Road Trip - Part III

Part of the deal with skipping Typhoon Lagoon on Wednesday was that I promised Nick on Thursday we would go to Six Flags White Water: Atlanta.  He decided he was too tired, and wanted to stay at the house and hang out with his Great Aunt Kelly and Uncle Rich.  Yes, somehow I managed to wear out my 16 year old - LOL. Jack, Vivian, and I went to the Hard Rock in Atlanta to add to his pin collection.  I love this picture:

When we got back to my aunt's house, we got to hang out on the deck.  We had dinner with Lindsey and Jeremy.  It was nice to catch up with them.

Vivian Caroline with her Great Aunt Caroline:

Jack loved Uncle Rich's corvette! He kept calling it a Matchbox Car. 

Friday night Bernie was supposed to fly into Atlanta.  I was going to pick him up and we were going to head to my grandparents' house in Blairsville to prepare  for Vivian's baptism. I had made reservations for him to fly out of White Plains because the cost was much less than Hartford.  He drove the 2+ hours to the airport only to find out his flight was cancelled.  Severe storms combined with a fire at a control tower in Atlantic City had brought northeast air traffic to a grinding halt.  He wasn't able to fly in until Saturday.  Delta did allow him to fly out of Hartford, so it was a little easier for him. 

Saturday was Bernie's birthday,he finally landed around 1pm in Atlanta.  We stopped at Ingles in Blue Ridge to pick up some groceries on our way to Blairsville.  LaDonna and Dean met us there.  They were coming in to attend the baptism as they had graciously agreed to be Vivian's godparents. We got to the "Inn on the Lake" in time to enjoy a spin around the lake on Uncle Rich's boat and enjoy the sunset.

We also got to enjoy an amazing meal prepared mostly by my cousin Jodi and her husband Rob, which included smoked macaroni and cheese (yum)! Aunt Kelly made Bernie a delicious cheesecake with raspberry topping for his birthday.

Sunday was Vivian's baptism. You can read more about that here.

We stayed at the Inn on the Lake until Thursday, enjoying time with my grandparents and playing in the water.  Lindsey and Jeremy came up on Monday night and was great being able to see them again.  Thursday we drove Louisville so that Bernie could stop in and see his brother.

On the way to Lousiville we stopped at Nickajack Dam.  Gary and I had both driven through there but Bernie and the boys hadn't seen it. 

We also stopped at Beans Creek Winery so that Bernie could pick up some wine for his sales meeting in September.  We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe' in Nashville for another lunch and another pin.  We also stopped at the Opry Mills Outlets to get Nick some additional summer clothes.  Here is Jack trying to be a mannequin at Old Navy:

This was a store that I had to take a picture of because the name cracked me up - "Mullets and Bullets," LOL - not sure you would find that in New England.

When we finally got to Louisville, this was the view from our room:

What I failed to take a picture of was the flashing neon sign off to the left.  Bernie felt like Kramer in the Chicken Roaster Seinfeld episode. 

On Friday, June 29th, Bernie and Nick went to visit Gary at St. Meinrad.  Jack, Vivian and I toured Louisville.  We got Jack's pin at the Hard Rock Cafe, we visited the Lousiville Slugger Museum, we got to have lunch with my friend and former colleague, Brian, and we checked out the Louisville Science Center.  I couldn't get a picture of Jack with the Derek Jeter statue at Louisville Slugger, but here is a picture of him with one of the horses in the city, and one of Vivian, just because she is cute:

We left Louisville Friday night and drove to Charleston, WV.  We were going to drive north through Cincinnati but decided to go east instead to avoid traffic from a NASCAR race and all the construction on the Pennslyvania Turnpike.  We checked into the hotel pretty late.  Their cable and internet was down but we didn't think much of it.  As we were at breakfast Saturday morning we heard people talking about the storm that had come through the night before.  I was walking through the parking lot to leave and a woman asked me if the hotel had power.  That was my first clue that something was very, very wrong.

We got in the car with the intention of driving home that day with a stop at the Outlets in Hagerstown, MD. We had about 100 miles to drive before our gas tank was empty.  Bernie got off the highway to fill up, but there were no gas stations with power.  As we kept driving north, still no power.  We found one gas station that had power but the lines were ridiculously long, so we kept driving.  We got to Gassaway, WV with the low fuel light on, and once again there was no power.  We pulled into the gas station anyway to try and decide what to do. It was there we learned about the Derecho storms that had come through Friday night. There were 3 Million people without power from midwest to the Mid-Atlantic, an outage that rivaled Hurricane Irene.  No one knew when power would return, some estimated it would be at least a week. We didn't have enough gas to get back to the gas station that had power.  A local volunteer firefighter who was trying to help people who were stranded had offered to let us stay at the shelter at the firehouse down the road, an option we seriously considered.  One guy said he had some gas at his house he was willing to get for us.  We weren't sure he was serious, but he returned an hour later with three gallons.  When we tried to pay him more than cost, he declined.  We drove back to the gas station with power and waited, and waited, and waited.  In this picture, you can see the line to the gas station which is in the horizon.

We waited almost two hours, we got to the pump, Bernie pumped $1.49 worth of gas, not even a gallon, and they ran out.  When he went in to pay, he learned that there was another gas station six miles down the road, six miles further from the interstate that was open.  We decided to chance it and drove there.  We waited in line for at least another hour.  It was one of the hotest days of the summer, over 100 degrees. We could not keep the car running because we didn't want to run out of gas, so that meant no air conditioning.  I was trying to keep Vivian cool with the ice from the cooler.  I was trying to make sure I stayed hydrated so I could produce enough milk for her. We had decided that if we couldn't  get gas at this station we would head for the firehouse.  We really didn't have a choice.  We also didn't have any cell service. We got to the pump and this time we able to fill up.  We only had $30 in cash, and their credit card machine wasn't working, but they let us pay by check.  Thank goodness I packed the checkbook, we hardly ever write checks anymore.  We headed as quickly as we could for the Maryland boarder.  We still wanted to hit the Hagerstown outlets but the hotels were sold out.  We decided to head for home and made it finally around 2am.

Bernie had driven through West Virginia once before in February of 2010 when he and Nick went to visit Gary.  They got stuck in a snow storm that time.  Bernie says he will never drive through West Virginia again. That situation makes you realize just how quickly things can go wrong, and how little control you might have.  It was the first time on the trip I felt irresponsible for traveling with my infant daughter.  I am thankful that we did not get stuck in West Virginia. My first day back at work from my maternity leave was the following Monday, 7/2. Even with the West Virginia debacle, I am so glad we decided to take the road trip.  Nick and I will always cherish those memories.  Here is a picture of Jack's Hard Rock pins (he has 8 from road trip: 1. New Orleans; 2. Biloxi; 3. Destin; 4. Tampa;  5. Orlando; 6. Atlanta; 7. Nashville; and 8. Louisville). He is hoping to add to his collection: