Birdsboro, PA 2008 - Part 1 - What took you so long?

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans. Kris and I had it all planned out, we were going to be leaving our house by 10:00, we had awesome directions direct from AAA, this map had turn by turn instructions, it gave us mileage for each leg of the trip, it had close up maps for the roads that we were following so we could see if we were headed the right way, and I think it might have even made us breakfast if we had asked it to. 6 hours. That's how long the trip would take according to our 5 star map. A mere 6 hours. I even had this conversation with Lori a few days before going:

Lori: We're leaving early on Friday morning, we should be there around 3 or 4.
Me: So are we, we should be there around 3 or 4 as well.
Lori: Oh, so you're not going to set up in the dark this year?
Me: Nope we planned our day, took it off, so we could get there early this year.
Lori: Great! See you then!

See last year we showed up to every single event after dark. This was due to the fact that we joined the regiment in April and Kris and I had already planned our vacation time, so in order to fit the events in, we had to leave after work, which always put us arriving after dark. And you should know that that is quite a feat when dark happens very late on summer days. So this year we planned it all better, we took Friday off, we were leaving early, we were going to get there early and we weren't going to set up in the dark and we were going to be able to join everyone for the Friday night dinner out.

Remember what I said earlier about the best laid plans? Well we left at 10 ... big props for us for leaving on time! (Happens very rarely.) Then I had to stop and buy food for the commissary ... took at least 30 minutes. Then our poles refused to sit right and when the car got up past 60 mph all we could hear was a shrieking whistle from the ties .... another hour wasted fixing them. So let me show you what we saw when we arrived in Birdsboro, PA:



That's right we arrived after dark. Now if you are doing the math, you are probably thinking .... okay leave at 10:00, a 6 hour drive, half hour at store, hour fiddling with dangs poles, probably an hour for lunch ..... you should be there by 6:30 .... it's not dark by 6:30 these days right? Well there were two more things holding us up:



But mostly:



Our 5 star instructions had us going over the George Washington bridge and on to the NJ turnpike. If you have ever tried to drive through New York before, you are probably hurting for me right now. If you haven't driven on the George Washington bridge before, let me give you an idea of what it's like:


(okay so that's a stock photo taken in England, but you get the idea.)

So that's right, we did not arrive on Daniel Boone plantation until 9:30 at night. (Yup, you did the math right. A 6 hour drive turned into an 11 and a half hour drive.) We were tired and frustrated. I mean what else can you be when you are looking at that all day? But we made it. In one piece.

But oh, did I mention that it rained all day? And did I also mention that the field we were camping in was filled with red clay under the grass? No? Well that's a story for a whole 'nother post ......

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel