Hampton/Norfolk, VA and Washington DC

Well, Steve (the hubby) and the girls (my 14 year old and his 17 year old) packed up the van and went over the checklist since I had to work on Sunday.

Then they came and picked me up from work at 3:30pm and we were off! Woo Hoo!!! I decided to get some shuteye since I knew I was going to need to drive some of the 8 hr drive ahead of us. I remember we went thru the Ohio Turnpike toll area right before PA and that was the last I heard until Steve was pulling into a travel plaza and letting me know that he needed to switch seats with me for a while... We had both only gotten 3 hrs of sleep the night before and since he was packing all day, he hadn't gotten a chance to take a nap. We were about 2 - 1/2 hrs into the trip in the vicinity of Zelienople, PA... a little NW of Pittsburgh. So, we stopped to fill up and I got a double shot espresso and a frappacino to give me a boost. Jaclyn (his daughter) and I decided to take advantage of the time for a bathroom break as well. The building that had the bathr0oms didn't have my drinks, so we walked over to the gas station area where Steve was getting the gas. We walked into the register area and they had my drinks there, so I got them and picked up some gum for Jaclyn. Kiersten (my daughter) walked in and informed us that the pump was prepay and I had the money. So, I was going to pay for him to pump the gas when I realized he had pulled away. We went outside after we finished paying for everything and couldn't find him anywhere.

After a couple minutes, he came back around the buildings toward the gas station again. We went over to the van and he was a bit frustrated. Told me that he didn't know where we were and he couldn't pump the gas. Oops... I hadn't thought of that. He hadn't seen us come out of the restroom area and thought we were still there. He told Kiersten to go get us and then couldn't find her either! LOL She had noticed us in the store and had come up behind us, but didn't tell Steve where we were.

Then we realized that all the money we had for the trip was in the checking account that we forgot the card for! No card to access either account that we had money in and no checkbook to cash a check! Oh no!!

Fortunately, we had some cash on us to get to where we were going and a bit of credit available on another card. One of Steve's bestest friends (His name is Steve too!! LOL... but we know refer to him as JESUS... LOL) was able to put some cash into our account that we had a card for, so we're set now and will pay him back when we get back to town on Friday.

So, after all the stops and starts, what with Jaclyn's affliction of TB (tiny bladder) and all the bathroom breaks we needed as well as gas stops, we were able to make it to our destination by 2:30am, 11 hrs of driving. So, after exhaustion had hit both of us, we were so very happy to crawl out of the van and into our friends' futon bed for the rest of the night.