Bill and Cathy McArthur on the Road 2005: 10

  Wednesday, March 8, Bill headed back to the cold of the East. He started at 5:50 AM and finished at 6:00 PM after driving 765 miles. Driving conditions were excellent. It was sunny and clear most of the day. Bill finished up in a hard rainstorm, but it was only for the last 30 minutes of the drive. The landing place was a Hampton Inn in Brookhaven, Mississippi. After talking with Cathy, Bill called out for pizza and relaxed in the room.

  On Thursday, Bill bolted down a continental breakfast and hit the road at 6:10 AM (Central Time). He had several cities to traverse on various Interstate highways which wore him down. He finally quit at 5:30 PM, after driving 674 miles, at a Hampton Inn in Abingdon, Virginia. After calling Cathy, Bill again called out for pizza and watched a movie on HBO before putting on the Weather Channel to see how bad the weather would be for the next day. It is worth noting that at this point in the trip, Bill has driven the distance from Cape May to Key West.

  Friday morning, Bill spent a more relaxing time at the continental breakfast and didn't get on the road until 6:20 AM. There was a solid snow cover on the ground for the first 100 miles, but no snow or ice on I81. Bill had a good time competing with all of the trucks in the "King of the Mountains" game on I81. The weather cleared until the Pennsylvania line when it was cloudy the rest of the way. Bill arrived at Katie and Tom's house at 2:40 PM after driving 527 miles for a total of 2001 miles for the whole trip. Bill and Cathy were happy to be reunited, even in the cold weather. Bill was enchanted to meet Rachel at last and enjoyed helping to babysit while Katie and Tom went out to dinner.

  Saturday started out cold in Doylestown, but also started out with Bill, Cathy, and Katie enjoying breakfast at Starbuck's. Bill unexpectedly found two wireless networks available from Katie and Tom's house and was able to access the Internet all day. Alex, Phil, and the girls came over at lunchtime to spend the afternoon and evening. In spite of the cold, Bill and Phil and the girls spent a lot of time outside kicking a ball and running around. Bill and Alex took an afternoon walk around the neighborhood. It was mostly sunny, which helped. We talked with Bill and Stacey during the afternoon. Bill is still bouncing back and forth to Puerto Rico.

  Sunday morning was sunny and cold and we started out at Starbuck's again. We all (including Rachel) piled into the Blazer and went to the Montgomery Mall for Rachel's first mall excursion. She blissfully slept through the whole experience. We went to lunch at Moe's, but Rachel waited to eat at home. Later, we watched the end of the regular college basketball season and the NCAA selection show. Tom prepared a burger feast for us. Much later, Bill and Tom began to watch "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" on a rental DVD. We quit early to head to bed; Bill was happy not to see any more.

  Tom headed out to work early on Monday morning. Bill and Cathy went to Starbuck's for breakfast and brought a scone back for Katie. After leisurely packing, we headed the rig back to Cape May Beach, where we arrived at lunchtime. We were coldly welcomed by a strong west wind and chilly air. We ate lunch in between unpacking the RV. We noted some wind damage to the solarium: the fan cover blew off, a big piece of flashing on the bottom side tore off, and a screen was shredded. We called the Patio Enclosure company to report the problem. Later in the afternoon, they called back and scheduled an inspection for Friday. We settled into the house and were happily at home except for the wind and the cold. We went out to dinner at the Lobster House and had a good seafood meal.

  This ends an abbreviated road trip for winter, 2005.

        Bill and Cathy