My Week in the OBX - Postlogue

My expectations how the travel would go for our vacation were wrong for both the trip down and the trip home. I wasn't sure how The Man Zachary would handle being cooped up in his car seat on the way down, and it was my hope that by leaving at 5:00am he would stay asleep for a good chunk of the first half of the trip. Zachary stayed awake until around 10:45, and was surprisingly good the whole way down. We got onto the island around 1:00pm, which was a pretty good result. I also expected to have some minor navigational issues, since I hadn't driven to the Outer Banks in over four years. We had no problems finding our destination, and I was proud of my routing skills. The trip home had moments that, combined with my various burnings during the week, had me feeling very much like Clark Griswald.

The trip home started with our getting a slightly later start than intended. Then, after dropping off our keys at the Realty office, I almost ran over my Mother In Law. I love my MNL, and this was not a subconciouss on-purpose thing. I was on my cell with my Dad, Kim got in and closed the door and I guess I was eager to get on the road. I started to pull forward while my MNL only had one foot in the car. She screamed and was startled but luckily she was unhurt.

I tend to be one who dwells incessantly over mistakes and I had the near trucking of my MNL on my mind for most of the way home. I had some extended time with my thoughts as it took us 45 minutes just to get off the island. I was solid on my directions, but the 168N to 64W to 13N interchange always gives me pause. After stopping at Sonic on Rt. 158 (more on Sonic later) we made it to 64 pretty quickly. That is when things went bad. I knew we were supposed to take 64W to 13N. However, with my mind still on almost killing Kim's Mom, I was a little shaky on my directions. Then, Kim hit me with an "I don't remember this. You're going the wrong way". I must admit I can't completely blame her for what happened next but for the record I was going the right way. I jumped off of 64W when I saw a sign for Rt.13. It was not the right exit. We spent the next hour alternating between looping around the Virginia Beach city limits and my going into 7-11s and gas stations to ask for directions. I almost let out a "look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!" at one point but my MNL beat me to it. We ended up finding our way to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and eventually home. Zachary was rammy for a good chunk of the trip, and even tried to escape once when we stopped for lunch in Delaware, announcing "Daddy, I walk now" before attempting to flee the McDonald's parking lot via Rt. 13 South.

As I have said, I love the Outer Banks. That being said I do have two minor complaints. First, there are no attractions for toddlers on the island. There used to be a handful of kiddie amusement parks but they have all closed shop. Also, just about everything closes early. Kim and I tried to find a place to get a drink after seeing Harry Potter V, but struck out almost everywhere. It felt like being stuck in a coastal version of Salt Lake City. Some places were open, but there were two people at the bar.

I would like to hereby state my newfound love of Sonic. Sonic rules. I love Sonic. I will leave it at that. I had been seeing the commercials ad nauseum for months on cable but never actually saw one. They just opened one near the Lancaster outlets and I may take Kim shopping just so I have an excuse to go to Sonic. Sonic good. Sonic nice.

Speaking of nice, we rented a Durango for our trip south and back. Enterprise hooked us up with an upgrade and we needed all of the space the behemoth provided. Something that large shouldn't move that fast. I was instilled with a sense of power as I drove it. Driving the Durango after being used to my 6-cylinder two-door Blazer was like taking a new evolutionary step. My guilty conscience for driving a ridiculous gas-guzzler such as the Durango was somewhat eleviated upon learning that it takes the new E85 Ethanol fuel. Too bad we couldn't find one gas station between the Philadelphia Suburbs and The Outer Banks that offered it.

I am getting the itch to play sports again. I am 34 and too young to be retired. I may try to get a revised version of my basketball team back together to run somewhere around West Chester. I have calmed down a ton since my stepping away last season. I keep saying I am going to do some research on hockey leagues in the area but I tend to laze out. I have already been earmarked for our company softball team next year but I need to do something else. Poker satisfies my competitive drive but I don't play often enough and God knows I could use some exercise. I'll get it figured out. In the meantime I have three fantasy football drafts to prepare for. That will keep me occupied for awhile when I'm not working or sleeping.

[Currently Listening: James Taylor - "Carolina In My Mind"]