Vacation, Had to get away

Following the Rush show at Nissan last Saturday, I headed home, made a quick burger and showered before finishing packing. We made it on the road a little after 1, but forgot a couple things and turned around at Tyson’s Corner. We got on the road a second time a little before 2, and that was more successful. I drove all the way to New York (hopped up on caffeine) and Jill drove the rest of the way to her Mom’s house. Other than crappy roads due to construction in Delaware, the trip was pretty uneventful, and we were there at 9:30. We were both still tired, and napped for a couple hours. Jill’s sister Robin and their grandparents came by in the afternoon and we all headed down to Robin and Jill’s father’s place, where he and his wife were having a cookout. We had burgers and dogs and some of Jill’s grandmother’s tasty potato salad.

Monday Jill and I went shopping (needed some camp supplies), in the evening it was girls night out so we had guys night in with me, Dave and Jill’s nephews. We got a pizza from Pizza D’Action that was pretty good, and the boys and I played outside for a while (lightsabers and kung-fu). Tuesday we went to the Lake Wyola State Park with Jill’s mom, sisters and her nieces and nephews (very exhausting) and at night Jill and her sisters and I went to the Hue Ke Lau, a Polynesian/sushi restaurant. We all shared an enormous Pu Pu Platter, then Jill and I had sushi (the Volcano Roll was tasty) in addition to sharing a drink so large I could’ve fit my head inside the bowl.

Wednesday we went grocery shopping in the morning, then had pizza and cake for lunch to celebrate birthdays. We left around 2 for Falcon Ridge, with one small stop on the way. It had been raining most of the day in Massachusetts, but when we pulled in at 3:30 we were told in hadn’t yet rained in the New York mountains. By the time we parked the rain found us, and rained with only occasional pauses until noon the next day. It made setting up camp quite a chore, especially since anyone who arrived after us (and we were third to our camp) had to lug everything at least half a mile through mud and up the hill. But we got the three canopies and all the tents set up, and soon I was making fajitas.

Thursday didn’t start nice, but once the rain stopped things started drying out. We had some leftover Hue Ke Lau for dinner, and Red Molly and Crooked Still put on great sets. Friday was a bit busier with the first full day of music – Luke Brindley made it to the Emerging Artist Showcase almost at the last possible second. The Jewells did their annual steak and martini night, awesome as usual, then the Strangelings had a good performance, but late at night Anthony Da Costa, Abbie Gardner, Amy Speace, Eric Lee and Radoslav Lorkovic made an impromptu folk supergroup at the Budgie Dome and blew me away.

Saturday was packed full and I was going to different shows all day, topped off with nice shows from Dar Williams and Eddie From Ohio. There was some rain in the early evening, but not too bad. Jill and I were out of food and got some from the vendors (veggie Reuben for me, Pad Thai for her). We stayed up a while for our usual Mexican night, but headed to bed as a storm was approaching. The wetness Sunday morning made packing the car not so fun, but we avoided the hail that came later in the day.

Our trip was home was fairly uneventful through New Jersey. I got my usual White Castle sack of goodness, which Jill elected to skip in favor of a stop at Nathan’s. Rain started as we were going over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and as we were going down my left front wheel started making a strange sound. I pulled over as soon as we got off – didn’t see anything. Went through the toll plaza, it was still happening, so I pulled over. When I got under the car I saw the problem – the left front splash guard front fastener was gone and it was hanging down. Of course the heavens had opened by that point, so I was getting soaked, but I pulled the duct tape out of the camping kit and did the best I could.

Traffic had backed up because of the rain (and it just being Delaware – we’ve had a bad experience there coming back several times over the years), so I got off and we traveled down 40 to Baltimore (the rain stopped, but I had the feeling the backups didn’t). We stopped once and the repair was holding, but I added more duct tape (never hurts). We got back onto 95 and were doing good until we got close to the Beltway. The rain really came down, and traffic was crawling, so I got off. The rain had stopped again by the time we drove through Takoma Park (which Jill thought was charming so we’ll have to go back sometime). The rest of the drive home wasn’t bad and we were home by 6:30, with time to do some unpacking, relax and have some quick pasta for dinner before going to bed early.

Briefly

It’s been a busy week so far. The trip up was not too bad, but I feel worn out by our nieces and nephews.

The dry portion of the week ends today. Wish us luck as the rest of the week looks pretty wet.