Motor Away

We've been back for a week, but here's a quick wrap-up of our recent vacation trip to Virginia. Just a few days before we were to hit the road to Williamsburg in our ol' minivan, we took it in to get some work done on the brakes and found that there was a lot more that needed to be repaired (shocks, struts, other crap). We weren't sure what it would cost at first and were already considering whether we needed to buy a new vehicle if the repair bill was too obscenely high. Ultimately, we ended up dropping some serious cash to fix it, but hopefully (fingers crossed) we can get at least another year out of it. That said, we decided to rent a car for the trip because we just didn't feel comfortable doing the 12-hour drive in our minivan. We rented a GMC Terrain, which is a smallish SUV, so we had to really cram all our stuff in it, and headed down to NJ on Thursday, 7/31 to stay the night at Deb's brother's house before making the drive to Williamsburg.

The rental car was okay, not great, but it had satellite radio, which was fun. We listened mainly to the 1st Wave channel, which featured mainly '80s alt-rock, but I also jumped around to some of the other channels ('90s alternative, college rock, classic hard rock, and even hair metal). The drive down wasn't bad. We hit some congestion around DC as we expected, but nothing too awful.



We got to Williamsburg before we could check into our condo, so we went to Colonial Williamsburg to check it out for a little while. We saw the courthouse and ammunition magazine and a few other things before we went to check in. It started raining after we got there, so the girls ended up swimming indoors that night. It ended up being a busy week. On Saturday we hit Colonial Williamsburg again for half a day, which was also rainy, so we decided to go to Water Country USA figuring there wouldn't be long lines. It worked out great; it wasn't raining while we there and we went on pretty much all the big water slides. I thought I lost my contacts on one of them, but it turned out they were just blasted up under my eyelids and slid back down a few minutes later.

Sunday morning, we went to a ropes course called Go Ape, which was a lot of fun. It had five different courses that included zip lines, rope swings, rope ladders and other stuff way fairly high up in the woods. We were all strapped in pretty good so even if we fell off one of the courses, we didn't have far to fall. Nobody fell, though, and the girls did great. We had to do some convincing to get Lily to go on the first "Tarzan Swing," which was a big rope swing into a vertical net that you grabbed onto and then climbed to get on a nearby platform. I have to admit I have a slight fear of heights, so it took a little mental coaxing to get myself to let myself just jump into the air for those zip lines and rope swings; tons of fun, though. I only had one time where I was a little stuck; you had to walk across by putting your feet into rings and I got one caught on my leg for a few minutes before I could extricate myself. But all in all, it was a blast.

On Monday, we hit Busch Gardens for the first time. We got there early on a cloudy day, so there were no or short lines for the first bunch of rides we went on. The rollercoasters there are enormous, with serious vertical drops and lots of loop-de-loops. Again, Lily was hesitant at first but we got her to go on a few and she got into it. Nobody got sick and nothing broke down, so it was a success. We stayed most of the day. Tuesday was a relaxing day; we drove to the William & Mary campus and checked it out for a little while and then just hung by the pool. Wednesday, we drove to Virginia Beach, which is about 90 minutes from Williamsburg. I went for a run on the concrete boardwalk and then we chilled at the beach until about noon, when a thunderstorm rolled in and the beach was cleared. We hung out instead of leaving and eventually the sun came back out and we were back on the beach. We hit some serious traffic on our way home around 7, but at least we had dinner before we left.

On our last day, we went to Busch Gardens again and rode the big coasters until around lunchtime. Then we went back to the resort and hung out by the pool. Friday's drive home was long and arduous; we missed the DC traffic but hit awful traffic all through New Jersey. Took us 13 hours in all to get home, but we made it in one piece.

