Hello? Anyone still there? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Sooooo yeah it's been awhile since I posted.  So much has happened over the past 5 years! If you are one of my Facebook friends, you've seen the vast quantities of road trips we've been on and the thousands of pics I've posted.  The last time posted was before The Mandalorian came out and I've been utterly besotted with Baby Yoda/Grogu since then.  He's just the cutest little green jelly bean ever.  

From 2018-2021 we were visting the grandkids about 2-3 times a year, but then we had a huge falling out w/ my stepson (which I still maintain was NOT our fault but the story is too long to go into) so we haven't seen the boys since.  That plunged me into a deep depression and anxiety for a long time.  I was still in touch w/ the mother of the kids who told us we could still visit, but my stepson didn't want to be present so she could meet us at a playground or something.  I'm sorry but it's a long way to go and a lot of money to only see them for an hour at a time.  It was just too painful so I ended up blocking her.  I feel bad that the boys are collateral damage.  I was still sending gifts on bdays and holidays but I had to make a clean break for my own mental health.  If the boys want to look us up when they are older, we will give them a chance and we WILL tell them EXACTLY what happened, since I am sure we are the bad guys in the parents' and paternal grandmother's narratives.  

In the meantime, my other 2 stepkids started pulling away from us too and we've been ghosted.  Last time we saw my youngest stepson was Dec of 2021 when we ran into him and he told us that he'd moved back from Arkansas (we'd visited him in June of 2021 in AR), and he'd come see us on Christmas Day.  That was the last we heard from or saw him.  He's back w/ a girlfriend we despised....and told him so when we were in AR....so I suspect that's why he's avoided us.  As for my stepdaughter, she moved north of Boston and stopped reaching out.  I was always the one initiating contact and would get monosyllabic replies from her.  The last straw came on Russell's 60th birthday in 2022 when NONE of his kids wished him a happy bday.  I waited till 10pm and sent terse messages to both her and her younger brother that they disgusted me the way they treat their father.  She blocked me the next day.  I know damn well that their mother is encouraging this rift.  We last saw her after the disasterous OH trip, and she was going to work with us on the situation.  Next thing we know, she's cut off contact w/ us as well.  I was nothing but kind to that woman for EIGHT YEARS.  I thought all that bad blood blood was behind them.  I gave her the benefit of the doubt, I would ask him not to say bad stuff about her in front of the kids, I ALWAYS gave her a flash drive of pics of the boys from our trips since she couldn't go as often as we did (pics of just them, not us), always got pics processed and would frame them for her.  So all of them can just fuck right off.  

Our lives have actually gotten peaceful and less complicated w/o their nonstop drama and constant requests for handouts.  It's enabled us to travel whenever we want and wherever we want w/o having to build in time to go to Ohio.  I just hope they realize that what they've done is permanent.  I can forgive them b/c they are a product of parental alienation by their POS mother, but I will never forget.  I will never trust them again, be friends with them, or help them.  Even if they reach out to apologize.  They've proved themselves to be the most selfish, backstabbing, ungrateful, disloyal users.  

In other news, my mom passed away in Oct 2019 which finally set me free of her verbal, mental and emotional abuse.  I couldn't even muster up a single tear at her funeral.  And I tried too....I was thinking about all the sad scenes from Harry Potter that make me cry, the music from To Kill a Mockingbird, and nothing worked.  

My mother in law lived with us in the coop (cottage) from the summer of 2019 till March of 2022 and she was a delight.  The mom I never had.  I loved having her here.  You always here of conflicts w/ married couples when an inlaw moves in but we never had that dynamic at all.  In fact, I used to constantly reassure her we weren't going to kick her out and we were trying to keep her here so PLEASE tell me if she wasn't feeling well or needed something.  She was so used to everyone putting her needs last that she just couldn't get it in her head that we were putting her needs first.  But she got a bad UTI and my sisters in law used that as the opportunity to throw her in a nursing home, since they were her powers of attorney.  We visited her 2-3 times a week, faithfully.  She passed away this past March and we both miss her so much.  It was hard to get into the habit of not going to see her.  I caught myself numerous times about to say, 'Wanna go visit Ma today?'  

