Some More Travel Notes

We eventually got back to my folks' house before we left. We had to return the minivan. That's actually a pretty good vehicle, despite it minivan-ness. Does that make me old or just boring? I got to dig through a bunch of old stuff with Mom and Dad to help with the sorting and packing and such before they move. Over the years I've grabbed or gotten rid of most of my stuff, but I still had a few things there, mostly toys.

Mom and I went through my old Adventure People, our old-school Fisher Price Little People stuff, and my Matchbox Cars. (Incidentally, I've always called them that. Some people use Hot Wheels. I know both are brand names, but are they regionally preferred?) Looking through this stuff, I wonder if we didn't chew on stuff as much or if our parents just didn't like us. Lots of small parts and breakable things, most of which were broken.

Dad and I looked through what was left of our camping gear. Again, I've already taken most of what I wanted, but there were a few things left. It really brought me back to my old Boy Scout days. Some of that stuff seemed cool at the time, but from what I've seen of Firefly's Appalachian Trail gear, camping technology has improved quite a bit. Dad was able to give what we didn't want to some current Boy Scouts, who were apparently very appreciative. I remember using a bunch of stuff that was older than me and now it's my turn to continue the trend. Back to my previous question, I guess I'm old.

Travelling home turned out to be quite an adventure. Due to ice falling off trucks causing accidents, we were much too late to catch our flight out of BWI last Friday. And due to the ice earlier in the week, the best we could do was a three-legged trip the next day. (THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY STORM! Seriously. That's what the papers called it. Slow news cycle I guess. It was pretty bad further in the Northeast, but it wasn't THAT bad around DC. Wimps.) Our second flight out of Detroit (where it was actually snowing) was delayed about 45 minutes for deicing. This meant that after taking 3 different trams to get from one end of Seatac to the other, we missed the hop to Portland. And again due to the ice storm of the friggin' century, the flights were full for several more hours (which wasn't apparently normal). So instead, we decided to eat a few more dollars and rent a car for the rest of the trip. Even with a stop for dinner on the way, we still got home a little faster than if we had sat around the airport trying to entertain the Mizz for hours after he was supposed to be asleep. He slept in that car instead, and we got some quiet time. In the end, we got to claim planes, trains, and automobiles for the trip home, and we've decided that we definitely want to drive to the Family Reunion this summer.

The only good thing about renting the car was that we found we didn't really want a Subaru Forrester after all. That was one of the cars we had been looking at last summer, but after driving one, it's not as cool as we thought. It's pretty noisy, and although it hugs the road like a sports car, you feel the road like a sports car. It also didn't seem to have enough legroom, and neither Franny nor I really need much in that department. Franny was cramped in the front passenger seat and neither of us would have been comfortable in the back seat. It's a fine performing car, but it's not for us.