I have friends that are up in Huntingdon County, north of Lewistown - it is about a 2 hour drive (depending on the vehical and who is driving) and it is a very pretty drive.   The halfway point is Duncannon (where the Susquehana River and Juniata River come together) and there is always a stop either going up or returning - for gas, cold drinks, snacks or (most important) bathroom breaks.

Yes, we are going to see family up there, but it is still a road trip by my reconning and it is usually a peaceful jaunt as well. I wish I had a chance to head further afield, but with these atrocious gas prices - I'll be lucky to get to go anywhere outside a 20 mile range from home.  I have the feeling that that means I won't be seeing the new Trader Joe's in Camp Hill anytime soon - which sucks because I want all those lovely goodies they have for sale.  Hopefully soon! Fingers crossed!

No road trips here, I'm afraid. My freelancing isn't bringing in enough for fancy things like vacations and road trips and while Gav has a gig at the biggest box store (with the most interesting schedule ever), the bills get the bulk of his earning. And while he doesn't work that far from home, due to the highway and the river, (and odd over and under combination) there really is no straight line between here and there so it is too far to walk and he doesn't drive, so I get to provide the Uber-ish services.  We are blessed enough to have a garage (which is so awesome in bad weather) but its at the back of the house and at 3:30am, my knees are not dealing with steps and traipsing thru the back yard (except on street sweeping days when the car needs to be off the main drag to avoid that $40 ticket), but usually the chariot awaits out front and once we pile in - it is a simple 3 right turns and a left to get him into the parking lot so he can start his day (and I can go back home to bed). 

That folks is the extent of my road tripping these days - one round trip in the morning and one around 1pm.  As far as schedules go - it isn't bad - although the store is open 24 hours, there isn't a lot of customers until closer to 10am and by then he's already had his 'lunch' break and the day is darn near over!  But it's not like we haven't worked opposite schedules before - for many years, he worked night shift and I worked day shift - we were perpetual ships passing in the night! We shared 1 car between us which was ok - unless someone busted the schedule and got home late making the other person late and all hell broke loose, but... shrug. Life, you know? I miss the regularity of the paychecks of those days. 

But we still get little adventures here and there - a trip to the green house over on 419 for potted plants & water plants for the pond; a trip to Hornings over on 501; I drove some ladies over to the Schuykill County fairgrounds a few weeks ago for the Wine Festival and made enough to treat us to chinese food! Sure they aren't grandiose adventures to Salem or Mt. Union or Ocean City, MD - but I still get out in the sunshine with some loud music on the stereo, wind in my face and driving at my speed and for a few minutes - the knees don't hurt, my pockets aren't empty, and all is right with the world.  It IS a road trip!

I live in Schuylkill County, PA - which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere (although I'm not far from Pottsville where they make Yuengling beer). I like it - I'm close to my parents (but not too close), I'm in the country but I don't have bears in my back yard, I'm in the mountains but I don't have to deal with high altitude baking (our mountains aren't that high....). It's a cute little town, it's quite, we have the coolest apartment ever and I feel peaceful here.

There's just one problem - we've got nothing and not anywhere near us - we have 2 grocery stores but that's about it. Nearest Target? Chik-A-Fil? good Mexican? Texas Roadhouse? 30 miles away. We don't have the correct rolls here for making cheesesteaks - closest place for those? 45 miles. No Primo's hoagies either - nearest - 35 miles.  Basically, what we have discovered is that anywhere we go (other then the grocery store, post office or the farm) IS a road trip. 

So while I feel bad about not posting about my road trips - because technically, I haven't gone anywhere since last May (my last trip to Massasschusetts) looking back on it - no one is missing anything because going out to eat is a road trip - and what's the fun in posting about that?

I am new to my county/area and while I have some familiarity with the web of highways that spread across my state, most of my knowledge comes from reading maps (thank you mom & dad!).  

