I expected, realistically, we'd finally get going by 2pm. My husband, Bob, imagined we'd be off by 10am. My son Hugh rolled his eyes and predicted it'd be 4 in the afternoon before we left.
Guess who won.
But there are so many things to do before you take off for a trip, even more if it's going to be a long one. There's the rental car to pick up, the prescriptions you'll need while you're gone to get from the pharmacy, the last trip to the grocery to lay in cleaning supplies for the house cleaner, the last last trip to the grocery to stock up on road snacks. (At least I could send my sons to do that one -- they are excellent road snack buyers.) Then there's the instructions to leave for the catsitter, the money to leave for the house cleaner, the final bag of kitchen garbage to set out, the last load of dishes to run in the dishwasher (and wait to make sure it completes the cycle without blowing up). The beds to be made, because I hate coming home to a messed-up bedroom. The children to be nagged into making their own beds, because they do not mind coming home to a messed-up bedroom. The pile of bills to be mailed. The keys to be left with the doorman. The windows to be shut, the lights to be turned off. It's a wonder we got off by 4pm, really.
Here's the kids and the car:
In their infinite wisdom, National Car Rental decided to give us not a Dodge Caravan, but a Toyota Sienna. Now, having just researched minivans (the lease on our Volvo runs out in a week), I happen to know that the Sienna has much worse safety ratings than comparable minivans. I am so glad that I know this now, as we are hurtling across I-80. I will say, however, that it's a pleasure, after that cramped back seat of the Volvo, to luxuriate in the space of this minivan. Sitting in the third row (what luxury to have a third row!), Tom noticed that the console between the seats of the middle row looks like a sad smiley-face:
Later Grace took a picture of the sad smiley-face with Hershey Kisses in the cupholders to look like eyeballs. Every time we hit a curve, the sad smiley-face rolls its eyes. Hilarious, hunh? (I guess you had to be there.)
I reckon one of the reasons we weren't in such a burning hurry to leave is that our first stop is Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where Bob grew up and where his sisters still live; we couldn't really pass by without stopping overnight to see them. No check-in deadline, no stress about whether we'll get there in time to get connecting rooms, no worries about where we'll find to eat. We make this trip so often, it doesn't really feel like a vacation yet.
But it's always fun to hang with Bob's sisters. After dinner (a very tasty Italian restaurant way off the highway that we'd never have found if we didn't know people in town), we played Scrabble and watched Notorious on TV and then taught Hugh how to play Hearts. Card games seem such an archaic skill; in the
To bed at 2am. We definitely have to get on a proper schedule once the trip really starts.
