Onward to Maine

We drove to Maine!

We met Carrie in Culpeper to drop off the truck. The back end was sinking too much when hauling the horse trailer. Shane and I had to drive a little more to pick her up, but picking the truck up on the way back will eliminate a drive out to Culpeper on our own time.

Originally, I'd wanted to leave from Jama's to cut two hours off of our drive the next day. Then I wanted to drive through to Maine.

That had been nixed. Carrie found a low rate for a hotel in Connecticut and we were going to spend the night there to break up the drive.

Until we didn't.

Stuff happened. The old plan was the new plan. Carrie came up to meet us in NOVA. Shane woke up early and we hit the road early (See the pattern?).

We beat traffic. That was beautiful. I had wanted to stop in NJ to visit Bill really badly. Carrie felt bad and asked if we could hold off for the return trip. Bill and Jill are due to have their first child any day now! I really wanted to stop, but now the hope is for the return.

Shane was impressed by New York City's skyline.

Our first big adventure in traffic was crossing the Hudson River.

I like to read maps. I predicted Google would direct us around to the north if the traffic was really bad.

It must have been really bad.

Google had us hop off the interstate and slide down some local roads to bypass most of the traffic on our detour.

We started to notice a recurring theme through New York and beyond. Our side of the road moved. The other side did not. I'm not looking forward to the ride home!

Connecticut roads were pretty. The road we were on had lots of low bridges which prevented large trucks.

The barriers were either huge logs or concrete. The sides of the road were covered in trees.

And there was a short tunnel. The Appalachians go through the area. Not a bad looking state.

We listened to Hank the Cowdog at first. Judy Moody wasn't as big a hit with Shane or Carrie.

Pokemon was. Shane played a lot.

The roads got a little frumpier when we hit western Massachusetts. We weren't on an Interstate.

The scenery was increasingly urban as we neared Boston. Interstate 495 runs a ring around it (Just like in DC).

We were in New Hampshire an hour. Then we were in Maine. We paid $34 in tolls. Most of the cost was in Maryland and New Jersey then the tolls decreased form there. MD had two tolls for $4 and $8 (got to find my notes to confirm). The New Jersey Turnpike cost $13.85 to traverse. We're supposed to get a "$5 toll by mail" from the bridge crossing the Hudson in NY. New Hampshire charged $2 and then Maine charge a buck.

I forget where it was, but Shane got in trouble a few hours out. He had to ride the rest of the way without the DS. He was stubborn and said he didn't want to listen to any books either. I'd brought a bunch. It would've made the trip easier on all of us, but I like to let the stink have some say over things. There's not a lot he can have a say over when strapped into a car seat all day.

What did he do to get in trouble? I forget the exact start. I know that he didn't apologize and that made it worse.

Shane has a tendency to move on to the next thing. Carrie brought it up at one point and Shane interrupted her to talk about something entirely different.

That did not help his case.

Shane tried to start a conversation later. I was game, but it didn't work out. Shane would ask a question. I'd start to answer and then he's start to talk over me about something else. When he didn't talk over me, I'd ask him a question and in lieu of answering he'd jump back to whatever he'd been talking about before. When I asked, Shane said, "I was listening, but I was thinking about what I wanted to say about something else!" He got frustrated when Carrie and I refused to talk about Pokemon.

It made the last couple of hours more challenging, but hopefully some lessons were learned and some resilience built up.

Even with getting in trouble, Shane did a good job overall. It's not easy for a kid his age to travel as far as we did.

We left at 7:45 AM and arrived 7:15 PM. We stopped for gas at McD's in MD and stopped to gas up and get dinner east of Hartford, CT. Carrie desperately needed to use the bathroom only the doorbell was broken! We were knocking on the side door when Grandma answered and Carrie bolted past!

I don't mind car trips, but this was a draining ride. We made it in time for us to greet everyone, unpack, and I got to get set up for my Sunday night game with the boys (I cut the game short due to Carrie's stress levels and to help with Shane, etc).

We were all tired for bed. It was great to be in Maine! It was a first for me and I was looking forward to exploring on Monday.