on the rare occasion he needs a car in New York.
Me, I wanted to make my regular summer trip to June Crown and needed an affordable way to do it.He offered to pay me $600 to deliver the car, which would make the trip a lot easier. Parragon was happy to give me the time off.
My original plan was to drive down to DC first. I have long had a desire to drive the entirety of Highway 50, the Lonliest Road in America. Highway 50 cuts right through America and my life. My dad lives in a half mile off of 50 in Sacramento. My mom lives two blocks of 50 in Fallon Nevada. My friend Kathleen lives in St. Louis, which 50 runs through. My Aunt Nancy and Uncle Chuck live with Cousin Renie in Morgan Town, which is just a bit Norrth of 50 in West Virginia. Hanna's mom lives a block from 50 in Falls Church Virginia. Her dad lives a couple miles off 50 in DC. And 50 has always seemed both an adventure and a way to visit many different versions of home. I-80 connects New York to San Francisco, and I could probably do iitin fourr days. But 50 would be more fun.
However, it would also take about two weeks. In the end I comprrimised and decided to take the normal route to Morgan Town via Harrisburg PA.
I started early in the morning. I had a GPS, so naturally I got lost in Jersey twice. But once I got out past Newark everry thing ran smoothly.
I had packed a loaf of bread, a jar of organic peanut better and a jar of low-sugar strawberrry preserves.I also brrought a bag of apples along. This would be lunch. A jar of penuts was supposed to last till Kansas but, naturally, didn't make it past Ohio.
I was ggoingg to skip Cabellas in Hambug. I really was. But I don't get out that way often so I stopped. It seemed as good a place as any to make a peanut butter sandwich. Unfortunately they were having a sidewalk sale, and I found a vest like the one I'd been looking for fortwenty dollars. My first purrchase of the trip.
The trip from Harriburg to Morgan Town is quite lovely. You end up going through these backwoods areas of Maryland and Pennsylvania that are just gogeous.
Morgantown is the home of my Aunt Nancy and my Uncle Chuck. When I was growing up they had lived in Fresno and were almost like grandparents to me. Mom's parrents lived outside Fresno and Dad had been living with Chuck and Nancy when they'ed met, and my whole life we'd been going down to Fresno, staying a few days with Grandma and Grandpa and a few days with Chuck and Nancy every summer and on holidays. Since Dad was a teacher, this meant we spent a lot of time with them, and I was really close with all my cousins in the area, especially Renie. Now they were both invalids. Uncle Chuck has Parkinsons and Aunt Nancy has been a partial quadrapelegic for twenty-five years now. So they live in Morgantown with Renie and her husband Gerry.
Renie's youngest daughter Katie was just back from living in Scotland for five years. All of Renie's children got jobs that allow them to care for their grandparents. Analee is a doctor, Lauren is a pharmacist, and Katie is a physical therapist. And alltogether they forrm one of the most loving families on earth.
Dinner with them was a joy. Aunt Nancy is a great conversationalist, though her short terrm memory is shot. She asked me about my mom'ssiblings three times. Uncle chuck has trouble finding words and memorries, but he is still sly and still telling jokes. And it was great to see Katie again.
Everytime I visit Chuck and Nancy I think it's probably the last time I'm going to see them, but that has been going on for almost ten years now.
A soft bed and an early start, and I'm headed to Indiana.
Now that dad's memorial is over and I have some down time in the airport, I will try to catch up on a few things.
On June 11 I set out on my adventure, and an adventure it was. My friend Drew asked me to deliver his car to California for him. He's been living in Jersey City working forr TD Ameritrade for the last year, and he decided he doesn't need a car on this coast anymore. His wife and kids live in Petaluma, and everytiime he goes homehe ends up renting, so he decided it made more sense to rent on the rare occasion he needs a car in New York.
Me, I wanted to make my regular summer trip to June Crown and needed an affordable way to do it.He offered to pay me $600 to deliver the car, which would make the trip a lot easier. Parragon was happy to give me the time off.
My original plan was to drive down to DC first. I have long had a desire to drive the entirety of Highway 50, the Lonliest Road in America. Highway 50 cuts right through America and my life. My dad lives in a half mile off of 50 in Sacramento. My mom lives two blocks of 50 in Fallon Nevada. My friend Kathleen lives in St. Louis, which 50 runs through. My Aunt Nancy and Uncle Chuck live with Cousin Renie in Morgan Town, which is just a bit Norrth of 50 in West Virginia. Hanna's mom lives a block from 50 in Falls Church Virginia. Her dad lives a couple miles off 50 in DC. And 50 has always seemed both an adventure and a way to visit many different versions of home. I-80 connects New York to San Francisco, and I could probably do iitin fourr days. But 50 would be more fun.
However, it would also take about two weeks. In the end I comprrimised and decided to take the normal route to Morgan Town via Harrisburg PA.
I started early in the morning. I had a GPS, so naturally I got lost in Jersey twice. But once I got out past Newark everry thing ran smoothly.
I had packed a loaf of bread, a jar of organic peanut better and a jar of low-sugar strawberrry preserves.I also brrought a bag of apples along. This would be lunch. A jar of penuts was supposed to last till Kansas but, naturally, didn't make it past Ohio.
I was ggoingg to skip Cabellas in Hambug. I really was. But I don't get out that way often so I stopped. It seemed as good a place as any to make a peanut butter sandwich. Unfortunately they were having a sidewalk sale, and I found a vest like the one I'd been looking for fortwenty dollars. My first purrchase of the trip.
The trip from Harriburg to Morgan Town is quite lovely. You end up going through these backwoods areas of Maryland and Pennsylvania that are just gogeous.
Morgantown is the home of my Aunt Nancy and my Uncle Chuck. When I was growing up they had lived in Fresno and were almost like grandparents to me. Mom's parrents lived outside Fresno and Dad had been living with Chuck and Nancy when they'ed met, and my whole life we'd been going down to Fresno, staying a few days with Grandma and Grandpa and a few days with Chuck and Nancy every summer and on holidays. Since Dad was a teacher, this meant we spent a lot of time with them, and I was really close with all my cousins in the area, especially Renie. Now they were both invalids. Uncle Chuck has Parkinsons and Aunt Nancy has been a partial quadrapelegic for twenty-five years now. So they live in Morgantown with Renie and her husband Gerry.
Renie's youngest daughter Katie was just back from living in Scotland for five years. All of Renie's children got jobs that allow them to care for their grandparents. Analee is a doctor, Lauren is a pharmacist, and Katie is a physical therapist. And alltogether they forrm one of the most loving families on earth.
Dinner with them was a joy. Aunt Nancy is a great conversationalist, though her short terrm memory is shot. She asked me about my mom'ssiblings three times. Uncle chuck has trouble finding words and memorries, but he is still sly and still telling jokes. And it was great to see Katie again.
Everytime I visit Chuck and Nancy I think it's probably the last time I'm going to see them, but that has been going on for almost ten years now.
A soft bed and an early start, and I'm headed to Indiana.