Commemorating the Inconsequential Things in our Lives

While Hurricane Sandy rages on the Eastern seaboard, disrupting lives all over the U.S. ... we celebrate PeeTee's speedometer reading at 111111 ...

Hope everybody else is okay!

:-)

Which Way to the Storm?

We are going the right way ... steady, SLOW stream of traffic in the east-bound lane of I-80 ... mostly utility trucks (electrical and tree service type) and semi-trucks. I can understand the utility trucks and the semi's, but why would anybody else want to head east?

:-)

Preparedness

Other than cloudy skies, we haven't seen much evidence of Hurricane Sandy yet, but there have been lines at the gas stations, stores selling out of batteries and bottled water, and other indications of people getting ready to hunker down. We are taking our own precautions by pulling out of Stamford two days earlier than we had originally planned ... not an easy decision, but the prospect of driving through bad weather the whole way back to Minnesota is not a particularly pleasant thought ... Wish we could take "the kids" with us! I don't like being cheated out of time with them by the weather.

When we got back to our hotel last night, after a raucous game of Cribbage, we found the parking lot full of service trucks for the electric company.

This morning, the guys were all standing around in the parking lot in their hard hats and orange jackets, until some magic signal was given and they all jumped in their trucks and drove off to save the world.

:-)

Can You Count?

Fifteen for two ... what?

Wine, Wine, my Country for Wine

On the Merritt Highway north of Stamford. Top down! 67 degrees. Headed for Jones Family Winery to drop of J&Z's wine trail passports.

Gray day. Sandy is a'comin'

:-)

We're the Kids Now!

Stamford, CT!

I'll spare you a picture of our hotel ... although, being as close as it is to I-95, it is remarkably quiet in our room and very comfortable (LaQuita Inn - Stamford).

We asked Jeremy & Ziva to show us their life. The regular ole mundane stuff that they do every day.

So we got in the car and headed off for ...

Jeremy's school ...

Cove Island Park on Long Island Sound ...

The fairy houses that inhabit the park (in my imagination) ...

 

J & Z's Target store ...

Z's workplace (Thomson-Reuters - download their really, really cool app for the iPad called "Wider Image") ...

 Starbucks (you knew that had to be in here somewhere, right?) ...

Yummy, yummy Mexican restaurant (Mary Ann's ... yup, really, that's what it is called) ... 

The daily Stop & Shop ...

Home sweet home ...

And ... the neighborhood cat who has adopted them (They have named her Bi-Polly)

Stroudsburg, PA

So ... on the road again after a night with Stu's brother & sister-in-law in Mount Airy, MD. Passing by Stroudsburg, PA. I should be stopping to view ancestral gravestones (maternal grandfather's branch of the family tree), but we're zipping right by.

It's a little rainy and only 61 degrees. The top is UP. We are just a few hours away from Stamford, so the motivation is to push, push and get there as soon as possible. EVERYONE is speeding, despite many signs indicating severe penalties ... we must be approaching Newark.

:-)

Not Much in the Way of Cruisin' Today

Did my good citizen thing last night by watching the debate ... no comment ... although I did thoroughly enjoy the "... we don't have as many horses and bayonets as we used to either ..." response the Romney's statement about fewer military ships ... HA!

Stu was upstairs working on his class. Dawn was throwing pots at the ceramics studio. Per was watching with me for awhile and then off to pick up Dawn. We were finally all together for the last hour. Lots of commentary.

Not much movement today. The farthest I traveled was to the yarn shop and back again. Yup ... did buy more yarn. I've finished two baskets, felted them in Dawn's washing machine, and need to start some more! (At the start of this adventure, Stu told me not to bring my entire yarn stash along on the trip since we'd never be too far away from a yarn shop, so I took that as giving me license ...)

The basket on the left has been claimed already!

Tonight was Sit Around and Eat Night ...

Mini tuna pot pies, made in Dawn's pie maker. Thanks, Mitch, for giving your mom the pie maker!

Cupcakes from the Georgetown Cupcakes (D.C. Cupcakes television show) ...

AND ...

Deciding how Per should fill out his absentee ballot!

:-)

Flubbed Again, but Ponies this Time ...

Okay. So, given the work that somebody pays me to do, when I'm actually working, I should probably be more technologically astute than my actions might indicate, while I'm on vacation!

The ponies are there. Really, they are!

Squint ... and look carefully, just beyond the second pool. There! Can't you see their shadowy forms showing up ... slightly darker than the field they're grazing in ... in front of the setting (ah ... setted?) sun?

We headed out from our condo with the intentions of entering Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge before sunset, so that we would accomplish two objectives: 1) Drive around the Wildlife Loop (only open to cars between 3 pm and dusk); 2) See how much lower the water was at low tide, compared to where the water level had been earlier in the day; and 3) View the sunset.

Oh ... you were counting and noticed that I've written out three points?

Well, the first two were clear(er) when we made plans for the trip. The third only revealed itself when we discovered that the StarWalk app on my iPad was still set to use Thunder Bay, Ontario, as its reference point for sunrise and sunset ... hmmm. So, we missed the third by about 1/2 hour, which mean that we also missed the first. The Wildlife Loop was closed by the time we found access to the road and it would have been too dark to see anything anyway. Boo!

But. A racoon did run across the road in front of our headlight. We saw many ponies off in the distance. Wildlife, above and beyond the human variety, was out there ... somewhere.

