5 May 2010

Had intended to get up early, get Delores bedded down for a couple weeks’ absence, and hit the road headed south about 7:30. The getting up early part happened okay, but making sure everything was clean, put away (where mice can’t find things to nibble on), turned off, locked, etc. just seems to take about an hour and a half no matter how much packing I do the night before. As a consequence, I didn’t leave THE FIRST TIME until 8:15. Got to Whiting (15 minutes away) and realized I’d put something out to dry that needed to go to Virginia and had forgotten to put it in the car. Grrrrrrr! So departed Fern Lake, the second time, at 8:45… which meant that, even pushing hard the whole trip, I didn’t get to the Washington area until the height of evening rush hour. Overall, a 9 ¾ hour trip. Going through the Baltimore tunnel, discovered that the door ajar light was illuminated (not seen earlier because of where I keep my sunglasses case). All trip I thought I was hearing louder road noises than usual, but talked myself into believing the sound stemmed from the two gasoline containers lashed to the roof (stored there so that any accident would be as spectacular as possible.) So obviously, the left rear door had been open for nigh on 500 miles at that point. That also probably explained why the air conditioner seemed quite anemic during the heat of the day… On a positive note, I did remember not to back into the garage until AFTER removing the gas containers from the roof.