Song of the South

Another summer, another vacation in the books. Our return trip began yesterday morning at 9:15, when we left Orlando under sunny skies. We got through Georgia unscathed and in good spirits, but inevitably ran into a string of vicious thunderstorms through South and North Carolina. We were able to make good time until around 8:30 p.m. when we got to Virginia, where we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic for much of the state. Deb and I had been trading off the driving duties until 10:30, when I took over with about 20 miles to go in VA. The roads were relatively clear and dry the rest of the way, as I drove through Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey until we arrived at Casa Siegel at 3:20 a.m. The Siegels left after we did and arrived home around 7. We got up at 9:30 and hit the road around 10, getting home at 3 p.m.

It was a long and fun week. Here are a few highlights:

• We were a combined three families with nine kids at the various Disney parks. It was hot and humid as you can imagine Florida to be in August, but we didn't get overly scorched. On Wednesday after getting wet on Splash Mountain, we promptly were faced with a deluge of a storm. The term "soaked to the bone" doesn't even cover it. Florida storms are quick and nasty.


• We did a ton of walking. I can't remember my feet being achier, and that includes all the marathons I've run.


• I enjoyed the rollercoasters the most: Expedition Everest, Space Mountain, the Rock n' Roller Coaster. Hannah enjoyed them, too, but Lily was a little scared of them. I love the thrill-seeking rides, but I will admit to being a little queasy after going on the Mission: Space ride at Epcot, which includes a G-force simulator. Basically, the thing's spinning like a mofo to simulate a trip to Mars. I don't usually feel the effects of rollercoasters and similar rides, but on that one, I didn't feel right for about 20 minutes afterward. There's actually a difficult version and an easier one; I went on the difficult one. Of course, it was only now that I read that Disney was sued five years ago after a kid died on the ride. Although I'm not sure what the family was thinking letting a 4-year-old go on it.


• Driving down and back, we noticed a lot of folks down South putting their hazard lights on during heavy rainstorms. This struck me as curious and kind of wussy; I always thought you only used hazards for when you're having vehicular problems. Not because it's raining hard. As soon as the rain lets up a little, folks turn off the hazards.


• I noticed that some of the rest stops frequented by truckers actually had showers to allow the long haulers to clean up. Pretty good idea that I had never seen on previous trips. They even have a number system like a deli to let truckers know when a shower's ready.


• Long ago, I became sick of commercial radio for various reasons, so we had a bunch of CDs (can't listen to my iPod in the minivan). But from time to time, I'd turn the radio on and I was surprised at how much it must suck to be a rock fan in Orlando. I could only find two stations that played rock, and one of them seemingly changed to an all-talk format a few days ago. The other played a lot of mook rock (Nickelback, etc.) and literally played commercials every two minutes. Just awful.


• On the drive home, at first I thought I was hallucinating but Deb confirmed that we passed a truck full of live chickens as we were going through Maryland. Feathers everywhere. Truly bizarre.


• Is there an easier job anywhere than Florida meteorologist? Every day in the summer is mid-90s with a chance of thunderstorms. I suppose things get more challenging as hurricane season starts (which is basically now), but even those are fairly unpredictable.


• I was glad we broke up the driving on this trip. I didn't have any moments where I was scared I'd fall asleep, even at 3 a.m. today. Can't say the same about the last Disney trip when we drove right through.

I created a new mix CD for the trip and ended up listening to it a few times. Pretty kickass, if I do say so myself:

YYZ - Rush

The Rover - Led Zeppelin

Lonely is the Night - Billy Squier

Do Anything You Want to Do - Thin Lizzy

Search and Destroy - Iggy and the Stooges

I am One - Smashing Pumpkins

Unsung - Helmet

Little Guitars intro/Little Guitars - Van Halen

9 Fingers on You - Shudder to Think

Constructive Summer - The Hold Steady

The Kids Are Insane - Urge Overkill

Spinnin' - Soul Asylum

Rebound - Sebadoh

Change Has Come - Screaming Trees

Ill Placed Trust - Sloan

Entertain - Sleater-Kinney

Wolf Like Me - TV On the Radio

Gimme the Wire - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Got Nuffin - Spoon

Mind Eraser, No Chaser - Them Crooked Vultures