My latest excursion took me north on Route 81 to meet up with Route 84. On my way out, it was dark so there wasn't much to see except for the pretty lights that marked places like Tamaqua, Hazelton, Wilkes Barre, Scranton, Port Jervis, etc.

Luckily, my trip back was in the daylight and there was so much more to see! Like the snow still on the side of the mountains with ski slopes; the bare trees just begging for more sun so they could burst into green; and the gorgeous views of the famed 'rolling hills of Pennsylvania'.

I am really looking forward to driving that way again after spring is well underway when there will be even more beauty to enjoy!

As I am sure everyone in the US knows, Pope Francis is coming to Philadelphia. I am not excited.  The last time a pope visited Philadelphia was in 1979 - it was John Paul II and I was in high School.  Mom & Dad took a bunch of the kids & our friends down for the mass.  My mom got pulled into a screaming match with weird rest room attendant at the Reading Terminal train station (it is no longer a train station) and everything was so crowded that we couldn't hear anything or see anything.  We kids (of which I was the eldest at the time) ended up playing cards all through mass - a fact that I am not embarrassed to admit because - IT WAS BORING.  

That said - I am sure any mass lead by Pope Francis will be more interesting but since darn near everyone is streaming into the city to visit the Pope, we are going west. I have no desire to be trapped in my home or neighborhood by the traffic jams created by security teams that never studied the traffic patterns of the Philadelphia area.  It is my honest assessment that the main  arteries in eastern Montgomery, Delaware and southern Bucks counties are going to become parking lots.  Gah!

Welcome to our crazy city Pope Francis!  I hope you have an enjoyable time and that someone gets you a good soft pretzel and a cheese steak while you are here! 

New England really is beautiful in the Fall.  It was odd, though that the trees had turned more in Pennsylvania and New Jersey then they had in New York, Connecticut or Massachusetts.  Of course by the return journey, Mother Nature was wearing her most beautiful of gowns on a crisp clear day.

Despite the words in my previous post, no, I'm sorry to say I don't have any photos to prove it.  But I do have some beautiful photos of the unexpected....

As is our tradition when in Beverly for business, after work we go back to the hotel to decompress for awhile - my co-worker takes a nap and I catch up on as many episodes of Forensic Files as I can.  This one evening, out of the blue (and a sound sleep) my roommate woke up, looked out the window and said 'LOOK AT THAT!"  Sure enough, it was a really incredible rainbow.  She is a professional photographer so of course she grabs her camera and takes some excellent shots. I also brought a camera this trip and got a few myself! It was pretty impressive and if you look very closely, you can see the purple stripe all the way to the left! 

And now the Mischief!

This is Mischief - a darling, beloved cat who often considered himself a scarf, wrapping himself up around the neck & chest of anyone sitting comfortably & peacefully.  In his younger years, we called him 'fat boy' because he did have some heft to him  but mostly - he was just a gentle, loving creature who had a knack for knowing when a person needed a little extra love.

Mischief was 16 and had a wonderful human family who adored him.  But 16 is a long life for a cat and to our great sadness, Mischief passed away earlier this week. 

We love you little man and will miss you very much.

When I was a kid, all of our vacations required traveling by car, er van (that's what it takes when you have a big family). Preparing for a trip didn't just mean getting packed and putting the house in order ('I don't want to come home to a messy house and sink full of dishes') - it also meant getting the vehicle prepared as well.

So early this week, I had the oil changed and a minor repair made to my 2-piece front bumper.  Every day this week that I drove the car (which was a lot for me since I work from home) I made sure to clean something out of the car.  Today I treated myself to the 'elite' services at the local car wash (vacuuming, waxing, etc.) and that means my girl is ready to help me hit the road on another adventure!

