East Bound and Gagged

Part Two of Nights in South of Rodanthe

Car trips can be a bit overwhelming to some. I know my Mother-in-Law was dreading the 12+ hour trip to the Outer Banks before we even left the driveway. Me, I like a good road trip. I don't care where we're driving to, I just enjoy getting there...until the last hour.

Here are the notes I made while at the beach during the week. They are broken down by day over the next few posts.

Day 1 – Saturday

PA Turnpike
After an initial snag and abort to our launch, we are on the road. We hit the PA Turnpike around 1:45 AM and were supposed to meet up with my wife’s sister around the Donegal exit on our way to Breezewood. The iPod was scrapped as a road trip mix tape, mainly because of the lack of interest by my In Laws in the selection of music but also because I went off road into the rumble strips near the Jersey Barrier after bumping the iPod and being distracted by the display. I’m so glad I spent three days uploading and updating it for this trip.

Our first stop is Breezewood, the truck stop Mecca of the Turnpike. From here we will depart PA Turn Pike 76 and head onto Rte 270 East. It’s just before 3 AM as we get onto the second leg of our journey. A Sheetz Cuppuccino will suffice for the time being as I did not get my usual nap before departure. For the time being, I’m still high on the electricity of being on the road. Standing there, topping off my French Vanilla Cup of Goodness, I thought about it. I’m out on the road. I’m heading down South for a week. I’ll be in another state. There is something about driving on through the night that just makes me beam with delight. The idea that when the daylight hits my sunglasses, I’ll be somewhere else. It’s as if I’ve been lead into a room, blindfolded, and when my eyes open I see a surprise party in the form of another state with all its splendor laid out before you like presents. I must be delirious from lack of sleep. I’ve been up since 7 AM the day before.

Rte 270 through Maryland
Getting back out onto the road, we all hunkered down for what was to come. My wife, riding shotgun, provided a second set of eyes on the road and map checks for our turns. In the second row of the Family Truckster sat my daughter in her car seat and my Father in Law next to her. My Father-in-Law's main job is to man the drink requests from the small cooler and snacks for the little one. His other job is to man the DVD player with that dreaded purple dinosaur. My daughter's job is to be good and sleep through most of the trip. I think it may be more than she can handle. In the last row, my Mother in Law is set up like a queen being hauled on the backs of the slaves from place to place. In all actuality, that was the idea. This trip was a near bust because she’s been dealing with some health issues. She is due for surgery to remove another tumor from her abdomen and blood clots in her lungs put her in the hospital over Mother’s Day weekend. She has to keep her feet elevated and move around every couple of hours. I set up the back seat so she could stretch out and prop her feet up. Her job is to just be comfortable.

DC MD/VA
We just made it through the Beltway around DC. I don’t know why everyone has a problem with it. It’s not that bad when you hit it before sunrise. Just get into the lane next to the far left and stick close to the speed limit. Why? A lot of times your exit is on the left and it’s easier to just be there when it comes. Yes, there are a lot of lane changers and tailgaters but it is no worse than any other city loop. Oddly enough, the entrance and exit to the beltway are considered the two worst bottlenecks in the nation. The reason is that everyone uses this road to get onto I-95 from North of Washington D.C.

Once off the beltway, you are on I-95 and the first of three huge stretches of road that slow things down a bit in the fun department. An hour South of D.C. we stopped for breakfast at IHOP. This is the highlight of my entire trip. I will plan a route to anywhere in the United States as long as I can intersect an IHOP at some point, if for no other reason than the fact that I love the Butter Pecan syrup that you get among the speed rack of syrup flavors. There just happens to be one off of I-95 in Fredericksburg, VA.

From IHOP back to I-95, we headed to Rte 64 which goes around Norfolk and under the bay. My M-I-L has never been to the ocean let alone under it. If she can handle the tunnel, she can handle anything.

NC
Entering North Carolina, it geographically appears that you are very close to your destination. This would be a grave mistake. Once we get over the bridge on Rte 64, we are then in for a treat, an hour long trek to Avon through little beach villages at 35mph. Some of the highlights to this part of the trip come in the form of the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head which is home to the largest natural sand dune and offers a hang gliding school, The Bodie (pronounced Body) Island Lighthouse which is said to be haunted, and the Oregon Inlet/Bonner Bridge which crosses over the Oregon Inlet between Pea and Hatteras Island.

