always take the weather with you
Thank you Jimmy Buffett, we have taken the weather with us. Saturday night, it snowed in NJ. Sunday was nice, Monday was nice… Tuesday.. well it is supposed to snow.. but I get ahead of myself…
Monday, February 10th
We set the alarm for 6. Jim got up and took a shower, while I stripped the bed. Jim went down to start packing the car, while I took a shower. It was going to be a great driving day. We heated up 2 breakfast sammies that Jim so thoughtfully packed and KT and Paul had coffee made so we could fill up our cups. Thought we would leave around 8… nope, Chuck Testa, we left around 7:30
That was a good thing. Somehow Blue Boy (Jim’s van) decided that we didn’t want to go towards Harrisburg, we really wanted to go through Philly. Have you seen what is happening in Philly? Yeah, that was not going to happen. So we get off the road we are on. We find a place for gas, God Bless the NJ people, they pump the gas for you, and they don’t offer a receipt, and we are not where we need to be….. All that being said, I actually looked at several hard copy maps and got us back on track, heading in the right direction. However, we are taking the back roads and driving through all suburbs of NJ with speed humps and every style house. And after about an hour (thank goodness we left at 7:30), we find 78 going west and can now eat our breakfast sammies. NOTE TO SELF: no eating breakfast sammies until you are are the highway.
Now not only is everyone happy, we can listen to the radio. I must admit, I get a little frustrated with the noise of the radio and trying to figure out where we are and why the google maps are not going the way we need them to go. Saturday we listened to Talking Pictures Podcasts, little hour ones. Today we are listening to Ben Mankiewicz doing a series on John Ford in The Plot Thickens. It is really quite interesting…
We decided we would stop for a bite to eat, breakfast sammies being oh so long ago and for those of you who don’t know, I am back to being a guest teacher. When they asked if I could work through the end of the year, I thought they meant December, silly me. When the principal patiently explained it would be June, I told her sure, but I would be gone for 6 weeks in February and March. They did not find anyone full term, so I will be going back after we get back from vacation. All that being said, I eat lunch at 11:15 M-F, so it is time to eat. We found a diner right before all the exits for Gettysburg and stopped.
Being the old fogies that we are, we split a sandwich and fries. Those pickles were good. Not your typical dill pickles, no sirree bob! They were sweet pickles. The sandwich was an all the meats grilled cheese! Hunterstown Diner. Stop in if you are close.
So back on the road to Rick and Sharon Clark’s house and darn if I don’t miss the Welcome to Maryland sign. 🤦🏻♀️ So I took a picture of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Statue on the hill, just so you would know we actually crossed the border.
Moving along, fairly quickly I might add, we cross the Potomac, again.. no picture of the state sign. I must be losing it. I need to pay more attention to where we are than to my phone.
So we finally make it to Rick and Sharon’s. Love that they still have their Christmas trees up, I mean it is supposed to snow tomorrow. We start planning to leave early, but before we do, Sharon, Jim, and I take a big walk around their neighborhood. After we get back, Rick and Jim go up to Signal Hill to peruse the battle site and Mayfield Fort, used during the Battles of Bull Run. Then we had an awesome dinner of lamb meatballs, pita, greek salad, rice and tzatziki. Oh and Sharon had dipping oil for the pita! Did I remember to mention Sharon’s dad is down for the winter. No, no I did not remember, but he was.
We sat up visiting around the table, before heading off to bed. Tuesday is going to be a long day. Sharon’s grands are already planning their snow day and Heather is being released early from school down in DC.
#HowFortunateWeAre. #RetiredAndLovingIt. #EverywhereWeGoAlwaysTakeTheWeather