I'd like to say it is for fun, but like most of my trips - it is for work and hey, I do prefer to drive over flying, so I'm kinda looking forward to this jaunt despite the fact that Nick won't be along this time - he has been on every one of the work trips over the last year and it won't be the same without him!  However, I'll have a co-worker & friend with me who, besides being a multi-time road trip companion, also just happens to be a professional photographer, so I may actually get some awesome photos to post here for a change!  (keeping the fingers crossed!).

I have thought about making the traditional road mix, but she and I usually end up talking so much that we never really get to listen to the mix so and I have Kara Cooney's new book about Hatshepsut on my audible, so..... anyway, I have a few hours to think about it!

Anyway - Nick - the posts on this trip are dedicated to you!  We will miss your looking out for us, the conversations we have while you smoke cigars in front of the hotel, the laughter & hard work and the kind little things you did to help us feel not so far away from home while traveling for work.  Thank you for everything!

Yes, you would be correct - that's the beautiful city of Chicago off in the distance and that's as close to it as I got! Not to worry, I've sampled Chicago before so staying outside the city on this brief jaunt was quite alright with me!

I flew out to visit Michael (see previous posts all over this site) and a lovely time was had by all.  US Airways Vacations got me a terrific airfare/hotel combo so I stayed in a lovely hotel (with a free shuttle from & to the airport) and I upgraded to first class coming home using miles (yes I'm spoiled, don't judge me).  Grubhub provided a wide range of places that delivered (room service is expensive).  It wasn't a "cheap" trip but it certainly was affordable and that's the point, right?

Yes, I know the airplane is American Airlines - but with the merger with  US Airways.... you get the point.

And now a word about RC Cola..... you can get it in Chicago!  It used to be more readily available in the Philadelphia area - in fact, growing up in Oaks, there was one at the gas station down at the corner across Egypt Road and the sodas were a quarter! Of course that was back in the days when soda cans didn't have those nicely rounded bottoms..... Ah! memories!
Unfortunately it doesn't taste the same as I remembered it - which was quite a disappointment, but still - nostalgic!

But back to the trip.... 
I will admit that I have a huge guilty pleasure when I stay in hotels - I watch as much cable TV as I can.  Why? Because I don't have cable TV in my house and without cable, I have NO TV in the house (thank goodness for my wireless blue-ray player, Netflix and Hulu!). Let me tell you - hotel cable is such a disappointment!  There isn't much to watch and I suppose the point is to keep people OUT of the room and into the world.  That said, I still soak up as much as I can on my visits.

Our hotel had round towers as part of the structure so a room in the tower ended up being pie-shaped with the widest part at the windows and the narrowest part at the bathroom/entrance.  I had the tiniest shower EVA (at least there was good water pressure)! One neat thing was that the fire tower was inside the center of the tower - so exiting in an emergency would have been quite efficient (if we had had to do that, which we did not).  Many of planes taking off from O'Hare flew over the hotel and let me tell you, some of them were so low I thought I could reach out and touch them!  It was neat and disconcerting at the same time.

On the way to the airport, I saw this sign which made me chuckle - note the very bottom "kiss & ride" - I hadn't ever seen a sign like this near an airport before - certainly NOT at Philadelphia! ;)

Once again another great road trip that didn't involve driving but in my book still counts as a road trip!  One of these days I will get to make an actual road trip with driving and all that good stuff so stay tuned!

I recently visited San Diego on business.  I would love to say it was for pleasure because there is something about the Mission Bay area that I find very appealing and it would be lovely to see more.  But, unfortunately time and circumstances just don't permit exploration.

Technically it really isn't a road trip either, but there was a car and driving involved, so I'm going to say it counts. Even if I didn't do any of the driving.  

The weather really was beautiful - windy and cool in the evening and sunny and warm during the day.  

Our hotel overlooked Sea World and in the summertime, Sea World has fireworks every night at 9:52pm which I think rocks because I love fireworks.  I tried getting some photos - they aren't spectacular but they are a good first try!

