Westward HO!

Westward, ever westward.

Henry Wells

Day 19 & Day 20
19:  Rhode Island to Massachusetts to Connecticut - 154 miles
20: Connecticut to New York to Pennsylvania to West Virginia 521 miles

On Tuesday, we sent the girls off to the airport and headed off to Rhode Island.  Short drive today due to bad weather (pouring rain in Rhode Island), a bad back (just can't sit in the car for a long drive), and a need to rest and recover from the whirlwind family vacation!  Checked into a pretty dumpy hotel in RI, but it had a bed and an ice pack!  Just crashed.  Got up on Wednesday to prepare for and go to my appointment at the Dept. of Education in Providence.  It went really well (guess what, Calvin?  I'm a consultant!).  We had planned to go to Narragansett to hang with the O'Rourkes, but the weather report and my back pain convinced us to head away from the Atlantic, rather than towards it!  Sorry to miss the fun with the O'Rourkes, but happy to be on the road for home. (Besides, it would have violated our one and only Rule of the Road.  As I described it last year, the objective is the same as our golf game -- always forward.  As long as each shot is closer to the hole than the last, we're going in the right direction.  Same philosophy of travel -- we won't go backward!).

Yesterday... hours after we were right there!

We made it to Danbury, Connecticut where we checked in relatively early.  Once again, there was a tornado warning a mere 20 miles away from us, so Mimi was glued to the news reports and downloaded a Doppler radar app with a loud alarm/warning system if we are in a weather warning area (I am certain this will keep her very busy for the rest of the trip.   The alarm has only gone off once, thank God!).  The last two nights have been an attempt to cost-average the trip.  Thanks to the champion coupon girl/stay 2 nights get one night free/stay 6 nights get gold status/save points on a different hotel chain/..., we've got a list of  good deals for this trip.  The dump in Rhode Island was paid for in points + $35, and last night's hotel was FREE.  We even got a "light dinner."  As we sat looking at our "popcorn chicken" (apologies to the Colonel) and rice, we decided the cost averaging had gone a little too far!  At breakfast (also free), we noticed several angry-appearing hotel guests.  Mimi has suggested that these grouchy breakfast eaters are probably consultants, sick of traveling and staying/eating at the Residence Inn  (Thanks, Mim)!

Flight path to crash site in Shanksville, PA

Today we headed west through miles and miles of beautiful Pennsylvania countryside, and then miles and miles of slow, messy road construction.  Except for some brief rain, we've stayed ahead of the weather (okay, I guess the weather obsession has paid off!).  We took a side trip today to the Flight 93 Memorial.  The memorial isn't finished, but is very moving and sad.  We decided today that this has been a bit of a Tragedy Tour (native American interment camp, Oklahoma City memorial, tornado devastation, Boston bombing, Flight 93...).  After the Flight 93 memorial, we were headed toward Johnstown, PA when we remembered the Johnstown Flood.  We decided we'd better take a different route!  Tonight we're in Wheeling, West Virginia - another beautiful part of the country.  We're going to plug on with few stops (unless we find any other major or minor tragedies to visit) in the hope of reaching Colorado by Sunday for a couple days of fun and relaxation with Lisa and Kim.