Impromptu Road Trips

As I'm sure you know if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, I love road trips. To me, there's nothing better than getting in the car & just driving. It's so exciting to be on the road with no real plans and no expectations. Unfortunately, gas is still ridiculously expensive (to me anyway) so I don't do this very often. Maybe if I drove a more fuel efficient car, I'd get out there & do more exploring but since I drive a gas hog SUV which only gets 250 miles on a tank ($48 to fill, btw), I'm mostly combining errands these days and trying to limit my gas consumption! 

Anyhow, this past weekend instead of going to the DC Big Flea, I stayed in Baltimore. Well, on Saturday anyway. Sunday, my friend and I woke up sort of late and then headed out for what was supposed to be a day of browsing antique stores up in Havre de Grace. He assured me that he didn't need to use my GPS as we left the Sonic where we'd stopped for lunch. It became quite evident that we were heading the wrong direction to pick up I-695 but the scenery was so nice on this road that we just kept going. 

Eventually, I found part of a Maryland map in the pocket on the back of the seat and I realized we were nearing Westminster, MD, which is a gorgeous little town not far from the Pennsylvania border. We continued our drive into Westminster and then over to Thurmont where we made a quick stop at Catoctin State Park. This park is so beautiful and I can't believe it's so close to me and I've never been there before. It was cold and we weren't dressed for any outdoor activities so we enjoyed the drive through the park and vowed to come back and do some exploring soon! 

After leaving the park, we headed into Hagerstown, MD where we stopped for a caffeine break at the Sheetz gas station. Once we loaded up on junk food & coffee, we made our way down through Sharpsburg and Antietam and into Harpers Ferry, WV. My friend had never been to those parts of the states before so it was nice to see him experience it for the first time. The leaves were just beautiful!! I thought for sure that it was going to be all brown & dead but I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of color still on the trees. 

We visited some of the historic buildings in town and took a walk across the bridge which goes over the Potomac River. Well, we only made it about half way across the bridge because I am terrified of both bridges and heights and was starting to feel a panic attack come on so I quickly turned around and go the hell back on solid ground!! 

Of course with the time change on Sunday morning, it was starting to get dark around 4 so we decided to get back in the car and head towards home. I'm so lucky that I have a friend that really enjoys just getting out and doing things like this. And I'm lucky that I live so close to such beautiful areas that are within an hour or two drive from here. So, I missed the DC Big Flea and all of the holiday goodies but I had an amazing day with someone that really makes me happy and I saw beautiful scenery. I'd say it was a pretty good way to spend the day, wouldn't you?! 

I'm still alive!!

I know surely you must all think I've fallen off of the face of the earth since I haven't been around in over a week. I wish I could say I had a good excuse, like, I was actually being productive around my house and preparing for my trip. Nah. I've just been so lazy lately. The husband and I have been trying to do things around the house but nothing is getting accomplished. It has been SO hot lately. Like walk outside and the heat just sucks your breath away hot. I hate the heat. HATE IT. I hate humidity too and that has been pretty high lately as well. Gosh, I thought when we moved from SC to MD that it might be more pleasant in the summer but that is just not happening this year. I'm ready to move again. To somewhere that it doesn't get above 75 degrees with like 40% humidity or less. I wish I could say I was joking but I'm not. I absolutely hate being outside when it's so hot.

Moving along. It's now less than a week before I leave for my trip. You'd think I was well on my way to being ready to leave. Hahahaha. Yeah, back in April when I first found out about this trip I thought I'd be so prepared by this time. I thought I'd have all of my lists typed up and printed out, I thought I'd have all of my directions mapped out, I thought I'd know where I was staying each night on the drive out. And none of that has happened. Oh, I've spent plenty of time sitting here at the computer and trying to get some idea of what I want to see and do along the way. I've started typing my lists into Word and I guess I could go ahead and print those out but I just know I'll end up having several things I need to add to the lists at the last minute. Each morning I come into my office/scraproom and sit here and try to think of all the stuff I need to get done before I leave and I make a little list and I am still unable to focus on getting anything done!

It doesn't help that I still have quite a bit of shopping and just general running around I need to do before I can start packing. Oh, and I ordered new luggage Monday night after spending several hours that day at the mall and other stores trying to find something I liked. So, I'm waiting for that to come too. It's kind of hard to pack if I don't have luggage. I mean I *have* luggage but I want to use my new luggage. Look at how cute it is:



That's right. I bought polka-dot luggage. In pink. So, I'm waiting (not patiently!) for my pink luggage to arrive so I can start packing. Isn't it adorable?? I think it's so much better than plain ol black or blue luggage. How many people have pink polka dot luggage? Exactly! There are several other sets that match this that I'm going to ask for for Christmas so I can have some other options when I travel. I really wish my favorite Vera Bradly pattern hadn't been discontinued a few years ago or I could have more of that and I wouldn't even had to think about buying this set. But, alas, the pattern is no longer available except on Ebay and I think I'll enjoy this set too. I can still use my Vera stuff on weekend trips!

