The last two days have been hectic. Complete with one of the most hellish road trips I have taken yet.
Here's a little backstory: I travel a lot. My dad calls me a road warrior, and it's mostly his fault. As a kid I spend every summer with him, and every summer included road trips. Long road trips. So I have grown to love traveling, even if it is by myself. 12 hours in the car is nothing, and I love every minute of it.
Except for this last trip. Because it is my last guaranteed summer, I decided to take advantage of it and spend the entire month of July in upstate NY at my family's summer home on Caroga Lake. It is my favorite place on the planet. It's normally a twelve hour drive from my home in NC. This year, however, I had a friend recently move to VA so I decided to drive to see her the night before, crash at her place, and then NY would only be a 10 hour drive, easy peasy, right? Wrong.
Of course I waited til the last second to pack up all my stuff. So that was fun. I had to leave at a certain time to get to her place by 1am (which is when she would be getting home from seeing a late movie). So I thought I'd be smart and time it right. I left a half hour late. Dang it.
Right before I left, my step-dad decides to check the weather. I didn't think there would be anything to worry about, I mean it had been sunny and 104 degrees the last couple of days. Oops. My road trip coincided with the night of the giant and torrential storm that wreaked havoc all across Virginia. Look it up...it was pretty bad. So that was great.
Thankfully I wasn't in the storm all that long. It was a bit scary for a while, but I drove out of it soon enough. Of course, however, I was driving into the area that it had just passed through. It was much better than I anticipated, it didn't slow me down all that much. That is until I got on one of the smaller highways. 16 miles from my destination, I came around a bend and traffic was stopped. Like, cars off, people out walking around stopped. The two lanes were completely blocked by emergency crews and there was no passing through. Come to find out later, a lady had been out by the road trying to get cell phone reception, and a tree fell on top of her. She died that night, and I was just a few cars away. Even thinking about it now gives me the shivers.
So I sat there for a while. And then decided to turn around. I had to take a few more small roads to get to a different highway, but it was bad. Trees were across the roads, power lines were down, debris scattered everywhere. I was pretty much driving in between the two lanes going 25 miles an hour, swerving here and there to avoid fallen trees. Even once I got on a more major highway there were still trees in the middle of the road, and they came up on you fast.
All of that to say, I got to my friend's apartment at 3 in the morning. Joy of all joys.
Next morning, I wake up to find that I have received a visit my monthly friend. And she came with a fury. If I could have driven curled up in a ball I would have.
To counteract this slightly, we decided Starbucks would be lovely. So we went to the one right by her apartment and the line was out the door. Meh. I don't know how we managed to get a table, but we did. This was the best part of the whole trip...catching up with her and taking an hour to enjoy great company, coffee, and an awesome slice of banana chocolate chip bread/cake.
Then I was on the road again. Stomach cramping most of the way. I hit a very annoying and long traffic jam on 81 near Hagerstown, and that lasted about an hour. But I believe that was the last hiccup in the trip. Oy vey.
BUT NOW I'M HERE. Caroga Lake, NY. And I intend to enjoy the heck out of this month.
The End.
