New Jersey Road Trip

NJ Road Trip

After our all night, overnight crossing of the Gulf of Mexico, I was exhausted. Clark did not consider how tired from the crossing we would be when he planned the pickup for the rental car the next morning and the beginning of our drive to New Jersey for that same day. I was too tired on the Monday night we arrived at Tarpon Springs to even think about what to pack for New Jersey - I just could not even think straight and had no idea what I might pack or forget to pack. I decided that I would just have to pack in the morning as quickly as possible before we got on the road. After dinner with friends on that Monday night, I passed out for the night.

As it turned out, we had a very late start to our road trip north. Clark got word that we needed to take care of some important finance-related paperwork before we could leave. Since we had numerous long documents to print, we first had to go find a store to buy an ink cartridge for our printer! Then we spent a large portion of the day, printing, signing, scanning, and sending documents via email. In between prints and scans, I threw things into bags for our trip. We finally managed to drag our bags to the rental car and start on our way at 4:00 p.m. We decided that even a few hours "under our belts" was better than staying another night before leaving. Never mind the fact that I had no food on board the boat at that point, so we just had to leave!

We made it to Jacksonville, Florida the first night and found a Country Suites with free hot breakfast and a fridge in the room. These are two things I look for, besides price, when traveling as we always have some food with us when we travel that we want to refrigerate. "Breakfast included" is a real time saver, so we want that option as well. We drove for 14 hours the next day. We pushed ourselves to get north of Washington / Baltimore that night so as not to have to deal with traffic in those areas the next morning. Although I was ready to jump out of the car and run around like a maniac for exercise after eleven hours, it was worth it to keep going as we saw no traffic in those areas what-so-ever! We were through Baltimore in the blink of an eye.

We stayed in the Aberdeen Proving Ground area Wednesday night, and the drive home on Thursday was a relatively short three and a half hours. As soon as we got home, we turned on the heat. Compared to the 80 degrees we left in Florida, we felt a definite chill in the air at the 42 degrees that greeted us upon our arrival. After unloading the car, we went right straight out again and hit the supermarket. I had one box of pasta and one jar of spaghetti sauce in the house but that was it. The fridge was bare as was the pantry. Having wiped myself out upon leaving after our last visit in September, we had to buy all the necessaries including everything from butter to toilet paper.

The main reason we came home at this time instead of for the holidays was to co-host a baby shower for my younger son's expectant wife, Heather. Baby Lillian Martha is planning an arrival in February! Having set up house on Thursday, I was ready to focus on planning for the party to be held on the 12th. I had done next to nothing while in Florida, other than knit / crochet some gifts, to prepare for the shower itself. As I do with most jobs I have to tackle, I started by making lists of things to buy and things to do.

Since family was coming to visit for the shower, exchanging Christmas gifts seemed like a grand idea, so while I was making shower lists, I was also busy with Christmas lists. Between that Friday and the next Thursday when my son and his family arrived from Idaho, I worked like a maniac to get the house ready for all the arrivals. I cleaned the house from top to bottom and spruced up the yard by removing all the dead growth from my flower gardens. When I was not cleaning, all I did was shop, shop, shop! December's budget flew right out the window!

In between all the cleaning and shopping, Clark and I managed to fit in back-to-back dentist visits on that Monday and back-to-back eye doctor visits on Tuesday. Clark's eye appointment turned into an emergency visit to the eye surgeon the next day, so instead of getting my last-minute tasks done as planned that day, it all got postponed until Thursday. So that I could keep working, I sent Clark to the airport on Thursday to pick up the Idaho contingent.

Friday I spent time with Devon shopping for food for the baby shower and decorating in preparation for the party the next day. The shower on Saturday went well. We had family and friends who traveled long distances to attend. We had multiple states represented. Evelyn's sister and family live in Pennsylvania, so we had a large PA contingent. Heather's maid-of-honor lives in Maryland. She and her spouse made the 5-hour-each-way round trip up for the party - up and back in the same day! We came up from Florida, Devon and Jeff flew in from Idaho, and of course the guests of honor came from Connecticut. New Jersey folks included friends whom Chris has known forever.

After the party we had some family time. I made a home-cooked dinner with Delicious Orchards pie for dessert (locals understand). After we filled our bellies with good food, we gathered around the Christmas tree to open our presents. Yes, I did decorate for Christmas as well as for the shower. I definitely was busy! How could I not decorate for Christmas with my almost-two-year-old granddaughter coming to visit?!

Sunday morning Chris and Heather packed their booty into their car and headed back to Connecticut. They are having some work done on the house before the baby arrives and needed to get back home. Thankfully Jeff, Devon and Sierra planned to stay until Monday or I would have been more sad than I was at Chris and Heather's departure! After all the excitement of planning and having the party, it would have been a huge let down had everyone left all at once.

As I started thinking about and planning for the trip back to Florida, I started to worry about how to use up all the food supplies that I had purchased. Suddenly I was in a panic that I had too much food for the last few days here in New Jersey. To waste as little food as possible, I planned out menus for each meal over the next couple of days to be sure I use critical food and leftovers wisely. As it turned out I probably should not have bought that London Broil, but it sure tasted good for supper last night!

Today, before sunrise Clark had to get up and go for eye surgery. Fortunately it was minor surgery. He even drove himself, and he was back before anyone else in the house was up for the day. This afternoon the Idaho contingent heads for the airport and their long flight home. Tomorrow is a day of more eye appointments for Clark and myself as well as last lunches with friends. Then, as soon as possible thereafter, we will be heading back to Florida to continue our explorations.

So, you can see why I have not been blogging. It has been a wild crazy month and I cannot believe that December is almost half-way gone already!