We stopped at a rest stop before crossing over the sound to the Outer Banks. This is our last stop before our destination. I didn’t want to jinx anything, but the little one has gone almost 18 hours with less than a half hour nap somewhere in Virginia. Loading her back into the car, she unloaded in a huge meltdown that would have dwarfed Chernobyl. It took an extra helping of Barney DVDs to calm her.

Summer’s Song
Our destination. We have arrived. The house, rented through Sun Realty is pretty much as it was detailed online. I have stayed in the OBX before and the last house was a little different than the pictures. But this, this was pretty neat. The house, like most in the beach communities, has three floors. The bottom floor is usually the equivalent of a mud room or sand room as it were, featuring an outdoor shower, grill, and tables. The inside usually provides a bathroom and a few amenities, and maybe even a bedroom or two. This place had a Queen Bedroom, a twin Bunk Bed room, communal bathroom and a game room on the bottom floor. In the game room, which was a new addition this year, we had a pool table, wet bar, and flat screen television.

The second floor is the main bedroom area and laundry area. Ours featured a King Master with bathroom, a Queen Master with bathroom, another Queen room, a two twin bedroom, laundry room, and additional bathroom. The Masters also had porch access with a stairway down to the first level.

The third floor is usually the living quarters with another bathroom, kitchen, living, dining, and sometimes another bedroom. Ours had an open floor plan with a kitchen, dining, and living area. Another table was situated in one corner that doubled as a game table for bumper pool. The kitchen had a bar. The dining area had a huge glass table and the living area featured a huge flat screen television, surround sound, and multiple chairs and couches. Two sliding glass doors opened on to either a screened in porch with picnic table or the main balcony with ocean view. Another floor existed in the form of a crow’s nest with a spiral staircase off the side of the balcony up to it. From here additional views of the sound and ocean were available. I was impressed.

I was also exhausted. I was ready to crash. I hadn’t slept in over 32 hours and the caffeine was providing the bare minimum of faculties. I was basically running on emergency lighting. I crashed out on the couch for 10 minutes and then attempted to put the crib together for the little one while my M-I-L and wife went shopping for food and my F-I-L and soon to be B-I-L went on a beer run. Apparently, no one asked me to check out the local ABC stores online before they left as they ended up driving an hour back to Nags Head instead of a 6 mile jaunt down towards the end of Hatteras. I wonder what’s for dinner. Now, back to that crib.



Note: Do take a look at the pictures on the Sun Realty link to the house. They are just as good as any I could take and there is little difference between their pictures and what I captured.

Nights in South of Rodanthe

Part One:

I’m a bad blogger. I dropped the ball. I didn’t post at all last week while on vacation.

I know. I know. Now, most people would be like, “Why would you?” Well, the answer is clear, at least to my wife, my laptop is surgically attached to my lap. While I am sure it is doing irreparable damage to my reproductive organs, it also wouldn’t do well in salt water, so I detached it for a week. That’s not to say I was completely offline. I checked up on emails, pondered a couple of shirt designs and basically farmed my virtual farm on Facebook, which seems to have disappeared, suddenly. Perhaps a virtual twister has swept it off to a virtual Oz, complete with virtual flying monkeys. Last I heard, though, it’s back, bringing peace and tranquility back to the masses.

Oh, am I rambling? Do you want to know all about my trip? Well, I just happened to have my pictures here, go figure. Want to see the home movies? OK, kidding. I would like to give you a boring rundown of the entire week. If anything, it serves as a how to manual if not a “What not to do.” I have had some bad luck with the Outer Banks before and going back there is always an adventure. So, over the course of the week, I’ll give you a pseudo journal of notes I kept in order to share when I got home. Let’s start with the prep and work our way from there.

Day -7
I have a lot to do before leaving next Saturday. First off, I need to cancel the other existing car rental. I had originally gone with Company A and secured a van to become the “Family Truckster.” After talking with the guy who sold us our normal FT I was persuaded to use Company B because Company A would screw up the rental, overcharge us, and generally make our lives a living hell…according to him. I had made the reservation with Company B and then had reservations…sorry, there’s laughter in my head. Anyway, I can’t in good conscience go with a company that has an employee playing Madden 09 in the lobby while I’m trying to do business. Also, because my wife is a bit of an obsessive compulsive, I had to keep checking to make sure I had the right vehicle. I needed something big enough for 7 passengers. There’s only five of us going but we need room for all our stuff and our daughter’s entire world.