After the kids kicked us to the curb, we started discussing relocating to another state.  We hate Mass, we hate Cape Cod and Sandwich.  I never wanted to spend my life here....and certainly not in my childhood home.  The house is old and it's just too much to deal with anymore.  4 buildings on the property that all date to the early 1900s.  And the yard is too big to mow and take care of.  We are now the proud owners of 10 acres in Michigan, about 20 miles west of Lake Huron.  We closed on the property in August.  The plan is to sell this house and build out there.  This coming winter my plan is to start boxing up nonessential things.  In a perfect world we would be moving a year from now.  We've already met with a modular home company and have some floor plans to look over and work on.  

The best thing of all is how much I've knocked off my Bucket List the past few years!!!  I've now been to all lower 48 states....Russell has 46 (missing OR and CA).  We've done Rte 66 once and planning to go again next year since I'm turning 60 this month. I'm calling it '60 on 66' and this time we'll push into California.  We've been to the Canadian Maritimes twice, and Niagara Falls.  Years ago I'd made some Bucket List Pinterest Boards and they have been so whittled down that there's hardly anything on them anymore.  Everything's been moved over to my 'Bucket List: DONE' pinboard and it has over 500 things on it.  One more cross country trip on Rte 66 and back and one more trip to Maine and all that'll be left are the things in the Pacific NW that I didn't see when I lived there.  And let's face it, the PNW is a lot closer to Michigan than Cape Cod is.  

I will try to update more.  To be honest when my cousin Barbara passed away in 2017, I kinda lost my spark to blog cause she was my most avid reader as she didn't have Facebook.  

The Final Push for Home

While the delay totally sucked, it enabled to pass through PA during the day which was good because there was something I'd seen on the way out that I was sooooo hoping to get a picture of, even if we were on the highway.   

This farm was huge.

I was surprised that the Chesapeake Bay Watershed starts to far west.  Chesapeake Bay is in the Maryland/Virginia/Delaware area.

I have always wanted to see a Mail Pouch Tobacco barn.  It's sooooo quintessentially Americana.  I saw two on the way west which took me by surprise and I was so bummed that I couldn't get pics.  I did make a mental note of the mile markers though.  On the way east I thought it would be impossible, but I had Russell put down the left rear window, I set my camera on sports mode (continual shooting) and when we got close to the mile marker area, I started shooting.  I was soooo happy with how they came out, considering we were doing about 70 mph.

This is the other one, almost covered by trees but I got it!

Twas a long trip home though.

This is coming into New York City, at about 9:30 p.m.

I actually love how these came out.

George Washington Bridge.

NYC from the bridge

We got home at 2:00AM.  We had both been up 43 hours straight and literally collapsed in bed.  It was a wonderful trip though and we can't wait to go back!

Belle Vernon, PA

Too soon our trip came to an end.  I forgot to take a pic of our hotel the whole time we were there so I got this shot around 11pm which is when we started the drive east.  

We pulled over around 4:00 AM and Russell was gonna take a nap.  Unfortunately the dashboard lit up that the battery wasn't charging and there was an issue with the brakes.  Greeeat.  Thank god I have AAA cause I called them right away, but it took 3 hours for them to show up.  It was determined that it was probably an alternator issue.  We were 600 miles from home and I was so tired (having been up since 7AM the day before) that I start crying.  The guy said that he would lead us to a garage in Belle Vernon and, hopefully, they could squeeze us in.  We hobbled west for one exit and pulled in.  The mechanics were very nice and said they would get it done and us on our way, but it would be a wait.  We didn't care.  Just do it.  They took it into the shop at 10:30 and were kind enough to lend us a pick up truck that fit Sagan too, so that we could go get some breakfast and kill time.  

Since there was literally NOTHING to do, we took a short walk around so that I could take some pictures.  It's a very run down, hinky town and I was afraid to go off on my own so Russell walked Sagan and escorted me.

And guess where we were?  Below that blue bridge I had to take a picture of on the way west. 

Belle Vernon is in way western PA, only 40 or so miles from the border w/ West Virginia.  This is coal mining and steel country, which has not rebounded from prior recessions and times are still hard. 

