Problem is, and this is the part that sucks the most, we need that small stretch of road to maintain "highway speed" on our journey and thus bypass the need to take two lane roads through mountainy stretches of northern Connecticut. It sucks. They should take the tolls away at that exit on holidays... but, being the greedy scumbuckets they are at the Statehouse, they'd never do that. Even though this 10 mile stretch of road is like a tailgate party at a Pats game.
We finally made it through the tolls (thank you grandma Shirley and EZ pass) and buzzed the rest of the way through Connecticut. We ended up on Rte 5 somehow just south of Hartford, instead of Rte 15 (W. Cross Parkway) and that wasn't too too bad. In the past, we've ditched there and it has been a parking lot WITH stoplights. But this time we were one of the few cars on that stretch of road. We got back on 91, where we wanted to be, and ditched in Meriden to take 95.
95 moved well, but it is under such catastrophic reconstruction that riding in the truck was like riding on a roller coaster. There were huge chasms in the road that caused the back end of the truck to fly to the left or right, when the front end was going to the opposite direction. It was kind of nerve wracking... but we survived. We made it to Grandma's in about 5.5 hours. Only a little longer than it normally takes.
Thanksgiving was restful and feastful. The kids were happy to play Grandma's Nintendo Game Cube (my mom is SUCH a 12 year old boy!) and Doug and I drank beer, hung out with my dad, and watched football.
We slept well.
The next day Doug opted to relax even further and the kids and I went to see my friend Jen, who currently lives in South Africa with her husband (not of the same skin pigment as she is) and their two children, Ruth and Sarah. Her kids are not too far off the ages of my kids, Sarah is a little younger than Jess and Ruthie is a little older than Geoff. They are delightful children, and the kids had a blast when they got used to each other.
Jen and I had fun catching up. We all took a wonderful hour long stroll down to the beach. Jen and her family live in the super posh section of our hometown, where the street signs are oak framed. No one ELSE in the township has oak-framed bear left at the curve or stop signs.
I envied Jen a lot growing up, and walking along the sand made me envy her again. For a minute. It was gorgeous out there, cold, no wind. The kids were having tons of adventures... moving so much I couldn't get any pictures of all of them together, but I got these.
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 | Top left, Ruthie lets her hair extension shine with the colors of the sunset. Her hair is very short, and she had this barbie hair thing clipped onto her dark brown hair... it was purple, pink and blonde. Not her hair color or type, but she loved it. Top right, Jen with the sun setting over the hill behind her. Bottom left, our Jessica. Purple princess. |
It was quite an enjoyable visit. We chatted about how we met. I told her I always perceived that she was in the cool Bay Crowd, all the rich kids all hung out together. She was kind of on the periphery of that, but I had always just assumed she was a snobby rich kid. She told me she never felt like she was part of the Bay crowd, and didn't fit in with anyone, which surprised me. We had a lot of classes together, and she always thought I was funny and really smart. Especially in a creative writing class that we took. We both agreed that if it weren't for Campus Life neither of us would have ever had friends. When I think about it, some of my longest term relationships have grown out of that group. It was great catching up with her.
Her parents are selling their house and moving to Florida. So this is their last Christmas there in the homestead. I'm glad she got to come home with the girls, and I really glad I got to see them.
Saturday we all packed up and drove Quimby to the Bronx Zoo. It was cold, not too cold, and not windy. Hardly anyone was there. We needed a good walk, and what better place to do so than where they keep monkeys? You know our fondness for Monkey Stink.
The ride over was quick and uneventful, I always seem to think that we're going to die when we go there. Based on childhood fears and prejudices... but the zoo is right off the Bronx River Parkway, with its own exit... Fool proof. We parked, walked, saw tons and tons of groovy animals doing their thing. We were horribly disappointed with the kodiak and grizzly bears, who were the stars of the show the last time we went. Today, they just chilled on their rocks.
I was incredibly impacted this visit by the odor of the zoo rooms. Normally, I huff a little and kind of put my tongue up against the roof of my mouth and seal my sinuses... become a mouth breather while indoors. This time, it was a little too harsh. We were in the World of Darkness, and there was this woman with this horrid perfume walking in front of us. Everywhere I turned, boom! Feh! In the face, whiff! Barf, Gag. Meh!
I had to get out of there fast. You wouldn't think that bats could be so damn smelly. On top of that ... this woman. With her ... stink! Ugh.
Geoff couldn't see too much there, with the speed the bats fly at and his vision, he only saw them a little bit. We left the building pretty quickly and sat on the Polar Express engine waiting for Doug and Jess, who both enjoyed the room more than I.
But still, nothing compares to the skank smell of the same style building at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Voof!!
We would have liked to have stayed for the Holiday Light exhibit that they are doing. They have all these trees decorated with white lights, and animal frames with little lights on them all through the zoo. We didn't make it to the old part of the zoo with the huge granite buildings that they used to house all the animals in, where the fountain and cool statues are. The place is just so damn huge. We were wiped. We went with the intention of getting a good walk and a work out -- and we did.
Plus, there were giraffes. The following pictures are pretty self explanatory, except Jessica in the phone booth. She thought she was very clever... standing there pretending to be a person needing to use the phone but not knowing how to work it because it's in... Chinese. Like the number order would be different or the handpiece would work opposite. She also did this for me, which cracked my shit up:
There was a huge billboard for the new tiger habitat they are building. She made it look like the tiger was jumping on her. Fwah. Funny girl. By half.