Company B tried to stick us with an SUV and yet I explained that I already had a Mini Van reserved somewhere else at the same price….dance puppet. Once I reiterated my requirements I was quoted a higher price. The girl in clubbing attire behind the counter informed me that SUVs are down in price now and Mini Vans are up. I didn’t know there was a season for Mini Vans. I told her hold the reservation and I’ll work something out…which is code for, “You’re my back up plan for last call. If I can’t find a better girl to go home with, you’ll still be available.” I promptly left and went a mile down the road to Company A and reinstated my reservation. I accepted the price hike but realized that the roles had been reversed in our Car Salesman’s Tale of Two Car Rental Companies. I now had two reservations, one for either a Dodge Grand Caravan or a Toyota Sienna.

With this all said and done, it was time to give Miss Thang at Company B her walking papers. Instead of dealing with them in person, I took the coward way out and cancelled my reservation online. It was a good thing, too. The rental was for a Ford Taurus. I didn’t know they made a Mini Van in the Taurus model.

Car – Check

Day -6
The rains have been heavy and so are the hearts of the men….signed G Washington….It has been raining an unusual amount here and the yard needs to be cut before we leave. I just don’t know when I will have the time. I have to help clean the house….boo hiss… and update the iPod for the road trip. Cutting the grass would take less time. I haven’t updated my iPod in over a year. I haven’t even listened to it in the car. Too much work. I’ve given up music for NPR. All Things Considered, Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and Fresh Air are on my playlist now. Though, I wouldn’t be too shy to plug the iPod back in during pledge week, that sucks.

Memorial Day is just ahead and Sci-Fi is running a Land of the Lost marathon. This takes precedence over everything. Imagine, 21 and a half hours of rubber suited monsters, Harryhausen style claymation dinosaurs, and really cheesy acting complete in 70’s fashion. Childhood regression at its finest. I only hope the DVR doesn’t shit the bed.

Day -5
My DVR shit the bed. While that gets sorted out, I guess I’ll help clean the house. Oh and there’s shopping at the store. Oh joy.

Day -4
Ok, the yard is finally cut. My wife opted to help get things moving as the grass was so high and wet, the bagger mower would have taken another three days to use as the only source of mowing. The front yard wasn’t that bad and didn’t need bagged or even raked. The house still needs a sprucing up one more time as four cats have a steady hand in furring up the place.

Day -3
One more call to Company A per my wife confirms I will either have a Grand Caravan or a Sienna. All is well. The iPod is still updating….or I’m stuck on an error and forgot to hit OK.

Day -2
Welcome to Day -2. It’s Thursday to all you non technical people. I have the iPod updated, a few shirt designs under my belt and a my crop rotation on Farm Town is optimal for harvesting when I have a moment to crack open the laptop during the trip. I know my wife is cursing the fact that we will have Wi-Fi at the beach house but I told her it would be essential for checking on times and menus for dinner locations since everything in the OBX seems to close at 9pm. I learned that on my first trip to the dreaded Post Apocalyptic Pool Hall in the Outer Banks. I wonder if that place is still there. If it is, that dead thing on top of the cigarette machine near the actual Poll Hall of the Post Apocalypse is probably still there.

Before we leave, I have to de-fur the couches and clean up all my junk. My wife came up with an ingenious and time saving way to de-fur the couches. I’m used to applying this rubber pet brush to the couches to collect the fur then suck it up with the hose from our canister vac. My wife tried the Oreck, applied directly to the cushions and it works just as well. I don’t suffer from allergy attacks and I’m done in half the time.

Day -1
It’s Friday and the first official day of my vacation. I took off work to get the Family Truckster, pack said Truckster, and get a nap before driving 12 hours at 1 AM. Guess which task I’m not going to get done. You got it. Fortunately, I have an ample supply of Red Bull and Stay Awake at the ready.

I went with my Father in Law to pick up the FT. Dodge Grand Caravan, baby! I was actually pretty stoked about this van. I used to drive one for the hotel I worked at and really liked it. There was no Captain’s Chairs in the second row, but the stow and go feature would be put to good use in packing the sucker. I’m about to use every available cubic foot of space in this beast and have room for four adults and one toddler in a car seat. Sliding passenger doors on both side will be great for getting the baby in and out and with one touch open and close from the key chain, I can get that thing open before we get out the door.

On the way back, I stopped at the In Laws to pack up their stuff. Three suitcases, a CPAP bag, shoulder bag, and three pillows later, I’m at the homestead for our luggage. We added two suitcases, a back pack, CPAP bag, kids sand toys, house toys, blankets for the beach, DVD player, lap top bag, two shopping bags for food, a Coleman cooler in the back and a smaller shoulder strap cooler for the trip, clothes basket, and three more pillows. We are loaded. Unfortunately, the nap is going to be scrubbed.

