Travelogue

It took several days, and the recovery has taken several more, but I'm finally in Indiana and sort of back to normal after the trip.  Here are a few highlights.

We made it to Danvers, CT the first night, where we missed our exit and then drove in circles for half an hour trying to find the hotel.  This gave us the opportunity to drive past the world's largest dairy store.  The drive the next morning through the rest of CT, NY, and into Pennsylvania was gorgeous.  We passed through or by a few interesting towns, including Lords Valley, PA and Frackville.  We stopped to get gas, and everyone's spirits were lifted when I spotted a display of Tastykakes, the greatest snack food known to man.  And available almost exclusively in Pennsylvania.  (It was apparently not the first time the woman behind the counter had a group of semi-delirious travelers carry the entire contents of her snack cake display up to the register.)  We stocked up on Krimpets and TastyPies and hit the road again.

Next stop was Hershey, PA, The Sweetest Place on Earth, and home to Hershey's Chocolate.  Also home to Hershey Park, where I had such a good time as a child that my family still hasn't let me live it down.  Wahoo!  We drove down both Chocolate Avenue and Cocoa Avenue.  Usually the whole town smells like chocolate, but they weren't making any the day we drove through.  Apparently, they're in the process of moving the actual chocolate making to China.  We also drove past a Dove facility.

The reason we were in Hershey is that my great aunt lives in the Masonic home next door in Elizabethtown.  Wowza, is that place big.  It could probably be a whole city by itself.  Auntie was in fine form.  91 and sharp as a tack, she was overjoyed to have us stay with her for the night, even though Trouble decided to jump up on her bed and hide under her $1,000 hand stitched quilt.  Otherwise, he was very well behaved.  Except for the part when it was time to leave and he decided he wasn't going back in that damn carrier no matter what anyone said.  He ran around Auntie's living room like his tail was on fire, while she crooned "poor baby" and my father and uncle alternately chased him and jumped away in fear of being bit.  He wouldn't really bite anyone.  Troub is a pacifist at heart, as well as being the original scaredy cat.  But he did NOT want to go back in that carrier.  (Can't say I blame him.)  He actually growled at everyone, including me.

The next day was the miserable slog.  Nine hours+ in the car, from Elizabethtown, PA all the way to Indianapolis.  It was the long day, so of course my Crohn's decided to kick up about 15 minutes after we got in the car.  Stupid stomach.  We went through some tunnels, and we stopped at a rest stop where we stocked up again on TastyKakes and I found a Hershey Kiss magnet to add to my magnet collection.  (I now have a magnet from every state I've ever lived in, except for Iowa, and a lot of other fun ones, too.  I'm hoping to come up with a way to display them in my room that won't cost and arm and a leg.  Large magnetic white boards aren't cheap.)  I remember waving at Jenny and Lucy as we blew through Columbus sometime around 6:30 that evening.  Other than that, the day is mostly just one long, dreadful blur.  We rolled into the hotel around 9:30pm.  I don't think four people and a cat have ever been happier to get out of a car.

And that is the story of my trip from Massachusetts to Indiana.  I'd post pictures, but I didn't take any.  (They wouldn't have been any good anyway.  I'm a terrible photographer.)  Sometime in the next 20 hours or so I'll try to fill you in on the house.  I'm pretty sure we'll be moving out of the hotel tomorrow, and God only knows when I'll have internet access again.  As far as I know, my parents haven't even contacted the phone company about setting up service yet.  Oh, well.  I guess that's why Starbucks was invented.