NC to NH and back in the Pursuit of Volunteerism

I could not face opening the laptop after we headed off on Monday morning. I will miss our two-story condo, but not the near-freezing mornings. We said good-bye to David Bruce and headed to McDonald’s for breakfast ($11.94) which we ate on the way to Belmont, New Hampshire. We drove by our last residence to see the changes and noticed more changes in the area. We stopped for gas in Tilton ($28.37)and made a brief stop at the NH Veteran’s Cemetery in Boscawen to pay our respects to family. Even there, more and more graves have been filled and more plots are being readied.

We hit the NH State Liquor Store ($44.98 after $15 discount for the coupon we found in the Highland games program) and headed for home. My feet, legs, and hips could not get comfortable and I tried to doze, but Ginny-the-GPS kept me awake. She wanted us to go one way, and we wanted to go another. We won. Near Hartford, Connecticut Eric drove in the ‘diamond’ lane for the first time. Neat!

We kept away from NY City and headed towards Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I looked up several hotels the night before and we decided to go as far as we could. We stopped for gas in Wilkes-Barre, PA then made it a total of 550 miles to the Best Western in Shippensburg, PA. ($148.22 for 2 rooms) What a wonderful place! Since we are again traveling out-of-season, the indoor pool and hot tub were ours, alone. Since we arrived at 7:30 p.m., we enjoyed the pool first, then headed into town. Lovely brick buildings built before the civil war era made for quaint surroundings. We ended up dining on the upper outside deck at Knute’s tavern ($49.26).

Morning came around 8 a.m. We devoured the free breakfast in the empty dining area. Waffles, bagels, and more! We loaded the trunk while a black cat purred and pleaded for a pet, then we headed south about 9 a.m.  The Smokey Mountains were gorgeous, as usual, and we stopped and I took pictures while the boys broke out beverages. Everything went flying (me included) when a pick-up truck swung into our lane, but Eric avoided disaster. The weather turned delightfully warm, but we arrived home around 4 p.m. under a horrific deluge. Soaked, we waited a while before unpacking. My sister Erla believes we got well over 2” of rain and many roads had flooded.

Blaze seemed very happy to see us. The cat meowed and purred…unusual traits in him. We dropped everything where they lay and I figured all could wait until today. The men went to the movies and Hooters (don’t ask) and brought home pizza then we bid our son Eric goodnight. I stayed up until 11:30 cleaning out most of my accumulated e-mail.

The entire week is now a blur and I will make a point to re-read my blog submissions to remind me that we endured the long miles (900 miles each way), painful feet, long hours without rest, cold winds, as well as lots of fun for a very good cause…the New Hampshire Highland Games and their continued effort to bring the sights and sounds of Scotland to New England.

Nancy Lee Badger

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