So let’s see how much I can pull back from the last week or so.
The plan was to leave very early Thursday morning as I wanted to get the majority of the driving done on the first day. Sure pulling out at 5am wasn’t much fun but it was a necessary evil for my plan. I grabbed my XL Dunkin Donuts coffee and hit I-75. The dogs were happy as always to be in the van but they had no clue what adventure awaited them.
The first day really didn’t have anything all that notable to report. We have been up and down this route far too many times for it to hold much intrigue. The highlight of the day was stopping at South of the Border and discovering their “pet toilets”. It was a small little fenced in area complete with fire hydrants and a small dog house. I’m not quite sure how we never saw it before in our various stops at the world famous tourist trap.
In total we drove just over 900 miles on Thursday, a staggering amount that matches the dreadful drive across Texas. We stopped around 8 pm in Virginia, finding a pet friendly Hampton Inn to crash in.
We had decided last minute to make a pit stop at Ali’s brother’s place to surprise our nieces. The drive to their place up 95 was a large pain in the ass as we hit various traffic snarls that delayed our arrival several times.
When we finally got there we let the dogs go into the house first. Lauryn and Laiken were shocked for a minute when they saw two dogs coming towards them until they realized it was Nicki and Sadie. Then they saw Ali and went berserk screaming “Aunt Ali! Nicki! Sadie! Uncle Shawn!!!” They were so excited and so surprised.
Ali’s parent also were there, they had no idea we were showing up either and were equally surprised, minus the screaming. I hadn’t seen Ali’s parents in probably three years, when I last came up to play the Rumble with Randall. Where as Ali has been a regular visitor to PA over the past few years, I have hardly set my foot in my home state.
Nicki was initially scared for a brief period but she quickly warmed up to everyone. I was surprised that she seemed to remember Ali’s dad who she hasn’t seen in at least a half decade. She went right over to him.
After the initial excitement settled down we headed over to the neighbor’s back yard which was fenced in. They have a small dog named Zoe that the girls wanted me to meet. The yard also gave our dogs a chance to burn off some energy after sitting in a van for the better part of two days.
There was actually some snow left on the ground despite the unseasonably warm temps that were close to 70 degrees. Nicki and Sadie had no problem getting along with Zoe and soon the three of them were running around the yard playing.
I played with both the dogs and my nieces. I made some snowballs and tossed them to the dogs. They were confused when the balls crumbled as they tried to snatch them with their mouth. It was funny to watch.
We had a great evening with the girls, they are both at a very cute age.
Friday night a tremendous windstorm went through. I could hear the wind howling through out the night, at times I could feel the house moving a bit in protest. When I went outside with the dogs Saturday morning I saw the aftermath. There was a bunch of stuff blown over/around including their heavy gas grill which was relocated on the deck by a gust of wind.
The wind also seemed to blow away the warm weather. The strong wind was a very cold wind as well. I quickly grabbed a sweatshirt. The girls were sad that we had to go so soon but we told them hopefully we would see them down in Florida sooner rather than later.
Our fears of not experiencing winter during the trip were put to rest as we traveled westward. We drove through many periods of light snow. The drive was a bit treacherous as the strong winds buffeted the van constantly on the highway. I am sure our mileage during that leg of the trip was very poor.
We pulled into dad’s place mid afternoon, finding it surprisingly easy despite it’s very remote location. As we pulled into the winding driveway we got our first in person look at the property which is very large, 18 acres in total. The house looked very nice with porches in the front and back. I saw my brother Pat’s car was already in the driveway, he was visiting for the first time as well. I didn’t know that Pat had a girlfriend, Maureen, who was visiting as well.
Dad let his dogs out so the re-acquaintance session could begin. It took very little time before the 4 dogs were running around in the yard. Dad’s place had significantly more snow than we saw in the east but there were bare spots on the ground.
We walked around the property with the dogs, enjoying watching Sadie and Nicki play in the snow, a substance that is foreign to them outside their brief experience with it in Yellowstone last year.
Dad and Teresa’s house has been under renovation for around 7 months. Although the work is not done it is getting close to completion. Several of the rooms were totally gutted and redone, including the master bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Of course the rooms looked great.