The thing about business travel is this - it isn't glamorous or exciting - sure you may or may not get to fly on an airplane(s) and you get to stay in hotels and the company pays for it - but - because you ARE traveling for the company and because THEY are paying for it - one has to expect to be available at all times during the trip. That makes perfect sense to me,  I plan accordingly and have no gripe about it. Its folks on the outside looking in telling me how exciting and wonderful it is that wears me down.  I actually had someone tell me that it 'sucked' that I couldn't do anything 'fun' on my trip. What? I'm not there on vacation and I'm not paying for it so why would I expect to be able to do anything fun? I don't and it would be an extremely unprofessional expectation. For me - the fun part of the business trip are free airplane sodas and watching Investigation Discovery on cable TV (if it's available)! Oh and a super plus bonus? Going to sleep in utter quiet instead of trying to go to sleep as I'm being serenaded by a yowling cat - now that's some serious luxury right there!

These trips are also tiring, too - one squeezes as much in as possible in the shortest time allowed, talking & interacting with people you know mostly via email or by phone, all while lugging around laptops & luggage and dashing from place to place. Yes at the end of the day it is all about catching your breath before the next day begins! 

And the funny part of all this (although it wasn't funny at the time) is that my co-worker and I (we travel together for these trips) always manage to be connected to things that are the furthest away possible - be it boarding gates, hotels rooms, elevators or just reaching the baggage claim!  When it happened on the first trip, I thought it was weird but when it was the same on the second trip - well.....  Luckily we didn't have any connecting flights on this trip like the last time!

When it is all over, what I ask myself is 'did we accomplish what we set out to do?' and when I can answer YES to that question and feel like we exceeded our to-do lists, then everything is worth it. And YES was the answer when we got home from this trip.

Honestly, for this trip I have to admit that the big bonus at the end of it was those 4 nights of beautiful fireworks! A lovely ending for a busy and productive day!

A very long time ago, I ran away from home (if moving 2,000 miles away at the age of 30 can be considered "running away from home") with my boyfriend Blaise (aka Michael). It was a most excellent road trip and overall an interesting experience (one best left for the scrapbooks).  While we didn't stay out of state or stay a couple, we did remain friends and I still look back on that trip and all the subsequent road trips we made together, with deep fondness, laughter and the occasional tear.

Now Michael is setting out on a new adventure - less then 1,000 miles away this time but still..... away from and without those of us who enjoy him the most, especially when there is a road trip involved.  I'm excited for him - but at the same time, I feel a great sadness, too, that really can't and shouldn't be explained here.

So why mention it in the first place? Well, because this IS a road trip (even if I can't go along for the ride and I would have done some driving if given enough notice.....) and it IS a adventure and that's what we talk about here!  I'm also trying to encourage him to start his own blog about his adventures and perhaps this just might do the trick!  So if you want to encourage him to blog about it as well - COMMENT HERE! 

And so Michael Blaise - as I wave my hanky at your departure I leave you with the following:

1. At least you are not driving to Chicago - we all know there is no parking in Chicago (hug the Shedd & the Adler for me!)
2. Don't eat a full pound of gnocchi - remember Atlantic City? 
3. Take your vitamins! You don't want to get to the end of your trip with a nasty cold.....like New Hampshire
4. Since making audio tapes of your adventures would be exceeding weird on a bus, keep a blog! (no room for all those tiny tapes & batteries anyway!) And no - you cannot take a cat with you....... and sit on your own Barney pillow!
5. Limit the Chinese take out - there's never any place to keep the left overs as we learned the multiple times we ordered delivery to hotel rooms!
6.  Be flexible - expect the unexpected and always travel with coffee (think Salt Pond Visitors Center hiking trail....)
7. Take lots of photos and share them - we want to be part of your adventure, too!
8. Sun block & sun glasses are always a plus & never turn down a free hot shower!(Delaware Sea Shore State Park)
9. Lastly, keep warm/cool; don't forget to eat and be safe! 

And never forget we love you and will miss you very much!

PS. I'm so proud of you!