I'm Home
A lot earlier than I thought I would be. Nothing changed mid-trip, I just wasn't aware that we were planning to come home today.
So, a few highlights. I really missed Erin the whole time. That's not a highlight, but it was a repeating theme.
We went to a mother's side of the family get together in Binghamton and I saw a few aunts and cousins I hadn't seen in a while. It poured in the last half of the day and we went on a several mile jaunt around the lake and the dogs were annoying as hell, but we saw an abundance of rare plants - like lady slippers - and it was overall a fun time.
Next major stop: Antietam, Maryland. As in, the battle of Antietam, in the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression, as I'm coming to view it, despite being a Yankee). It was pretty interesting, even though the driving tour was confusing and we got turned around a few times. I lost interest 3/4 through though because it was too long and some of the stops were just rambling on. It's shocking the type of battle (Napoleonic) they fought in the Civil War, the horror of forming in lines and standing firm against the opening volley from your enemy... I can't imagine the courage it would take to stand there in the front lines, rifles leveled twenty yards away are your chest, praying that the first shots missed you and hit your brothers instead--or maybe hoping you'd take the bullet rather than a friend. I'd rather walk into a modern battlefield than face that kind of combat any day of the week.
Okay, many hours later we ended up in Virginia at Stone Manor cabin, a nice little place on the Shenandoah River. It was beautiful and peaceful except for the fucking trucks running up and down the road all damn day; one day when I was sitting on the screened in porch attempting to write, a grading machine came up and down RIGHT in front of our fucking cabin literally 12 times in a row. It was loud enough at 50 yards that I couldn't hear my voice speaking normally, so I hope the bastard running it went deaf.
The nicer bits were the horseshoe pit, fire pit, spa on the porch, the big ass painted turtle that sunned on this rock maybe 70 yards out into the river from our banks... it was pretty cool there. I'm taking several bits of architectural wisdom from the cabin to apply to my own house some day, if my dream of building my own place on my own land with my own hands (as much as possible) is realized. I'd think about going back some day if I could get a guarantee there would be no trucks.
We went to Luray Caverns, the tour of which was rather short on geology and history. It sure was worth seeing though, and I only wish I had a better camera; my digital is fine for up close stuff in good lighting, but I'd need a digital SLR or regular SLR and a bunch of film to really do it justice. It's God damn amazing if you think that all of those formations were the result of dripping water with a few minerals.
What else did we do... I dunno. I'm losing my mind. I broke in a new folding knife, a Benchmade Pardue Ambush, the only folder I own that I can open with one motion of my thumb instead of two. The rolling lock was annoying at first, but it's grown on me. I also managed to cut my middle finger when I mis-caught my Benchmade Monochrome folder; the serrations got me. No big deal, but it's the first cut I've had since Christmas. Otherwise I read a bunch of books, played some Monopoly (sometimes with myself... and I still lost), watched a few movies, just relaxed, and realized HOLY SHIT I'm leaving in two weeks! I almost had a panic attack the first time that hit me when I was trying to go to sleep the first night at the cabin, and I had to read another hour to get my mind off it and not have awful dreams when I did fall asleep.
I think I'm running out of steam. I lost my train of thought a while ago; I see the Yankees lost, and I'm getting all nostalgic and lonely so I might as well sign off. 'Night.
Oh! I forgot. On the way home, we got to sit unmoving in a damn traffic jam for 90 minutes. Sweet, huh? It doesn't trump the five hours in an airplane coach seat on the tarmac we did once, but it was pretty bad all the same. Yeah, the driving part of this whole trip, which totaled about 18-20 hours, was really shitty. Not going to bitch too much, but let's just say I don't really fit in the seat...