The showpiece of the house is the big stone wall in the living room area. This also where the wood stove is located which does a nice job of heating that area. It sort of gives the house a ski lodge type of feel. The house also has a number of sky lights which flood the living area with natural light which is a really nice touch.
Evidently the house only recently became suitable for guests due to the renovation mess. My step mom worked her ass off getting everything ready. I really appreciated her effort, it looked great.
It didn’t take very long until Dad suggested that we go try out his new toboggan on the big hill in the back. We trekked outside into the cold air that felt downright frigid when teamed with the steady icy wind that was like daggers on your skin. Hey, we wanted winter weather right?
All of us took turns going down the hill. Dad and I tried both solo and tandem runs. My trip down with Ali went better than my solo attempt. The hill was rather steep and long, the walk back up top was a chore. Despite the angle of the hill Sadie had no problem chasing each rider both down the hill and back up every time. She was just having a blast.
Nicki started looking very cold as she was standing in the snow, she was shivering. I actually picked her up and held her for a bit to try to warm her up.
After we each had at least one run down the hill we were all ready to retreat inside. The arctic wind even felt especially cold, even to to my Dad and Teresa who have been living in it all winter.
We had a nice relaxing evening on Saturday eating a home cooked meal and playing Scrabble in front of the warm fireplace. Teresa is an expert Scrabble player and beat us easily.
Our first night in NW PA was spent firmly entrenched under the covers. We made the mistake of closing our bedroom door which cut us off from the auxiliary heat the fireplace made. As a result the room felt frigid. I wouldn’t be surprised if the temps in the room dipped into the upper 50’s.
On Sunday morning Dad had made reservations to have breakfast at some nearby resort/lodge. I put the bench seat up in the van so we could all pile into one vehicle. The drive there was very scenic, along a river.
We had a good breakfast at the lodge despite it also feeling quite cold. I had my jacket on during the entire meal. The lodge itself was very rustic and comforting. During the meal I got to catch up with Patrick a bit. He talked about his job, which is extremely interesting and challenging. He does engineering for a company that creates motion tracking devices for primarily military purposes.
After breakfast we headed to a nearby town so Dad could get a Sunday paper. As we pulled up to the small store the van all of a sudden started backfiring and almost shutting off. Instantly I was like “oh no, not again”. I thought I had my fill of van problems during last summer’s trip to last awhile. I had to work the gas to keep the van from shutting off. The problem came and went during the trip back to dad’s place, I was just glad we got back.
I theorized that maybe the MAF sensor was going bad. I was pretty sure that whatever the problem was it was sensor related because of the sporadic nature of it. When we got back I pulled off the air box to take a look at the sensor, of course I couldn’t tell much just by looking at it. Dad said he knew the local garage owner and that he would call him first thing Monday to see if he could look at it. The rest of Sunday the van was on my mind, I had nightmares of this issue delaying our trip back home AND costing a ton of cash in the process.
Pat and his girlfriend headed back to Pittsburgh shortly after we got back from breakfast. I mentioned to him about the half marathon I am supposed to do in a couple weeks and told him he should fly down and do it. Surprisingly he seemed open to the possibility. Pat is a great runner, much, much better than I could ever hope to be. He has two marathons under his belt and is now aiming for a 70 mile ULTRA run.
On Sunday afternoon we headed to yet another small town that was having a chainsaw carving festival. Yes, I said chainsaw carving. My first impression when dad mentioned it was “oh, great….” but it actually was quite interesting. Seeing these artists create these intricate sculptures out of a hunk of log was fascinating. The patience and creativity that was on display really impressed me, not to mention they were doing this in VERY cold weather.
Bears obviously were the most popular object to create with a chainsaw as we saw dozen’s of them for sale. Teresa actually bought one piece for their house. Ali was feeling the itch to buy something although we really didn’t need anything. In the end common sense won out and we walked out empty handed.
There were a number of dogs present at the event. We didn’t bring ours because of chainsaw noise. I petted one of them a couple times. She looked like she was a boxer mix. It was funny, when I would pet her she would turn around so her rear end was facing me, perhaps inviting me to sniff her ass in a dog-like fashion. I decided to stick to petting.
