Road Trip

Good Morning, Dear Friends. No card to share today, but just a note to say Thank you for all the sweet birthday wishes I've received from you. It was a pretty quiet birthday, as birthdays go...no cake, no celebrations...but just riding, riding, riding. It was a pretty day for driving, and all I had to do, was sit in the navigator's seat, and be a good passenger. I sleep a lot when we travel, (I am a much better passenger that way, as I don't 'backseat drive'). DH appreciates that. I tend to be a nervous passenger, even though he is a very good driver. We didn't have to deal with any rain the first traveling day, and we stopped at a Best Western motel that we've stayed at for many years, after stumbling upon it some time back. It's a very clean place, reasonably priced - well lighted parking lot, breakfast included in the rate. What I like best about it is that there is a Michael's Craft Store in the next parking lot, within walking distance. Also several choices of places to eat. So after we checked in, and found that we had enough points on our Best Western Rewards program to merit a free night's stay (now THAT was a nice birthday present!), we walked over to the restaurant & stores. There was a very dark cloud, and I made the comment "I hope this doesn't turn out to be a stupid decision to walk over here". This was about 8:30, still plenty of daylight. We get into the restaurant and the sky lets go, heavy rain. I know we'll get soaked if we have to walk in it; the restaurant closes at 9pm, and I'm having visions of us being thrown out into this rain. Thankfully, as the place was getting ready to close, the rain eased up.  We did have to walk in some puddles to get back to our room (and I was wearing some new sandals). We did make it back with no slips or slides in the wet thankfully. I did get to the Michael's store. Always try to check the different craft stores when we travel...just on the off chance it might have something my local place hasn't. And it did!!! I didn't bring any craft stuff along with me, but I didn't promise I wouldn't BUY anything along the way! LOL.

The next day, we drove along in the mountains of Pennsylvania - with bursts of rain showers off & on. New York was about the same...sometimes pretty heavy rain, which I don't like. We were in the pickup, which does make me feel a lot safer, as we're up a bit higher and can see better, plus it's nice & heavy. We arrived at our destination about 8:20pm, safe & with no travel events. Went back out to get some dinner, and then bunked in for the night.

Our friends have a lovely blonde labrador dog - about 10 months old. Big, big dog, very friendly, but pet dander is one of my allergy triggers. I made sure to get my allergy shot just before we left, so I'm hoping I don't have a reaction to Max. For some unknown reason, cats & dogs just love to climb all over me. I'm not an especially 'animal lover', so that has always been a mystery to me. (Mind you, I don't want an animal not treated well. We had a dog for 16 yrs, and I never had a problem). Our daughter has 3 greyhounds -one of them sets off my allergic reaction, the other 2 do not. So I petted Max just a little bit, to let him get used to my scent, and everyone is trying to keep him from jumping on me. He really is a beautiful boy, though, and just looks at me with those liquid dark eyes as if to say "Lady, what's with you?", and comes over to lick me!!!

So thanks for joining me this morning. I hope you will have a lovely day doing whatever your Monday routine is, and I'll try to post if I can. No WiFi here, so can't use my laptop to get online. I plan to try to visit some of your blogs if possible. In the meantime, God Bless.