4 days... 1600 miles... 27 Cokes... 4 bags of plastic farm animals... 3 books on tape... 1 1/2 boxes of Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies... 2 exhausted adults and 1 mostly obedient, occasionally cranky toddler

We left for Corinth, Mississippi after I got off work on Wednesday afternoon. We pointed the car East on Highway 20, and just as we were settling in... brakelights. A long endless stream of them. We rolled at about 5 MPH for almost and hour and a half. Turns out they were painting the bridge over the Mississippi river... had it down to one lane... at 6 PM... on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Wow.

When we finally got out of the traffic snarl at Vicksburg, it was smooth sailing up to my grandparents' house. We hit the hay at 11:30.

My grandparents have never been big on any kind of celebration or holiday observation. They run a grocery store/ gas station / restaurant / full service garage/ tanning bed/ boat storage complex right off a busy interstate. Their business constitutes the sum total of all their interests. They have not been closed a single day since they opened the gas station in 1981 and they along with my Uncle and Aunt micromanage the entire show. They don't leave anything in the care of their employees for even a minute and they don't shut down or change their schedule for the Lord's Day, Christmas or Thanksgiving.

So on Thanksgiving my grandmother traditionally throws some stuff in the oven and then plops it out on the counter for anyone to eat it when they get ready. Then she runs back to the store. Sarah and Bailey and I watched television and played and read for most of the day on Thanksgiving, we visited a few of my former church members for a little while and when we got back, one shift of eaters had already gone through the kitchen. We sat down and ate with a state patrolman who dropped by and was invited to eat. After eating we crawled back into the impressions on the couch that we had been working on all day and flipped around the Dish Network until bedtime.

Oh there's no place like home for the holidays...

Early Friday morning we hopped back in the car and headed for Roanoke, Virginia to meet Sarah's family for her grandmother's 90th birthday party. We kept Bailey busy with crackers and a big bag of toys we bought at the dollar store. Plastic animals, cars, a flute, a fake Barbie doll and some cowboys and Indians entertained her on the whole trip. When we gave her the fake Barbie doll she was especially quiet for about fifteen minutes. I turned the rearview mirror down so that I could see her and she had completely disassmbled the doll. At the moment I looked at her she was attempting to put the head back onto a leg section. I had expected her to play dress-up with the doll, not Silence of the Lambs. Very macabre. I told Sarah to take it away from her and give her the package of toy money.

At around 4:30 we pulled into town and landed in one of the nicest Hampton Inns I have ever seen. The service was outstanding all around. We ate supper with Sarah's parents and grandmother at a neat little restaurant called "The Roanoker". The beer was warm and flat but the flounder was excellent.

After putting Bailey to bed, we ordered "Signs" on the TV in the hotel room. We've been waiting for a chance to see it since it came out. I'll post my thoughts on it later. Sarah didn't sleep well. My imitation of the alien's clicking noise didn't help much either.

We spent Saturday at Sarah's aunt's house, which is large and nestled on the side of a mountain. (The house, not Sarah's aunt.) I met Sarah's cousins for the first time. We watched a little of the Pitt - West Virginia game and some of the Virginia - Virginia Tech match before heading to her grandmother's party.

Ate some shrimp, had some crab dip, tried to stay out of the way. Bailey worked on her motor skills with a fork and a strawberry, and Sarah played some Strauss and Beethoven mood music on the piano.

Jumped out of bed on Sunday morning, ate breakfast, packed and jumped back into the car for the 14-hour haul back to Monroe. The roads were so congested that every time we got close to a big city, we had to stop and roll while the different interstates flowed together. The stopping and going added a good 2 1/2 hours to the trip. We left Roanoke at 8:44 AM eastern and got home at 9:33 PM central.

I could really use a vacation.