July 17, 2008 Conquering My Fears

I was up at 8:30, and all packed & ready to leave by 9:15. We left at 10:40. Why? Because my dear mother is SLOW!!!! She takes forever to do anything (guess it’s the age thing…). Anyway, we didn’t even reach Jamestown until after 11, so we were a bit rushed. We spent about 2 hours there—I could have spent 5 with no problem, there was SO much to see, and I’d never been there!

Around 1 we left for Yorktown. Now, Daddy and I wanted to be on the road at 1, as in, the road HOME. But Mom wanted to stop at a store in Yorktown that was all patriotic stuff. I really did NOT want to go, but since I had Gordan with me, and he was the one showing Mom and Dad where the store was… Ah well, you gotta do what ya gotta do! After all, the woman DID give birth to me!! We found the store, and right next door was a restaurant that looked good. The food was great, the service was slow, and we didn’t get out of there until 3:00!!! (But the raspberry dressing on my salad was AWESOME!!) So here we are 3 pm, 8 hours or more from home. It’s gonna be a late night.

We decided not to go up via Washington DC, because we’d hit the Beltway at rush hour—NOT a good thing. So we were going back the way we came, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. There was a ton of traffic around Norfolk, and the signs were the pits—confusing, contradictory, a mess. We got lost finding our way to Route 13 North, but finally got there. By the time we hit the bay bridge, I was pretty high strung. Enough so that I decided to drive over it myself, rather than letting Gordan drive while I cowered in the passenger seat, refusing to look out the window. I figured, they have emergency pull of spaces every ½ mile or so, so I could always bail. Well, I DID IT!! I drove across the entire bridge. Mostly I focused on Daddy’s car in front of me. I tried very hard not to look at the water, everywhere, as far as the eye could see, no land in sight. Now, that’s a fine view if you are on a cruise ship, but, I’m sorry, on a bridge it is NOT what I want to see! In any case, I made it! It was a white-knuckle experience, but I DID it!

We followed Mom and Dad up through VA, MD, and into DE. Good thing I inherited Daddy’s lead foot! We were doing close to 80 most of the time! We stopped for dinner at 7:15 at the same Friendlys Mom and Dad stopped at on the way down. Now, I’ve not been to Friendlys for quite a long time. It seems their menu has changed a bit. As in, there is not ONE single healthy thing on the menu! No cool salads. No turkey dinners. Nothing. The best I could do was the Monterey Chicken from the Senior Citizen’s menu! I got it with no bacon, no sides (well, Daddy took my coleslaw). It came with garlic bread, which I was just hungry enough to eat. And since I got free ice cream with the meal…a cup of soft vanilla please! And I STILL stayed within my calories for the day!!

It was a long, long drive. After we split off from Mom and Dad to cross into NJ, I had to pull over and let Gordan drive the rest of the way to his house. It was 10 pm, and I knew I had 2 hours to go, and my eyes were drooping! So I slept for about 50 minutes, and then we dropped him off and I drove the rest of the way. We got home just after midnight (had to stop at 7-11 to get milk!). I couldn’t go right to bed, or I’d “drive all night”, so I finally hit the sack at 1 am. Another family vacation has come to an end! Now all that's left is the laundry!