Travel day

Tuesday (Day after Christmas, Hanover PA). The alarm sounded at 7, but we decided to sleep until 8ish. Sitting in bed. Shower. Drove MB over to the retirement village so she could hang with her grandfather. Back to the hotel, an found my mom eating breakfast. Joined her, and had some strange egg things on English Muffins. Packed the car.

Picked up MB, saying hello and goodbye to Allen. On the road by around 11:30. Drove solidly until 2 PM. Stopped for lunch at a fast food place. My mom hadn't had the veggie burgers there before and was pretty happy with the experience. Back on the road around 2:40. Hit traffic going across the GW Bridge, and then more in CT on the Merrit. Took some back roads for the last leg to mom's place.

Just as we arrived and were transferring stuff from mom's car to MB's, we heard a loud crash. A car had backed up into a truck and knocked a bunch of plumbing supplies out of the rear. A guy got out, looked at the damage, then drove away. I got his licence plate number, went and found the plumber and let him know what had happened. My mom knew exactly who the guy was who had done the damage. A real piece of work, from the sound of it: lying about his car not being functional, cutting down shrubs and trees to avoid getting West Nile Virus, barbecuing in the buff. A cop showed up and I answered some questions. MB mom and I had some tea and pie. Then back on the road.

Some rain. I got sleepy about the time we got to the Massachusetts boarder. We stopped for coffee (I ordered a coffee, and while MB was thinking the guy behind the counter suggested "Two coffees?"... I wanted to say "What, are you practicing to be a mind reader?"). MB took over driving. Heard a weird thing about a guy boning a pig on NPR, and an old interview with James Brown (who just passed). (TG asked "Did your musicians go along with your ideas, or did you have to convince them?" JB: "I paid them.")

Back home, Gus was fine. Unloading, and putting stuff away. Making phone calls. Email. And so on.