Day 1
It’s now 1 AM and we are off to pick up my In Laws for the trip. We arrived by 1:15 and expected to be on the Turnpike by 1:30 to meet my wife’s sister at another exit by 2 AM. We made it almost a mile before turning around. My Father in Law forgot something. By 1:45 we were off and running. No turning back now. We passed the point of no return, the on ramp to the PA Turnpike, and kept on moving through the night. We shut off the iPod after three songs…go figure.

There's a Nap For That

I felt I had to sneak in one last post before I’m off to tame the OBX on a much needed vacation. Preparation for such an endeavor requires that I take at least a small nap before departing as I am going to be the primary driver for almost all 12 hours of the trip. Of course, we will stop every couple of hours because of my daughter and in-laws. We’ll need to do a diaper change…my daughter, not the in-laws. We’ll also need to make sure my Mother-In-Law doesn’t sit too long because of blood clots. In actuality, I could probably drive the entire distance with no more than a few red bulls, a couple of Stay-Awakes, and an bathroom every now and then. That’s not necessary, though, as my wife will do some of the driving in key locations. But this is all contingent on that nap I must have. One, I know I will undoubtedly not get.

Something always gets in the way when it comes to a good nap. When my wife and I were first starting out living together, it was nothing to take a weekend afternoon and just catch a couple hours of extra sleep. I lived in a town house and didn’t have to take care of the yard and cleaning was an easy task. Even when we bought our first home, we found a few free hours, during the weekend, when we just needed to take a little snooze. Then, our daughter came. Suddenly, nap time took on a different meaning. Instead of catching a few Zzz’s when we weren’t busy, we began using our little one’s nap time as a chance to get things done. That wasn’t always a possibility, though.

My kid is a bit odd in that respect. She can sleep 12 hours through the night, and have a two hour nap in the day time and yet I find that when she’s done, you don’t move. Having creaky hardwood floors in our house doesn’t allow for much sneaking around. When’s she’s 16 it will be a benefit, but for now, it’s a hindrance to grabbing dirty laundry from the bedroom, cleaning the house, or even cutting the grass, outside. The kid is a light sleeper.

I can remember when she was just born, I would get up to feed her every two hours. Those two hours consisted of getting her out of her crib, checking her diaper, getting her bottle ready, feeding her, burping her, changing her diaper, rocking her, and laying her back down. Then I had to go clean up. By the time I was able to get back into bed, it was time to start all over again. Those first three days nearly broke me. I never thought I would get to sleep through another night. And when she went all night without waking up for the first time. My wife and I still didn’t sleep. We kept thinking something was wrong. Why isn’t she making any noise? Is she breathing? Is her blanket smothering her? If I go in there, I’m liable to wake her up, ruining what we have just accomplished. That was one of the longest nights of my life. It’s been downhill ever since with her. She sleeps great at night, but naps are still a fragile balance.

Click the image to get this design on a shirt or other item.

Get more from the There's a (blank) For That Section
on Mongo Angry! Mongo Smash! The Store.

So, when I declare that I am going for a nap before I make the trek in the Family Truckster, three things will happen.

1. I will be unable to fall asleep.
2. My wife will wake me because there is a spider in the living room.
3. My two year old daughter will bang on the door, because she knows I’m in there.

The only reason she won’t come barging in is because the door is locked. She has the ability to turn door knobs and open doors, now. We confine her to one floor at a time and within our sight. The kitchen and dining room are blocked off and the door to the bedrooms and bathrooms of our ranch home are shut. Our bedroom is the only one she is fascinated with but the door latch isn’t the best. We can lock the door and shut it without fear of being locked out. A simple push on the door near the knob opens the door, easily. While she can turn knobs, her ability to push a locked door open is still limited. Although, while on her little scooter, she can achieve ramming speed. With that mode of transportation she might easily be in the room in no time. Then she will stand on the side of the bed, her head just clearing the mattress, and begin to repeatedly say, “Mup. Mup. Mup.” It looks like I’ll be putting another pot of coffee on while I pack the car.


Footnote:

While I’m gone, I hope I will be able to capture some great images to throw up here. I might even get a moment to do some shirt designs, although my wife will probably shoot me for opening up my laptop while on vacation. I cannot guarantee that I will post anything this coming week because I have an acute sense of survival, but I would like to address the changes made to CafePress while I’m gone. It may spell the end of Mongo Angry! Mongo Smash! The store.