I just uploaded a bunch of photos from the trip to my Flickr account. Enjoy!

Umm… in case it wasn’t obvious about a week ago, we made it. :-)

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Yesterday, we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’. There were so many people there that we had to break apart into adults’ and kids’ tables. Besides the leddies and me, Chris and Matt brought their two kids, and Jessica, Ian’s significant otter, also joined us. Uncle Joe put in a brief appearance, but since he’s a professional pet sitter, his business picks up on family holidays. :-(

Afterwards, we sat around, digested, and chatted. I pulled up the trip pics on Donna’s laptop, and we passed the slideshow around. I briefly popped in episodes of Firefly (”Jaynestown” (We gotta go to the crappy town where I’m a hero!”)) and Buffy (”Fool for Love” (”I’m sorry, did I sully our good name? We’re vampires!”)), but the only disc to hold general interest was Pirates of the Caribbean, which my parents hadn’t seen yet.

Fa went next door to borrow the neighbor for a family shot or two that wasn’t missing the photographer. :-)

Ael and John hit it off immediately. After she spent a large part of dinner feeding him (which led to multiple independent jokes about grapes and couches), he followed her around for the rest of the afternoon, with frequent cries of “Ael, come here!” :-) Claire didn’t warm up to me immediately, but after I picked her up from behind and nothing drastic happened, she decided she could put up with me after all. :-) This was the first time we had met John and Claire: our last visit East was just before John’s birth, and Chris and Matt hadn’t yet saved up the vacation time for a Seattle trip.

We have a short video of Ael holding Claire on her lap and helping her dance to “I like to move it, move it” — I’ll post it to Twango when I have the time and inclination. :-) I also upgraded my Flickr account so that I could post more pictures without wiping out earlier ones. I want to geocode them in Picasa/Google Earth first, as much as possible, so I don’t duplicate work.

Today, we went back over to my parents’ for lunch, after which my dad drove us over to Gram’s house. When she got her hands on me, it was a while before she could let go. (I think both of us had been concerned that we wouldn’t see each other again.) Erin drew Gram a turtle while we were visiting, but Ael was more interested in exploring. Afterwards, we headed over to Prospect Terrace for some good Providence views, and then dropped in at Brown’s Main Green to show the girls where two of my dorm rooms had been, and to pose with the “polar bear” statue. (Ael: “Erin, this is Brown, not White!”)

We then joined Chris and Matt at their home by the airport for dinner. Ian and Jess also joined us, and the Fitzgerald ladies gave Jess tips for the future. (For example, making _him_ sandwiches is verboten, it’s supposed to be the other way around….) Matt showed me his video of the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas, while I sang softly to Claire. (Note to Ael: don’t wave hands and toys at your cousin while your Dad is trying to get her to fall asleep, please.) Afterwards, flipping around the channels found Spike’s Bond marathon, and we settled in to watch Goldfinger with homemade brownies and Newport Creamery ice cream. Ael tried to read John to sleep, but it turned out that he was waiting up so he could watch us go. So, we obliged: it was getting late, and I needed to get to bed (ummm, so what are you doing blogging, huh?), but I had no particular inclination to leave the family gathering.

Ael and Erin tried out the N64 that was built into the room’s TV. There’s a few minutes left in Erin’s turn… umm, Ael, what are you doing with that controller? It’s Erin’s turn! But Daddy, she gave it to me when she lost! Give it back to her, the time’s almost up! It is? Give that back! *sigh*

Well, we made it to Rhode Island in time. Details later.

Update:

We got on the road earlier than usual, which was good, because I took naps at both lunch and dinner. We hit the Tappan Zee Bridge at about midnight, at which point I realized that yes, we were actually going to make it (despite the best efforts of someone parked in the right-hand lane in New Haven).

Donna was mean — she wouldn’t let me stop when we drove by Cedar Point. :-)

…but we’ve got an 11-hour drive ahead, not counting stops.

It’s not Wednesday, but it’s the middle of the trip, with attendant wall-hitting and the like.

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Last night was, um, interesting. :-)

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But we did make Bozeman, where we found ourselves in the middle of a high-school volleyball tournament. Oops. We got the last room at the Days Inn. On the up side, it’s right next to a door, which cuts down on the opportunity for pet accidents. On the down side, it’s right next to a door. :-) On the down side, hotel full of high school kids tends to indicate a high potential for unplanned fire drills. Hope this particular down side doesn’t make an appearance.

According to MapPoint, there’s still a good possibility of making Providence on Wednesday without going crazy. Tomorrow’s goal is Rapid City, SD. Coincidentally, that’s also where we’d have to turn off for Rushmore. So, ve shall zee vat ve shall zee…

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It took some doing, but we made it here. To stay on schedule for Thanksgiving, we need to make Billings by tomorrow.

If we get much past Billings, we might still be able to turn off for Rushmore the next day. I’ll be quite disappointed if I can’t take the girls there, but I’ll be more disappointed if I don’t make Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, it was only 28 hours late, but we’re heading to Maine! We packed up the house into a Penske truck (thanks for the discount, AAA!) and we headed out. We’re doing a last couple of errands: I’m stopped at the library to make this post and to donate some food to Hopelink. We’re hoping we can make it to Spokane tonight.