I'd love to have gotten a look inside this place but it was being torn down.

The decay made for some interesting pictures.  I may convert some of them to black & white.

This is where we waited till about 1:30 in the afternoon.  They were good to us though, and we truly appreciated their kindness.  

Monongahela River.  If you were to follow that river in that direction (north), you'd hit Pittsburgh in about 30 or 40 miles.

They had to replace the alternator and the rear brake lines.  But on the test drive, the front brake lines blew out.  Talk about a kick in the chiclets.  That was so demoralizing to hear.  The guy said what he could do was block it off the really bad line in front and it would definitely get us home.  We finally got rolling again at about 2pm.  We were supposed to be home by then.  So back on the road we go, 10 hours behind.   Russell missed a turn and we ended up slogging through downtown Harrisburg (the state capitol) at rush hour.  I saw Three Mile Island from a distance.  Next thing I know he's off the highway and we are lost in very rural....and hilly.....PA, with limited cell signals.  My friend Liz was texting with me cause she was online trying to find where we were to tell us how to get back.  After about a 45 minute detour, we were back on I-78 and those last 300 miles were torture.

Happy Travelers

After our second grandson was born in March, we decided that it was high time we go to Ohio and meet the babies.  I was talking about it with Val and she said how she'd love to go too.  I told her she was more than welcome to caravan with us, since we were taking Sagan.

We all left at about midnight and drove all night and the next day to get there.  850 miles one way, about 17 hours due to stops.  

 

After we got through the mess that is the Cross Bronx Expressway, George Washington Bridge and New Jersey, we pulled over for breakfast in eastern Pennsylvania at around 7:00 a.m.

Here we are on the road again.  I couldn't bear to leave Sagan behind.  He's never boarded here like he did when I lived in Washington, and having my friends come in to feed and walk him wasn't really an option cause he'd be alone for hours and hours in between, and for days.  Thanks to the website BringFido.com, I was able to find a dog-friendly hotel that allowed all breeds, and also allowed dogs to stay in the rooms unattended if they were in a crate.  Our hotel was the Red Roof Inn, in Middletown and it was awesome.  6 miles from Casi & Jeff's, so it was easy to swing back to the hotel every couple of hours to walk and feed him.  He did great on this trip!  But I digress.

My trusty chauffeur.  We took the Suburban cause it had enough room for all the luggage, crate and the presents we were bringing to everyone.  

Coming into the Appalachian Mountains of PA.  It was foggy most of the way.

There are four tunnels through four mountains.  This is one of them, going through Alleghany Mountain.

Pennsylvania is one long-ass state.  

There's Val moving over in front of us.  

Lots of farms, barns and silos.

This blue bridge is in Belle Vernon, PA and it crosses the Monongahela River.  It's kind of ironic that I shot this picture when Belle Vernon ended up coming into play later on.

 There is a sliver of West Virginia between PA and OH.  I think it's all of 15 miles border to border. 

Really loved the old buildings.

Wheeling is the capitol of West Virginia and on the border of Ohio.  

Jeff & Casi live on the western part of OH so we still had another 4 to 5 hours of driving.  It was in OH where we discovered the air conditioning in the Suburban doesn't work.  The temperature also shot up from the 60s on the entire trip to the high 80s.  This last leg of the trip was pretty hot and miserable, slogging through farm country with nary a tree in sight, heading west with the late afternoon sun in our faces.

We did get a quick, cooling respite when we passed through a rain and wind squall.  

The skies were so dark and it got so windy that I was looking all over to see if any of the clouds started to rotate.

I would not have been surprised if that had turned into a funnel cloud, but it didn't.  I admit I was a little disappointed.

We arrived at our hotel in Middletown at about 4:00 p.m., exhausted, hot, sweaty and hungry.  Couldn't wait to get all our stuff up the room and crank the a/c.  Sagan was a bit stressed but that's to be expected after such a long car trip.  Val went to the hotel with us first even though she was staying w/ those guys, cause we all wanted to go to Jeff & Casi's together.  So we changed clothes real quick and tried to freshen up as best we could before heading over.