The husband and I are driving down to NC this weekend to meet my mom and drop off my doggies. I am going to have such a hard time leaving them. I mean they love staying with Nanny and Papa and they have so much fun while they are visiting but I've never been away from them for a whole month before. Well, I guess technically it's going to be longer than a month. The puppies spent two weeks with my parents back in 2005 when the husband and I were in St. Louis but a whole month? I am going to miss them so much! I think I'll probably cry when we have to leave them! Yes, I am a big ol baby when it comes to my dogs.

I wish I had some new photos to share or something cool to talk about but the truth is the last 2 weeks of my life have been incredibly boring. No thrift stores, no yard sales, nothing crafty - just trying to prepare for the trip out west and all of the details that go along with that. I'm hoping that I'll finish up some things today so I can come back and share some pictures soon! I'm thinking I should start a new blog for my trip. What do you think?

I have a confession.

I am a compulsive list maker. And I swear, the older I get, the more I am convinced that without a list, I'd never get anything done. I make lists for everything. From regular grocery lists to lists of things I need to do around the house to projects I need to start/finish- it's never ending!

My latest lists are all centered around my big ol adventure I'll be taking in just a couple of weeks. My husband found out in April that he'd be going out to Wyoming for a month this summer. And that I could come along, too. So, as you can well imagine, I've spent the last 3 months making lists!! When I found out that I could come along I immediately decided that I wanted to make a road trip. Sure, I could just as easily fly out, and it would probably be cheaper to do that, but then I'd miss so many great things along the way.

I've searched Google so many times for things to see, places to stay, routes to take that my mind is absolutely spinning with all the possibilities. I've made so many lists- things I need to remember to pack, the mileage between big cities, Mom & Pop motels along the way. And here I sit, 3 weeks before my journey is to start and I am so overwhelmed by all of the information that I can't even decide which route I'm taking to drive out to Wyoming.

When I first told my Momma of my plans I think she thought I was either joking or insane. Maybe a bit of both. I guess she's just worried about me driving over 4,000 miles round-trip alone. I can understand that. I'm a little nervous myself. But I am also so excited that I find myself actually squealing out loud when I discover another cool place to visit! Yes, squeal. Like a pig. I'm not perfect, okay?! Anyhow, my Momma also wishes she could take time off from her job because she'd go out with me. She can't take that much time off though so she's going to watch my two doggies for me while we're gone. My doggies *LOVE* staying at Nanny & PaPa's house. Love.It. They get away with so much crap down there- I can't say I blame them.

Now I'm just waiting for some actual concrete dates from my husband, and he's waiting for dates from the people at the Vice President's office. And this is the military we're dealing with and as anyone that has ever been affiliated with the military will tell you, nothing is ever set in stone. Basically, I'll probably find out the actual dates about a week before we're supposed to be in Wyoming but hopefully it will be sooner than that.

My plans for now are to drive down to NC a few days before I'm supposed to leave & meet my mom to drop off the dogs. Then I'll come back up here to MD, load my car with all of my junk, check my eleven billion lists and then set off for my month long vacation. Well, I guess it's going to be longer than a month. I'm taking about 5 days to drive out there. I'm allowing myself plenty of time to stop along the way so if I see any concrete tee-pees or corn mazes that I simply must check out, well, I'll have time to do that.

And then last night at dinner the husband asked me what my plans were in September, after we got back from Wyoming. Uh, I didn't really have any plans. He told me that as soon as they get back from Wyoming that they'd be leaving again for 8-10 days to go overseas. So, now my plans are to take a different route from Wyoming and head to SC from there. Instead of coming back to MD first and then driving down to SC to pick up my puppies. Ack! That means I can see even MORE of the country than I thought I would. Plus that extends my adventure another week or 2 at least! Eeeek! (yes, that's me squealing!)

So, that's that. I still have so, so much to do. I need to get my car tuned up, I need to actually sit down and (gasp!) make a list of everything I need to get done over the next three weeks, I need to make reservations for the places I'm going to stay. Three weeks really isn't that much time to do all of the stuff I need to but I think it'll all work out. I hope.

Anyone have any fabulous ideas of places I need to add to the "MUST SEE" section of my lists? I haven't decided yet if I'll take I-80 or I-70 but the difference is only about 100 miles. I'll probably base it off of which route has more things to see along the way. Any suggestions? Anyone ever driven cross-country? Any tips you can offer? Thank you in advance for any suggestions/ideas/tips! I'm hoping I'll have internet access while I'm gone so I can bring you all along on the journey!