I kind of vanished for a bit. I've been dealing with depression again & I've turned into a hermit, so there's not much to write about. We did have an earthquake & hurricane within days of each other. One of my dogs almost died & that triggered the depression. While my friends were having their hurricane parties, I was busy trying to nurse my dog back to health. He's fine now, but we spent a lot of money at the vet & money is really tight.
My doctor keeps telling me I need to get out of town for a bit & my mom reminded me that we're having a family get together in a few weeks. The Mr is working, so I'm taking the opportunity to go home. Is it stupid for me to spend the money? Probably. I really, really need to go home though.
The problem is my mother wants me to ride with her and stay with my aunt. Six hours in a car, then countless hours of sitting with those two will not be relaxing. Both deny that there is anything wrong with me and can't understand why I can't find a job.
Being the mature person I am, I have lied to them & said I will be staying with a friend. It may not really be a lie, but I haven't confirmed it with my friend. If I can't stay with her, I will stay in a motel. If I tell my mom I'm spending money on a hotel, she'll flip. She's already upset that I'm driving separately, but if I ride with her, I won't have a car and I'll be trapped. There are things I want to do while I'm up there & I don't feel like dragging her along or begging to borrow a car.
My plan is to go up, do the family thing for a day, then the next day, go and have fun with or without the previously mentioned friend. The Mr doesn't understand how I could possibly make the drive by myself, but I'm looking forward to it. I can stop when I want & visit stupid road side attractions/shops without him whining. What I'm looking forward to the most is staying in one of the little roadside motels on Rt. 30. The Mr is a hotel snob. His father spends stupid amounts of money to stay in hotels based on their name and alleged fanciness, so he's spoiled & is weird about where we stay. As long as my room is clean, I don't care.
When I was little, my family stayed at numerous little roadside motels. Most are run by couples and can be as cheap as $30 a night. Yes, there are some scary ones out there (esp. closer to larger cities), but the worst experience I've had was finding a giant hairball in a towel. The towel was clean, but the manager brought new towels & checked each of them in front of us, then discounted our room.
Route 30 in (Lincoln Highway) has a ton of little motels like this. My favorites are the ones that look like tiny cottages. You also drive through neat little towns & can find cool stuff in the shops. It does take longer to get to Pittsburgh, especially because I ALWAYS get stuck behind an Amish buggy.
I've always wanted to stay at the Grand View Point Hotel. My grandparents used to stay there when they'd go on weekend getaways (I have a photo of them posing in front of it in the 30's). It burned down in 2001. As you can see, it's a river boat on the side of a mountain.
I'm going through Retro Roadmap to see what places are still there, but they tend to road trip on the Eastern side of the state. I do like to have some sort of plan in place. Hopefully I'll have an interesting update to post when I get back.