You can see better pictures than I could ever take on the U.S. Forest & Wildlife Management Website anyway.

:-)

Pondering What to Do Next ...

Yes, There are No Ponies for You

Beautiful day to put the top down and head for Assateague Island and drive through the Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge. We haven't seen many ponies yet, and the ones we did see were too far away to get a good picture, but we'll go back later today when we can drive the Wildlife Loop.

Lots of "wildlife" on the beach, though ...

:-)

Rockin' Out with Wine & Lattés

So ... here we are on Chincoteague Island. I have no pictures of the ponies yet, but we'll be looking for them tomorrow, so I hope to have some from our trek through the Wildlife Refuge.

Tonight it is time to take care of the important matters of settling into our little condo ...

(Yes, Stu brought along the little latté machine!)

Enjoy! (I'm playing my "Wine Song" playlist)

Cambridge, MD

67 degrees and the top is down. My hair is all over the place ... in my mouth, my face, my ears .... whip, whip, whip

On the Way to See Misty!

We're on the road again ... don't stay anywhere very long! Now headed for Chincoteague Island to have a rendezvous with Misty!

Per & Stu are involved in scintillating conversations in the front seats, which Dawn and I chill out in the back! :-)

Washington, D.C. ... well, close enough ...

The rest of the drive to DC was fairly unevently. Traffic got steadily heavier as we got closer to the city and, on the iPad's advice, we jumped off the interstate and "enjoyed" the environs of Fairvax, VA for a little while, before taking the I-495 loop south to Alexandria. The last mile was a different story ... I think it took us almost 15 minutes to navigate around trucks stopped in the middle of the road, tourists, and general craziness. Maybe I was just anxious to be at our destination. Maybe I was just tired of being in the car ... hmmm

Anyway.

We made it to P&D's about 2:30 pm. What a SWEET little house they have! Tall and skinny. Three stories high and within walking distance of everything ...

Well ... almost everything. This is as close to the Capitol as I'm going to get on this trip:

We saw this fellow performing on the water glass harmonium outside of the Torpedo Factory. He had quite a varied repertoire from Mozart to Star Wars ...

Romney, WV

I have to admit that it never occurred to me, when we were planning this trip, that we were going to be in Washington, DC just a few weeks before the election ... but here we are in Romney, WV and I actually saw two Obama/Biden signs! (But didn't get a picture of them ... boo)

Morning on the Mountaintop

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Sunset & Storms a'Comin'

Doubt you can see the pretty sunset in my sideview mirror, but it's there! The sun is setting ...

... the clouds are gathering ...

... the West Virginia/Pennsylvanian hillsides are gorgeous. Hope we get to drive through some of this tomorrow in the sunshine!

On to Morgantown, WV and the Comfort Inn ...

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Top is Down!

Sunny! About 60 degrees. We're on Hwy 40, just entering Ohio ... the TOP IS DOWN!

That's my man! :-0

P.S. We lasted about 20 miles before the windchill factor and our need for speed translated into "top up."

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Sunny Morning ... More Chance of Rain

Despite thoughts of the Car-X man staring in my window all night, it was a pretty uneventful night. However, I was awake and ready to leap out of bed at 4:30 am.

I didn't. And, only the events of the day will tell if that was a good decision or not ...

Sunny, for now. We will probably catch up with last night's storm somewhere along the way. There are still leaves on the trees in Illinois ... very pretty fall day. About 50 degrees right now (8:45 am). We'll lose an hour to Eastern time when we cross the border at Danville.

Finally ... but who's that guy staring in my window?

Darkness seemed to fall awfully early, and the rain was so hard on the convertible roof that there were times when conversation stopped because of the noise. II even had to stop looking at the road, because I couldn't believe that Stu could see where he was going.

But ... we made it to the Sleep Inn in Champaign-Urbana about 8:00 pm, were greeted by a very friendly guy at the front desk, and are now comfortably settled into a nice room on the third floor ... too tired to think about dinner ... but not too tired to connect up to the Internet ONE LAST TIME before nightie night.

I'm hoping I'll sleep well. Last night was not very restful, what with the mind remembering all the things I'd forgotten to do before leaving. Hurrah! The fan has a "Continuous" setting, which should help ... but who's this guy that I caught staring in our window? He greeted me as soon as I opened the door to our room!

Good night!

More than enough rain!

It's been raining pretty steadily all day, but now, between Iowa City and Davenport, we've driven into a bucket-dump rain that makes it impossible to see after a semi passes. We've been hopscotching with a semi hauling 6 HUGE pontoon boats. We might need them if this rain keeps up! I suppose it's possible that we'll have this wet weather with us most of the way east.

You wanted to be looking at loads of pictures showing wet windshields, didn't you? See all that dark stuff up ahead? Looks like there will be plenty of opportunity for more rain shots as we move through the rest of today.

Must be time to do some crocheting ...

On The Road Again ...

This is our first major road trip in the PT Cruiser ... yup ... the man wants to cruise.  And, not just any old cruise, but a turbo, touring, convertible cruise ...

We're on the road and bound (eventually) for the East Coast, but for now it's I-35 straight south into Iowa to deliver some saxophones to Randy Jones, then we'll really be on vacation!

Rain on the windshield, but adventure was our hearts ...
So, it was Popeye's for lunch!