On the road

We all piled in the family truckster to visit my family earlier this week.

It's always good to see my parents, my sister, her husband and daughter. As I grow older, my appreciation grows as well for the things they have done and continue to do for each other and the family.

Grandma takes the kids to the Disney store -- the kids were like, well, kids in a toy store there. We go out to lunch or dinner (and our orders always get messed up, but that's another blog), I drive around and marvel at what has changed (a lot!) and we visit family and friends.

This time, I didn't do much visiting. I just didn't feel social. I wanted to hang around my parents' house. I did get to talk with the neighbors -- the people I grew up with. They have a pool and their kids and my kids played together. It was strange, really, being an adult talking to the people you used to play with when you were in elementary school.

It was also strange because, while the kids played on one side of my parents' house in a pool, the inground pool on the other side was being torn out at the other neighbor's property. A back hoe came in and was bashing in the concrete of the pool. That pool had been there for more than 30 years and I recall going swimming there and having many good times. There's symbolism here, but I'm not ready to deal with that yet.

The drive

The challenge is the drive. It's not far -- a little under 500 miles one way -- but the mix of people in the minivan is, well, different. We have two young children --7 and 9 -- who are now learning to annoy each other as much as possible, my wife, who likes to sleep in the car, and her mother. And, of course, me.

On the expressways, I want to move. Fast. If the speed limit is 65 mph in Ohio and Pennsylvania, it really means 70 to 75 mph. And no one better be in the left lane who is going 66 mph. You don't slow me down and make me switch off the cruise control and you don't want to stop to sit down to eat. You bring snacks, eat them on the way and only stop for gas once and go to the restrooms as few times as possible.

Everyone else in the car, though, likes to stop to eat and needs to stop to go to the bathroom more than once. I've learned that a filled bladder always defeats cruise control.

Well, this time we did our best time: Just more than 8 hours each way. By myself, I've done it in just more than 7 hours. Usually it takes us 9 to 10 hours with all the stops and meals. Ah, compromise.

We got about 25 miles to the gallon of gas. Again, not bad considering a full van with the air conditioning going.

Gas was $3.09 in New York. We got it for $2.92 in Ohio. Here at home, it's above $3.09.

Thought: As Snoopy said to the development that covered up the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm -- You people are parking on my memories!