Before I started dialysis, we would drive out to Virginia every other year. Now I just fly and usually solo, because I'm not at all comfortable, dialyzing and a bunch of different facilities.
I've been out east several times in the past 2 years and have found one particular facility I feel as comfortable at as I do at home.
The very best road trip that my kids and I have ever taken was a year or two before my Grandfather died.
We were supposed to leave at 5 am. I had everything sitting by the door, ready to pack the car. Someone moved the power cord for the new tv/dvd unit I'd bought especially for the trip, so that started things off on a sour note. It took almost 45 minutes to find it and it's probably a good thing no one ever 'fessed up to moving it.
Anyway, we finally got on the road by 6:30 am. We drove to Dayton, OH, stopping for breakfast, gas and regular bathroom breaks. In Dayton, we met up with a guy that fancied me in college, but we never became anything more than friends, to this day. We ate at Golden Corral (our first experience there) and enjoyed each other's company before getting back on the road.
We drove on to Wheeling, WV, where we spent the night. We got up around 8 am, ate breakfast and then took the scenic route through rural Pennsylvania, down to Gaithersburg, MD. When I say the scenic route, I mean 2 lane roads most of the way. It was an absolutely beautiful drive.
We stopped at lookout points often and even stopped at a general store kinda place, just inside the MD border. One of my kids wouldn't get out though and when we went to get out of the car, the first ladies we saw had 4 teeth between them. We went in and there were victims of taxidermy all over and we knew we'd hit the bathroom and jet! LOL
It took a minute, but we finally made it down to Gaithersburg, where we stayed overnight with my youngest son's godmother and her hubby.
We got up the next morning and drove down to Petersburg, VA where we stayed with my Grandparents for 3 days. It's funny, we skipped right past the DMV. At that time, I had absolutely not one friend there. Now that's where the majority of my friends are. Big difference a website makes (Yahoo! 360 R.I.P.).
We left Petersburg and headed down to Virginia Beach, where we stayed with the godmother's brother for a couple of days. I LOVE the VA Beach area. Now before we got to VA Beach, we stopped in Hampton and hit Hampton University to pay a surprise visit to my little cousin India. She had no clue we were coming and when we showed up, she'd been giving college tours and was really out of it. It didn't even click who we were for a few seconds, but when it did, she went screaming in the hall that her family was here to visit. We hit Norfolk for a day of sightseeing, touring a navy ship, taking a boat ride on Chesapeake Bay and visiting the Maritime Museum. The next day we went to our favorite spot, the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.
We left Virgina Beach reluctantly, but at the same time excited because we were next headed to North Carolina for the first time. We planned to spend the night in Raleigh and visit with friends for a few hours.
We left Raleigh and the plan was to spend the night in Frankfort, KY, but we got there after midnight and our room was given away, so I decided to drive on to Lexington, KY. Got there are there was some kind of tournament going on, so no room at any of the inns...
Well, I was starting to get tired, but I kept driving. Had I realized that I'd be driving so far, I'd have left earlier and rested more. This leg of the trip I was starting to feel fatigued. The only thing that kept me going was 112 and the cd with Peaches and Cream on it. I had that sucker on repeat. I was so tired by the time I went to lay my head down at the hotel, I couldn't even relax. Every time I drifted off to sleep, my eyes would pop open because I thought I was still driving. It was HORRIBLE.
I got a later start the next day because I wanted to be well rested. It was a nice drive though. A lot of forest. Weeks later, a girl from my hometown would lose her life along the very same highway.
We stopped at a beautiful catholic church I saw from the highway, in Indiana. I felt drawn to it when I saw it and it ended up having a little store that I bought a few things from.
Then we drove to and stopped in Mt. Vernon, IL. We planned to visit a friend the next day, so we got dinner and rested.
We got up the next day, visited my friend and headed home.
We clocked over 2,000 miles that trip and it was so worth it!
THAT, is what I love to do...
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