Today was our longest drive day, with a stop in the middle to visit Barbara’s grandma in Pennsylvania. Again, Greta chose to put us on country paths. The drive seemed long, but we made it only 20 minutes late. Granny had several stops to make, since she is no longer mobile by car or really by walking, so we took her around town. We went to the post office, the bank and Wal-Mart. In the middle of all that, we ate lunch at a steak house that also served buckets of peanuts. Shells were all over the place, and the servers invited us to throw our shells on the ground. Sort of funny, but when the waitress was slow in getting to us, granny would yell at her. Old people just don’t have patience, but we did get out of there faster thanks to her.
When we got back to her place, Barbara’s aunt and uncle had arrived. It was so nice to see them. Ken was his usual jovial self. We chatted for about an hour and then went on an even longer car ride. OK… Google Earth had recommended two highways to get to my parent’s house. Greta was giving us all these back country roads, yet she was going to save us an hour of travel time. I weighed these options and opted for the country roads. Maybe I shouldn’t have. What Greta doesn’t include are wait times at stop lights. Also, country roads are twisty and filled with drivers of all abilities, so driving becomes much more of an active event, rather than a passive one (i.e.: set the cruise control and point in a general direction), which a highway offers. By the end of our five hour drive, we had lost 27 minutes due to stop lights and two (minor) wrong turns.
The lake was so wonderful to see. After all these travel and days of unrelenting heat, my body felt absolutely wreaked. I’ve been taking Motrin just to move. Now I can relax.