It was the Best of Times, it was the Worst of Times...

I am so glad I'm home.

I had a great time visiting my in-laws (brother, sister, mother, nieces and nephew). They are the type people who are very easy to visit. They just absorb you into the family. We ate good food and played some games. Traded recipes. Visited a couple of thrift stores. I gave my sister-in-law a lesson in cutting her guy's hair. She didn't need much help, her hair cuts looked better than some licensed professional's I've seen!

The process of getting up there and back home however...there's just no quick way to do it. On the way up, we made it an hour and a half up the road before we stopped for lunch. Since it was Thanksgiving, Waffle House was the only choice. It's kind of difficult to eat that in the car. (I'm thinking specifically about a 5 year old with a wobbly styrofoam plate balanced on her legs in the back seat) So we opted to sit and eat. After leaving home at about 11 am, we finally arrived at 7 pm. I was pretty proud of my patience about the whole thing.

Coming home was a test of patience,and navigational cunning.

It was a gray, rainy day when we left Sunday. One of those days you wish you didn't have to go anywhere except to bed. With a book. But no. We had to drive umpteen hours home. About thirty minutes from their house traffic slowed to a crawl and stayed that way for a couple of hours. Everyone, it seems, thought it would be a good idea to return home from Thanksgiving holidays on Sunday. Go figure. An hour and a half from home we ran into some construction that made finding our exit a test of observation and reflexes. We missed our turn the first go round, found it the second and by some miracle (certainly not because of well-labeled exits) we landed on the road home.

I "felt" my way home from there as the fog was playing "peek-a-boo" with the car. While there was little traffic, the drive is dark and uninteresting. A great opportunity for road hypnosis and an over active imagination. (Did I just see something on the edge of the darkness?) Finally, we pulled into our driveway, where I attempted to surgically sever the bond between my bottom and the car seat.

But we are safe and I am thankful.

And now I've taken you on a virtual drive of my trip home.

Wore you out didn't it?