Retirement Travel and a Weird Mix of Other Stuff
Home!
Yay!
I was supposed to leave the office around 1:00. That was the plan anyway.
I left a little after 6:00. That wouldn’t have been horrible if it weren’t for the fact that the office is three and a half HOURS away.
Traffic on the NJTP was practically bumper-to-bumper the entire way. But it’s the northeast where everything happens FAST.
Ever driven in bumper-to-bumper traffic at 80 mph? It’s awesome.
I am quite happy to be home.
Every time I return to my room, this is what I see.
It may LOOK like just another hotel hallway. But it really creeps me out. Because, really? This is what I see…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv-0kX_IzV4
See what I mean?
I am really ready to go home…
Until this afternoon, I was at our MD house. Tonight, I am elsewhere.
I know it seems like I just got home. In fact, I didn’t do any posts on Friday or even over the weekend, which was spent at the Maryland house, too.
Seriously, I feel like I lost time somewhere or something.
I really don’t know how people who travel for a living do it.
I am in New Jersey yet again. I arrived on Tuesday evening and am staying through Friday. More training for me. Sigh. It’s hard being the new chick.
On another note…
Hubby, Shannon and I all went trick-or-treating with Amy and the grand kids this year.
I really should have gotten a group shot of all of us. Not because the adults were in costume or anything. Just because.
We all had a great time. Even Hubby, who has always say he hates Halloween, but who had a fabulous time scaring people with Joey’s Rex (the dinosaur from Toy Story) flashlight. When you hit the trigger on the light, not only does a light come on, you also here Rex yelling/screaming. Periodically Rex also says, “Were you scared?”
One of the funnier moment actually happened before we left the house. Gaige and Joey, who were both superheroes of a sort, were attacking Pop. Someone said something about Brianna joining in and one of the boys said, “She can’t fight Pop. She’s food.”
He had a point.
This was the first year none of the kids asked to be carried. It’s amazing to see how fast they are growing.
I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!
This time when I drove past, I stopped and snapped a picture…
And you know what? I was right. This place does dwarf the Bass Pro Shop at Arundel Mills. This Cabela’s store is 250,000 square feet. The Bass Pro Shop at Arundel Mills “only” has 130,000 square feet. So this place in PA is almost twice the size of the Bass Pro store. If you’ve ever been in that store at Arundel Mills, you’ll appreciate the magnitude of it all.
I snapped a few other pics during my drive, too. Most were taken while I was driving, so they’re not very good. But here are a couple of shots that should give you an idea how hilly it is around here. “Here” is still New Jersey, but not for much longer!
Since I was checking out this small pack of motorcyclists, I decided to snap a picture. There were two V-Stroms, a Triumph Tiger and some sort of sport bike. The bike models are significant because they are in the same class at the BMW I’d like to buy. 🙂
Hubby and I will definitely have to have a NJ bike weekend next year. NJ and PA, that is. I want to go to the Delaware Water Gap.
Speaking of Delaware…
…I snapped this picture through a very dirty window as I crossed the Delaware River on I-78.
That’s all I’ve got for today, folks. My next post will come from Maryland. Woo hoo!
Or getting ready to. Meg was already down the driveway. Belle was waiting for Mama (that’s me).
And K?
K wasn’t thinking about the driveway. Or Mama. K was thinking about the mouse or mice cowering under our propane tanks.
We finally left without her. She did eventually come along. If you look REALLY closely, you can see Meg is already at the end of the driveway.
Our morning walks are a WV routine. I’m hoping the girls can convince Hubby to walk with them. Since I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in New Jersey.
Sometimes it’s weird to think about where life takes us. Saturday, I was in a place that looked like the Alaskan tundra. Sunday, I was happily strolling through the woods with my three favorite canines.
Now Monday finds me in Somerset, New Jersey.
This morning, early, I sat alone in the hotel dining room eating breakfast. I was surrounded by very serious-looking people in business suits. This was at 7:00 AM. They were all suited up and raring to go. I had just thrown some clothes on (after showering, I should add) and gone down primarily to chug-a-lug some coffee.
I had a USA Today to peruse while I ate. One poor woman at a nearby table had her laptop out and was working. There was a “chef” in the corner frying up some eggs. Waiters were milling around, doling out coffee and orange juice, clearing empty plates, etc.
It was only a five-hour drive from the WV place, but it feels like a different world.
I’d much rather be strolling through the woods with my dogs. And having that instant-oatmeal breakfast with my Hubby.
A girl’s gotta work, right? It just doesn’t seem real sometimes. You know?
The Dolly Sods is a wilderness area that sits at an elevation of about 4,000 feet atop the Allegheny Plateau. It is one of many areas of interest in the Monongahela National Forest. The Dolly Sods is significant because of its elevation and what that means to the flora and fauna.
I’ve wanted to visit for YEARS. Ever since 2005 when we started our “little” WV project. During what little down time we had, I read a lot about the area. And I liked what I read. 🙂
While all of West Virginia is pretty mountainous, the mountains aren’t very high. The highest peak, in fact, is only 4,863 feet. It’s not far at all from The Dolly Sods. It’s been said that many areas of the Dolly Sods are like high-alpine regions in Canada. The snowshoe hare can even be found there.
We’ve ridden our motorcycles near The Dolly Sods many, many times, but never ventured into the actual wilderness area because it is known for its rough, dirt and gravel roads. It is a wilderness, after all, and they want to keep it that way. In fact, descriptions of the route into The Sods said something to the effect of “the road climbs the Allegheny Front.” If you look at this terrain map of the area, you’ll see what I mean. In short, the road went up, and up, and up before we finally reached the top of the Allegheny Plateau. Hubby’s GPS software plotted a graph showing our elevations at various points on the trip down and back, which clearly shows the extreme elevation change entering and leaving The Dolly Sods.
I’m not sure Hubby enjoyed the ride through the Sods. It really was rutted and full of potholes. But it was really picturesque. I could spend an entire day just walking around taking pictures. These are all just snapshots. I hate making Hubby wait around while I do the photography thing.
He’ll probably read this and think, “Wait a minute, isn’t that what you were doing?” The answer? Nope. If I were doing the photography thing, I would’ve had my tripod. And more lenses. The wide angle one would have been nice to have.
I’d love to do some hiking there, too. There are a lot of trails through the Sods, but they are rugged and not recommended for novice hikers. So I’ll need to take that orienteering class first (how to use a compass and topographical map to get around).
I hope you enjoyed your virtual journey with us through the Dolly Sods!