One of the artists had a big black lab that was laying in a round lounge chair. Ali and I both did a double take as we saw the poor guy covered in the wood chips that were getting shot out of his owner’s chain saw. The dog appeared to care less.
By the time we saw all of the exhibitions we were once again frozen solid courtesy of more winter wind. Despite my long sleeve t-shirt, two sweat shirts and winter coat I was shivering.
We headed home and again tried to stay warm by the fire. Teresa ran out and grabbed pizza for dinner. Dad and I went out on a walk with the dogs. Along the front of the property we ran into the maple syrup guy. He was tapping the sugar maples along the road. I had never seen this process before and found it very interesting.
During the course of the conversation I found out a ton about the maple syrup creation process. They tap the trees for about one month during spring when the trees come out of hibernation. Each tree will produce about 10 gallons of sap during this period, much more than I expected.
It takes about 50 gallons of raw maple sap to produce 1 gallon of finished maple syrup. This guy had roughly 4600 trees tapped in the area. Some trees just had these buckets hung directly off the tap. Other sections had multiple trees connected together via tubes that fed via gravity to larger collection barrels.
The process seemed extremely labor intensive to me but the guy said he loved it and does it as a side business.
Sunday evening we watched an odd film that my Dad and Teresa had on dvd. It had no dialogue, only images, video footage and music. The film is based on the prophecies of the Hopi indians which basically predict that man will destroy himself and the world through his own ignorance.
The film is filled with images that depict mankind as almost insect-like, buzzing about the planet in mostly meaningless daily lives, oblivious to the world they exist in. It was filled with powerful messages if you managed to pay attention.
Monday morning I woke up and did a double take. The forecast had called for an inch or two of snow. It had actually started snowing before we went to bed. We we wound up getting at least a half foot of snow if not more.
The van was buried with snow going half way up the tires. I had nightmares of getting it to the garage in these sort of conditions. Ali was surprised as well when she saw all the snow. Of course, the dogs loved it.
As soon as I let them out they rocketed into the winter wonderland, running about wildly. It was so funny to see Nicki bounding through the snow.
Dad called the garage to see if he could look at the van, luckily he said he could. I spent a good twenty minutes clearing the vehicles off. It felt so weird to be brushing snow off a vehicle after such a long hiatus.
I was quite worried about the drive to the garage. I had never had the van on snowy roads although I hoped it’s 5000 pound heft would make it a decent snow performer. Once we got out of the driveway and off the road that runs in front of the house the roads were surprisingly decent. I left a large buffer zone between the van and dad’s vehicle just to be safe. The party van performed admirably.
We dropped off the van at the garage which was tucked away back off a main road. The owner, Gary, said he would look at the van in an hour or so and let us know what he found. Of course the van did not sputter or hesitate once during the drive there, typical.
Once we got back dad and I started on the snow removal process. He hopped on his tractor to start on the driveway. I grabbed a shovel and started working around the house. At least the shoveling helped keep me warm.
I then headed up on the roof of the house. Dad said there were a couple spots where ice dams form because of poor design. Dad said something about trying to clear the snow from these areas with a garage broom from the ground. I thought it would be much easier to do from up on the roof. I grabbed a ladder and carefully maneuvered my way up top.
I pushed the snow off the bottom section of the roof line. I then turned the broom on it’s side and used it as a poor man’s sledge hammer to break up the majority of the ice that was already formed there. I spent a good half hour up on the roof trying to clear what I could.
When I got down dad asked if I wanted to use the tractor to finish up the driveway clearing. Sure, who turns down a chance to use power equipment? It took some time to get used to how to position the bucket for optimal snow removal but after a little while I more or less had the hang of it. Sitting on the tractor for that period of time froze me to the bone. I was woefully underdressed for the conditions.
Later in the day we heard back from the garage. He said the crank position sensor on the engine was showing intermittent errors and he replaced it. The bill was a reasonable 180 bucks. Hell the guy’s labor rate was a measly $38 an hour, you have to love that. We picked the van back and headed back to dad’s. I was relieved that what could have been a major van issue was apparently handled.
