Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

The worst part of any vacation, unless that is the point of the vacation, is the road trip. If the main point is to get from point A to point B then I want to do so quickly. Unfortunately that did not work out on the way down. We decided to go in one day rather than two. However, AAA routed us through every small town in WV so between the miles of 30 MPH roads and the many, many bathroom stops the girls needed we wound up being on the road for 15.5 hours. Very exhausting, especially when Erin still got up at her normal time the next day.

We did get to see some interesting things on the road. We went through 2 tunnels, one through a mountain in PA and the other under the water in VA. Coming in past midnight we missed some interesting scenery that we didn’t see until we left. It is very weird coming into an unfamiliar place in the dark of night. Also surprising was that most of the gas stations were closed. Even in small town Fredonia most places are 24/7. so it never even occurred to me that this might be a problem. Crazy.

Aside from the standard roadkill of deer and cats I also saw a turtle, a turkey, and an opossum. There was also one man with a car load of Fail. He apparently took an exit curve too fast and sideswiped the metal barrier. It looked like he totaled his car, as both drivers side wheels were bent at an odd angle not best suited for driving.

We took the return trip in two days, which was much nicer for all of us. We also stayed on major highways which helped. All told the return trip took less than 13 hours so avoiding the crazy AAA route really made a difference.

We did see these weird purple boxes in the trees in PA. A quick search revealed they were to trap the emerald ash borer. We were wondering what they were for, and I guess now we know. It is not very encouraging to see that they have spread to PA from Indiana.

Here’s some pictures from the road: