Our Easterweekend
Door: Linda Damhuis
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Linda
23 April 2017 | Verenigde Staten, Philadelphia
Tuesday April 18th 2017
Our Easterweekend!!
So last Friday around 2:30pm I went to the 30th street station to pick up the rental car. I had thought about getting one with gps anyway, because downloading an app on my phone or something on my tablet didn’t work. Then right before I went in to get the car, I got a message from Caroline that she had gotten the gps from one of her co-workers, which we could use, because he wanted to make sure we would get in Ohio safely!!!
That was really awesome!!! Problem solved!
At the desk the guy had asked me if I was sure I wanted the Economy car, but we really didn’t need a bigger car. I told him that usually a small car, was still big for our European standards anyway. That was something he had heard before!
I got a Nissan Versa, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in the Netherlands, but believe me this is not a small car!!
I walked around the car first, just to make sure there wasn’t anything funny, then I checked inside how everything worked, before I left. Not fun to be driving in the rain wondering how the windshield wipers work!
When I was ready to go I put the car in Drive and nothing happened…which I thought was strange because usually when you let go of the break, the car will move forward.
Note to self, next time it would be a good idea to start the car before you put it in Drive!! I had turned the ignition, but didn’t start it, so it didn’t move!!! hahah
A very blond moment!!
Getting back to the house went smoothly and I even got the park the car in front of the house, even better!
Caroline was home around 3pm, we got all of our stuff and around 4pm we were on our way, with the gps leading the way to Dublin, Ohio!!
Getting out of Philadelphia around 4pm on a Friday afternoon is not an easy thing to do!! We wanted to take the I-95 South to Baltimore and there we wanted to take the I-70 West to Ohio.
But have I told you yet that this gps hadn’t been used in a while, was an older model and hadn’t had an update in a while either???
We didn’t really notice this at first, but then all of a sudden it would send us to the I-95, then off again and at some other point back onto it again!!! It was really strange and kind of frustrating!
At some point we saw a service area, the Maryland House, where got off of the road and checked our route and had something to eat.
We got a burger and chicken nuggets at Wendy’s, but ordering it went faster than actually getting it! And when I did get it, I didn’t get the nuggets. When I asked for it, I got an extra packet of fries as well, so we had more than enough for the 2 of us!!
We found a Maryland map and checked online and we found a brochure with coupons for motels in it. We decided to find the Best Western in Frederick, to stop there and continue the next day.
Finding this motel wasn’t all that easy either, but the it was already dark by the time we got there, so we probably drove past it before we found it!
The room was great, we got our own beds!! Only thing was the fridge, it was making a lot of noise, so we turned it off.
But in the middle of the night it sounded like there was a flood and then the dripping of falling water!!!
The ice in the freezer had melted!!! So we put towels in it and turned it back on again….only for about half an hour though! It was driving me nuts, so I put in another towel just in case and turned it off again!
We didn’t really sleep much, but felt right at home in the morning, when we heard the dogs barking!!
We got up around 8pm, took our stuff to the car and had breakfast. Which was really good!! There were a lot of things to eat and we got to make our own waffles, which were pretty big, so after that we were really full!!
In a local supermarket we found some tulips for Doris and after that we were on our way again!
Driving this road through Maryland was really pretty, winding up and down and the view was really awesome!! Kind of made me think that I was glad I wasn’t driving this road in the dark the night before!!
Everything went pretty smooth until we met this idiot trucker!!! He was standing on the shoulder and instead of getting up to speed there, he just put his truck directly on the road!!
The car in front of us had time to move over for him, but I couldn’t move, because there was someone next to me!!
So I had to step on the breaks, wait for the other car to get out of my way and move over, but that was kind of last minute work though!! Complete idiot, stupid asshole, it was really unbelievable!! Our hearts were in our throats, like we say back home!!!!!
The rest of the way to Morgantown went smoothly again.
This is where we stopped to fill up the car, we had a potty break and got some coffee and tea. We stopped in front of a Books A Million store….where of course we also looked at the books for a minute! Can’t go into a bookstore and not look at what they have!!
This is where Caroline got behind the wheel! She had never driven an automatic before, or in the US for that matter, so we drove around the parking lot for a while before we hit the road again.
She did really good, so we went on our way again.
Doris had already warned us for road work on the road we needed to get to her house, so we looked at that before we came out here and managed to avoid that! We were at the house around 5:15pm!
Neil was the first person we saw, we followed him to the back yard where we met the rest of the family! I saw Gwendolyn, Chloe, Paula and Jeff, it has been 5 year since I had last seen all of them, they looked really good!!
It was kind of busy with the whole family there, but they left pretty soon after we arrived. We sat down with Doris and talked about out road trip. Then we got our stuff out of the car and each had our own room!! Paula and Jeff had brought a bunk/camping bed for the girls, so we didn’t have to share a room!! We really liked that!!
Then around 6pm we had some dinner and after that we had tea on the porch until about 9pm, when it go to be a little chilly, so went inside. And talked some more until about 10:30pm, that’s when Caroline and I had had it and called it a night!!
The next day we were up around 8:30am, we had breakfast with quiche, egg casserole and fruit. That morning we went to a playground with the girls and had a walk around. The weather forecast was predicting rain for today, but it was actually really hot and humid! We had lunch at the house and after lunch we went for a short walk behind the house, to a small pond which had fish and a turtle.
After our walk we watched a movie and we had dinner around 7:30pm. Tea out on the porch, it was really nice. Caroline took out her viola and played a little. The girls got to try it also and they were really pretty good!!
Then of course they had to show us what they could do on the piano, which was also very good!
Monday morning I was up around 7:30am, we were all planning to leave early, so I thought if we were all going to use the bathroom at the same time it would be best to get in there early.
Doris and Neil had to go to a funeral, so they also left the house early. We had breakfast, made some sandwiches for along the way and we helped Paula and Jeff to put all of their stuff in the car. Jeff took some last pictures of us and around 9:30am we all went our own way.
Caroline got behind the wheel first, we filled up the car and took the easiest way back this time! Which went very well. Around 12:30pm we stopped at a Service Area for lunch, the weather was nice and we could sit outside to eat our sandwiches.
Then we stopped again a couple of miles later. At one point Caroline was driving and I was wondering how much fuel we had left. We were down to one quarter of the tank, which I don’t really like to have, so we were looking for a place to fill it up again. And of course we didn’t see a sign for a Service Area anywhere!!!
We did get a little nervous about that, because we didn’t see that he last area we stopped at was actually the last one and it also didn’t say how long it would be before the next one came around!
But fortunately we did find a Service Area, where we could use the restroom, get something to drink and fill up the tank again!!
That was a big relieve, I can tell you that!!
Getting into Philadelphia was kind of hard too, it was Sunday evening, but still pretty busy. Then when we drove into a road that would take us to the house, I decided to keep left, because we had to go left at one point and the Philadelphians are not the nicest people. But then all of a sudden I was driving on the trolley tracks!!! We didn’t know if we were supposed to be doing that, because there were signs above the tracks said Trolleys Only. At one point the person on front of us got pulled over by the police, so we decided to drive on the right hand side after that. But that made us miss our turn to the left, so I had to turn around somewhere. We made it though, it took a little while to find a place to park the car. We got home around 7:30pm, had some soup and small pizzas and we went to bed on time, we were really tired!!
But we had a great weekend and an awesome road trip!!
Love
Linda and Caroline
Our Easterweekend!!
So last Friday around 2:30pm I went to the 30th street station to pick up the rental car. I had thought about getting one with gps anyway, because downloading an app on my phone or something on my tablet didn’t work. Then right before I went in to get the car, I got a message from Caroline that she had gotten the gps from one of her co-workers, which we could use, because he wanted to make sure we would get in Ohio safely!!!
That was really awesome!!! Problem solved!
At the desk the guy had asked me if I was sure I wanted the Economy car, but we really didn’t need a bigger car. I told him that usually a small car, was still big for our European standards anyway. That was something he had heard before!
I got a Nissan Versa, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in the Netherlands, but believe me this is not a small car!!
I walked around the car first, just to make sure there wasn’t anything funny, then I checked inside how everything worked, before I left. Not fun to be driving in the rain wondering how the windshield wipers work!
When I was ready to go I put the car in Drive and nothing happened…which I thought was strange because usually when you let go of the break, the car will move forward.
Note to self, next time it would be a good idea to start the car before you put it in Drive!! I had turned the ignition, but didn’t start it, so it didn’t move!!! hahah
A very blond moment!!
Getting back to the house went smoothly and I even got the park the car in front of the house, even better!
Caroline was home around 3pm, we got all of our stuff and around 4pm we were on our way, with the gps leading the way to Dublin, Ohio!!
Getting out of Philadelphia around 4pm on a Friday afternoon is not an easy thing to do!! We wanted to take the I-95 South to Baltimore and there we wanted to take the I-70 West to Ohio.
But have I told you yet that this gps hadn’t been used in a while, was an older model and hadn’t had an update in a while either???
We didn’t really notice this at first, but then all of a sudden it would send us to the I-95, then off again and at some other point back onto it again!!! It was really strange and kind of frustrating!
At some point we saw a service area, the Maryland House, where got off of the road and checked our route and had something to eat.
We got a burger and chicken nuggets at Wendy’s, but ordering it went faster than actually getting it! And when I did get it, I didn’t get the nuggets. When I asked for it, I got an extra packet of fries as well, so we had more than enough for the 2 of us!!
We found a Maryland map and checked online and we found a brochure with coupons for motels in it. We decided to find the Best Western in Frederick, to stop there and continue the next day.
Finding this motel wasn’t all that easy either, but the it was already dark by the time we got there, so we probably drove past it before we found it!