On Monday night I offered to take my dad and Teresa out to dinner instead of making Teresa prepare another meal. We wound up going to the hotel owned by the prior owner of dad’s house, the Vowinkle Hotel. I had to laugh when we walked in the dining room and there was NOONE there. We had the place to ourselves.
Despite the lack of patrons, we had an enjoyable dinner that was capped off by some really good homemade deserts. We got to meet the prior owner, an older man with poor hearing. At the bar was sitting a truly bizarre looking older woman. I wish I had my phone with to take a picture. “She” looked like an old drag queen.
I awoke early on Tuesday morning, knowing I had to get everything packed and ready to go. I tried to be proactive and start the fire in the woodstove but gave up after a half dozen attempts. When dad got up he struggled a bit as well to get it going. Evidently I wasn’t using enough paper.
It was bittersweet to be packing up to go. Ali, myself and especially the dogs had a good time. We love Maggie and Clara, dad’s dogs, a bunch too. To have to say goodbye after a quick visit was sad. However the visit went about as well as we could hope. We got to experience full blown winter and all that comes with it. Seeing the four dogs interact in the snow was endlessly entertaining for us. It was also great to see first hand what hopefully will be THE house that dad finally gets to enjoy the rest of his retirement in.
We said our goodbye’s and slowly pulled out.
Sadie seemed legitimately bummed about leaving. Her and Clara played non-stop during the visit and seemed to be great buddies.
The first day of the trip back to Florida was not much fun. The driving conditions were pretty miserable. We went through a combination of snow, sleet and rain throughout the day. Much of the twisty roadway was up and down mountains which really made the miles go by slowly. I was pretty miserable since I elected to drive the entire day because of the bad conditions.
I had another “oh no” van moment about half way through the day. The check engine light came on during a long climb up a mountain. The light corresponded with a fluctuation in power level. this time it definitely felt like what happens when a MAF sensor flakes out. The lack of power continued to happen until we stopped for a bathroom break. When I turned the van back on the problem was gone although the check engine light remained. The next day the light actually turned itself off and we had no further problems.
I was quite glad when we reached Colombia South Carolina around 9pm after putting in close to 700 miles, I was beat.
After hurriedly making the dog dinners and taking showers we hit bed since we wanted to be on the road by 6Am the next morning.
I could hardly believe it when maybe 15 minutes after I fell asleep I was awakened by Ali. She said the fire alarm was going off….
I was pissed, knowing that more than likely some idiot either pulled the alarm or set it off by smoking. I was hoping it would just shut itself off but there was no such luck. I had to drag myself out of bed and throw clothing on top of my pajamas. Ali threw a bunch of stuff in bags and took it outside with us in the remote chance this was an actual fire, which it wasn’t.
After maybe 5-10 minutes of standing outside the firemen issues the all clear and we were allowed back in the hotel. I was so annoyed that I wasn’t able to fall back asleep for at least 45 minutes.
I woke up at 5am to get ready for our departure. I had to practically pull Ali out of bed at 5:30. It was tough but we were in the van by 6.
The first stop was at the car wash right down the street. The van was disgustingly dirty from it’s exposure to raw winter weather. A quick trip through the no touch car wash did a surprisingly good job of removing most of the crud.
The next stop was at the nearest Dunkin Donuts. DD coffee is almost a pre-requisite start of a road trip day. I consumed a couple gallons of coffee during the trip I’m sure.
The final leg of the drive home went quite well. We had good weather, reasonable traffic and fast roads. We pulled into the house around 4:30, just as our neighbor was walking up to our place to drop off the mail. (she took care of Tuki for us)
The rest of the evening was mostly spent scrambling to get stuff unpacked and the house more or less in order. Unfortunately Ali said that she had started feeling sick. She is hoping to stave it off with a healthy dose of Airborne. She is supposed to run a half marathon on Sunday.
All in all the trip went about as well as we could hope. We got a full dose of winter, had a fantastic time watching the dogs experience the elements, spent some quality time with family and managed to log 3000 miles without any major incidents. We pwned it.
All 300 pictures can be seen here. There are some real good ones in there.