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And keeping with our "We always see the weirdest stuff" motif, here are two extra pictures of interest.
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The first one... we were walking around the lion area and we saw a guy with a camera case, tripod and lighting... the woman in the black coat (with her back to the camera) and the guy in the elephant suit. What they were doing, I have no idea. But the elephant suit guy was really nice... They climbed into part of the exhibit in the Nepal/China area, they are standing in an area where they really shouldn't be. I wish I knew what their deal was. But elephant guy waved to me when I took his picture. He's aces... a class act.
The second picture... Doug came out of the giraffe area and told me Santa was in there. He was dressed for his day off. I didn't see him because I'd been dealing with Geoff having a small temper tantrum over a bottle of soda that I wouldn't let him have, so he (Geoff) was in timeout. We went to the Congo area (didn't pay extra to take the tour, even though they have all these guilt trip-inducing signs up "Will you make the right choice and save the Congo with your entry fee???" Uh, no.)
So Santa comes around the corner, Geoff stops in his tracks. I asked Santa if I could take his picture, and he was gleefully compliant and invited Geoff to stand with him. Jessie was a little too far ahead, and I didn't want to waste too much of this guy's time by calling her back so we only got this one shot of Santa on his day off... with Geoff.
Santa likes the zoo, says Geoff.
We left Grandma's at around noon on Sunday. We knew we were going to run into traffic. It wasn't bad at all until we got to the Bronx and the Bruckner Expressway (95) just north of the Throg's Neck. We stayed with it but should have ditched, seeing as we had a map and GPS with detailed info on the streets. We made it through that bad batch and got up into Cos Cob Connecticut where it all stopped again. We stopped for lunch, and decided to ditch in Stamford, taking Rte 8 north. Rte 8 takes you to Torrington and beyond, but we knew we needed to cut east. So we took Rte 42, which looked pretty straightforward on the map.
It was a twisty, windy, curvy little two lane road up Bethany Mountain. It was nothing like I'd imagined it to be ... I didn't know Connecticut could look so much like Vermont. It was gorgeous. I'm moving.
We got to Rte 10, took it a little ways north, cut across on I-691 to I-91 south of Hartford where the big merge to 84 became a parkinglot, backed up for miles.
We ditched again, Rte 3 to Glastonbury, to Rte 2, to Rte 94, to Rte 83 to I-384, to Rte 44 past the University of Connecticut at Storrs, all the way through to the gorgeous little town of Pomfret, up to I-395. Which turns into I-290, which runs through Worcester, hits I-495 and eventually... the Way Out Inn.
Whew!
Lots of backroad Connecticut traveling. Some of it in the dark (towards the end there), but the Christmas lights and the snow were all out... and pretty.
It took us 6.5 hours to get home. With the two lane highway driving and listening to traffic on WBZ once we hit the Massachusetts state line, we realized we'd cruised compared to the people sitting in Hartford trying to get on I-84, and the people trapped on I-84 trying to get to the Mass Pike, with a six mile backup.
It was a lot of fun. I don't mind taking the little 2 lane highways... when you're moving, you're living. That's my general philosophy.
We're home, the kids are at school, Doug at work. Me, I'm home with a car that won't shift out of like 2nd gear and won't go over 25 miles an hour unless you're going downhill. I picked up the dogs and prayed without ceasing that the car wouldn't just explode with me inside. That would be bad. The dogs were overjoyed when I got them, thrilled to see me.
Kinger just about exploded in the vet's office... the guy working with them this week is a trainer. His name is Greg. I mentioned to him that I wanted to get Jack training (without knowing he is a trainer) and he said "I wasn't going to say anything... but... now that you mention it..." and we had a nice talk. He gave me some immediate pointers just by watching me with him for a few minutes. I asked if he wanted to barter with me -- training in exchange for a website. His eyes lit up -- yeah! We'll be talking soon.
I haven't heard yet from the college I applied to for a job. It's funny -- when I say "I haven't heard yet from the college I applied to" I know it is for a job, but it sounds like I'm ... applying to college. Too kooky. So I always feel I have to stick that caveat at the end... for a job. Sigh. I'll be scouring monster.com this afternoon.
My sister left Florida. She took the Amtrak Car train from Orlando to Virginia, and that got her on the official highway this morning. She called me at ten from the VA/MD state line. She called me a little while ago wondering if she should have taken the Jersey Turnpike or gone through Philly. I got the map out and told her she's doing fine, gave her further directions from Trenton up to Staten Island... she may call me again, or she may just breeze right through. I feel the need to keep an ear out for her call in case she's desperately lost. Glad I can read a map!
Glad she has no roaming on her calling plan!
One thing I learned in the past couple of years is that a map will get you anywhere... you just have to pay attention to it. We learned that this weekend with leaving the Bronx Zoo and heading back through the city. Sometimes... you gotta take a risk and do something you wouldn't normally do driving-wise. The way you're accustomed to going doesn't always have to be the only way to go. Trust the map. Read the map.
And a GPS doesn't hurt either.
Enough for today. Gotta find something to eat, gotta play with the dogs (actually, they are sleeping very soundly...) gotta figure out what to do for a second vehicle because I have stuff I need to do this week that I can't walk to. Sigh.
More later -- hope your adventures this thanksgiving weren't nearly this boring
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