Monday, January 05, 2015

On the Road Across America - Day One


My daughter got orders to transfer from Virginia Beach to Washington State and as she had a car that she loved and didn't want to part with, she convinced me, Mom, to fly back and drive across country with her.  In spite of not having a transcontinental trip in Winter on my life-list, with great devotion, I boarded a United red-eye out of SeaTac on December 28th, arriving at Norfolk Airport at 9:45 in the morning of December 29th.  I had hoped to sleep on the plane and was able to get a few hours along the way.  She was packed, ready to go, and had already signed out so there was no reason to stay.  Obviously I was also packed -- and just added my stuff to the back seat of the car.  So we left right from the airport and "headed west" just like thousands of pioneers had done in the past.  Not wagons and horses for us fortunately!  Those pioneers were hardy souls!
As we started on our way I asked her if she was really going to miss living on the beach but she is looking forward to being closer to home so it was not a wrenching parting.  She had already said her goodbyes to her beach as well as the lighthouses of Fort Story and now was ready to take her last views of the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay.  Unlike our previous summer time visit, this time we drove through the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel -- underwater!
No sir, NOT thinking about the tons of water soon to be over my head.
The first leg of our journey was heading generally north and west.  We didn't know how fast we would travel since our route was dependent on the weather and while most likely going north, we also were ready to consider a southern US trip if needed. We had a few friends we hoped to see along the way but were pretty tentative about when we might arrive. Our friends, Dave and Ruth Ann, had been left a message that we were planning this trip, but we hadn't heard back.  We knew we were always welcome if they were home.  We planned for the first day to be a short one as I was pretty jet-lagged.  The kid did most of the driving and did a great job. We followed her GPS 'friend' TomTom's instructions with plans to head toward Cleveland where our family had lived years ago. 
 
Friend Janie, this one is for you!  
We seemed to be going in and out of states pretty rapidly!  I know we started in Virginia, went past DC, drove into West Virginia and later into Maryland (was it back into Maryland, or was it the first time??).  After 319 miles the sun was starting to go down, as were our eyelids and we decided it was time to call it a day.  We drove through Cumberland which looked like a very old city and stopped a couple of miles further on as we came upon a Comfort Inn in Lavale which looked welcoming and inviting in the last rays of daylight -- and like a very good place to stop. 
The room felt just a comfortable as it looked!  We were ready to sleep by about 8 PM.  I was a little worried that if I went to sleep so soon I'd wake up and not be able to return to sleep.  But to my surprise, I went to sleep, woke at midnight, took about 45 minutes to return to sleep, and slept until 8 AM.  I slept better than a baby.  The bed was amazingly comfortable!  As my eyes closed, I thanked the Lord for a good and safe first day of travel on our long journey!  321 miles already traveled!

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