Reuniting with the little plump-kin
Well, it didn't start out great...
...and it just got worse. It took me two hours to get the first 60 miles to Columbus, partly due to weather, partly due to traffic, partly due to people stopping to look at the pretty police car in the median with its lights flashing. For no reason.
I wasn't able to leave Dayton until 2pm, and it was already getting dark at 4:30, which made things infinitely worse. There was a five-mile back-up in both directions on I-70 in eastern Ohio, even though the overturned truck was again in the median. But the snow wasn't piling up; it was just annoying. And add everyone and their brother-in-law on the road, and a six-hour drive turned into nine and a half. After passing six car wrecks and one that was just through being on fire, I debated pulling off and getting a motel room, but I wanted to see my wife and son, dad, and sister-in-law's family, all waiting for me at my parents-in-laws' place in Berkeley Springs. I was going to make it if it killed me.
Okay, the logic was flawed.
I do not have a car for winter travel. But I have North Dakota experience, relatively new tires, and what southerners call "chutzpa". It amazed me how reckless some drivers were, and how ridiculously overcautious others were. I wanted to be somewhere in the middle, so I was swerving and breaking and windshield wiper-fluiding all over the place. I finally got off the main highways around 11 pm, and reached my in-laws' through a steadiers snowfall, which had the effect of a continuously undulating jellyfish the size of an armchair hovering over my car.
My knee sore from more than a third of a day of accelerator and break maintenance, I hobbled up the stairs to my wife's room, where she was feeding my son. My boy.
It was wonderful to see so much family at once; quite the contrast from solitary confinement in Dayton. Although the mass of people did cut into the on-hand pumpkin pie supply.
After two days at the barn, Saturday we drove home to see the animals and take care of some things there. But it was too short. I turned around Sunday for the ride back, this time through rain instead of snow. I'm told that the dogs are sulking.
...and it just got worse. It took me two hours to get the first 60 miles to Columbus, partly due to weather, partly due to traffic, partly due to people stopping to look at the pretty police car in the median with its lights flashing. For no reason.
I wasn't able to leave Dayton until 2pm, and it was already getting dark at 4:30, which made things infinitely worse. There was a five-mile back-up in both directions on I-70 in eastern Ohio, even though the overturned truck was again in the median. But the snow wasn't piling up; it was just annoying. And add everyone and their brother-in-law on the road, and a six-hour drive turned into nine and a half. After passing six car wrecks and one that was just through being on fire, I debated pulling off and getting a motel room, but I wanted to see my wife and son, dad, and sister-in-law's family, all waiting for me at my parents-in-laws' place in Berkeley Springs. I was going to make it if it killed me.
Okay, the logic was flawed.
I do not have a car for winter travel. But I have North Dakota experience, relatively new tires, and what southerners call "chutzpa". It amazed me how reckless some drivers were, and how ridiculously overcautious others were. I wanted to be somewhere in the middle, so I was swerving and breaking and windshield wiper-fluiding all over the place. I finally got off the main highways around 11 pm, and reached my in-laws' through a steadiers snowfall, which had the effect of a continuously undulating jellyfish the size of an armchair hovering over my car.
My knee sore from more than a third of a day of accelerator and break maintenance, I hobbled up the stairs to my wife's room, where she was feeding my son. My boy.
It was wonderful to see so much family at once; quite the contrast from solitary confinement in Dayton. Although the mass of people did cut into the on-hand pumpkin pie supply.
After two days at the barn, Saturday we drove home to see the animals and take care of some things there. But it was too short. I turned around Sunday for the ride back, this time through rain instead of snow. I'm told that the dogs are sulking.
posted by Dan at 6:43 PM
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