The room was great, we got our own beds!! Only thing was the fridge, it was making a lot of noise, so we turned it off.
But in the middle of the night it sounded like there was a flood and then the dripping of falling water!!!
The ice in the freezer had melted!!! So we put towels in it and turned it back on again….only for about half an hour though! It was driving me nuts, so I put in another towel just in case and turned it off again!
We didn’t really sleep much, but felt right at home in the morning, when we heard the dogs barking!!
We got up around 8pm, took our stuff to the car and had breakfast. Which was really good!! There were a lot of things to eat and we got to make our own waffles, which were pretty big, so after that we were really full!!
In a local supermarket we found some tulips for Doris and after that we were on our way again!
Driving this road through Maryland was really pretty, winding up and down and the view was really awesome!! Kind of made me think that I was glad I wasn’t driving this road in the dark the night before!!
Everything went pretty smooth until we met this idiot trucker!!! He was standing on the shoulder and instead of getting up to speed there, he just put his truck directly on the road!!
The car in front of us had time to move over for him, but I couldn’t move, because there was someone next to me!!
So I had to step on the breaks, wait for the other car to get out of my way and move over, but that was kind of last minute work though!! Complete idiot, stupid asshole, it was really unbelievable!! Our hearts were in our throats, like we say back home!!!!!
The rest of the way to Morgantown went smoothly again.
This is where we stopped to fill up the car, we had a potty break and got some coffee and tea. We stopped in front of a Books A Million store….where of course we also looked at the books for a minute! Can’t go into a bookstore and not look at what they have!!
This is where Caroline got behind the wheel! She had never driven an automatic before, or in the US for that matter, so we drove around the parking lot for a while before we hit the road again.
She did really good, so we went on our way again.
Doris had already warned us for road work on the road we needed to get to her house, so we looked at that before we came out here and managed to avoid that! We were at the house around 5:15pm!
Neil was the first person we saw, we followed him to the back yard where we met the rest of the family! I saw Gwendolyn, Chloe, Paula and Jeff, it has been 5 year since I had last seen all of them, they looked really good!!
It was kind of busy with the whole family there, but they left pretty soon after we arrived. We sat down with Doris and talked about out road trip. Then we got our stuff out of the car and each had our own room!! Paula and Jeff had brought a bunk/camping bed for the girls, so we didn’t have to share a room!! We really liked that!!
Then around 6pm we had some dinner and after that we had tea on the porch until about 9pm, when it go to be a little chilly, so went inside. And talked some more until about 10:30pm, that’s when Caroline and I had had it and called it a night!!
The next day we were up around 8:30am, we had breakfast with quiche, egg casserole and fruit. That morning we went to a playground with the girls and had a walk around. The weather forecast was predicting rain for today, but it was actually really hot and humid! We had lunch at the house and after lunch we went for a short walk behind the house, to a small pond which had fish and a turtle.
After our walk we watched a movie and we had dinner around 7:30pm. Tea out on the porch, it was really nice. Caroline took out her viola and played a little. The girls got to try it also and they were really pretty good!!
Then of course they had to show us what they could do on the piano, which was also very good!
Monday morning I was up around 7:30am, we were all planning to leave early, so I thought if we were all going to use the bathroom at the same time it would be best to get in there early.
Doris and Neil had to go to a funeral, so they also left the house early. We had breakfast, made some sandwiches for along the way and we helped Paula and Jeff to put all of their stuff in the car. Jeff took some last pictures of us and around 9:30am we all went our own way.
Caroline got behind the wheel first, we filled up the car and took the easiest way back this time! Which went very well. Around 12:30pm we stopped at a Service Area for lunch, the weather was nice and we could sit outside to eat our sandwiches.
Then we stopped again a couple of miles later. At one point Caroline was driving and I was wondering how much fuel we had left. We were down to one quarter of the tank, which I don’t really like to have, so we were looking for a place to fill it up again. And of course we didn’t see a sign for a Service Area anywhere!!!
We did get a little nervous about that, because we didn’t see that he last area we stopped at was actually the last one and it also didn’t say how long it would be before the next one came around!
But fortunately we did find a Service Area, where we could use the restroom, get something to drink and fill up the tank again!!
That was a big relieve, I can tell you that!!
Getting into Philadelphia was kind of hard too, it was Sunday evening, but still pretty busy. Then when we drove into a road that would take us to the house, I decided to keep left, because we had to go left at one point and the Philadelphians are not the nicest people. But then all of a sudden I was driving on the trolley tracks!!! We didn’t know if we were supposed to be doing that, because there were signs above the tracks said Trolleys Only. At one point the person on front of us got pulled over by the police, so we decided to drive on the right hand side after that. But that made us miss our turn to the left, so I had to turn around somewhere. We made it though, it took a little while to find a place to park the car. We got home around 7:30pm, had some soup and small pizzas and we went to bed on time, we were really tired!!
But we had a great weekend and an awesome road trip!!
Love
Linda and Caroline
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