From Delaware, With Love

 

NEWARK, Del. -- Greetings from the Candlewood Suites hotel.

Sean is thrilled to be staying in a suite with actual silverware and plates to eat his chicken strips from Wawa.

He's a simple guy and I appreciate that. For him, this seems plush so perhaps I need to do a better job of broadening his horizons.

We cranked over 400 miles today to get here.

On a Friday.

In summer.

Yeah, not our best move.

In a normal world, the thought of lunch in Richmond to see Jon would have been perfect but I knew what we were getting into.

Sure enough, we didn't creep along 95. We just kind of ... slowed ... down ... basically from Ashland, Va to Elkton, Md.

I felt such relief to see Exit 109 to "shunpike" my way past the toll at the Delaware state line.

And here we are.

As I expected, emotionally, I'd love to be home tonight, petting Rascal and sitting in my own living room. But I'm looking forward to the weekend of exploring the roads and bridges of Philadelphia and the surrounding area with friends I've met and haven't met.

Plus, I get to see a baseball game in a stadium I've never been to (Citizens Bank Park for Phillies/Mets tomorrow night).

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

And I'm trying to make sure I don't wear Yankees stuff but no guarantees.

Oh, John Nash asked about my reference to the last time Sean and I were in Philadelphia. I mentioned it in last night's post. As good luck has it, I wrote about it on April 23, 2014 in a post called "Catching Up."

We'll always have our Philadelphia story to tell, where Sean discovered that, after a fun time in the Franklin Institute, our car was being towed away. Thanks to the help of the Philadelphia police department, a cab ride, and roughly $275, we got the car back unscathed. I worried on several levels: I could tell Sean was afraid that stuff had been stolen (it hadn't). I worried that the rental car was damaged (nope). I worried about the obscene amount of money that Philly jacked me for (legitimate).

At the end of the day, it's a story to tell. I still don't completely believe that we were parked in a two-away zone, but I wasn't going to be able to convince the cop. So it goes.

Thankfully Sean saw the car being towed. Otherwise, I would have thought it had been stolen.

Honestly, Sean was the hero. He saw a car on a flatbed and said how it looked like our car. I laughed.

He was right.

I was sick. We went to a nearby police station and they were very sympathetic, telling us to go catch a cab and tell them where to take us. Even the impound lot was nice. Not that any of this made things better. It just meant we got the car back. I still had to pay for the tow and the other delightful charges (plus a ticket).

It was awesome. Awful and awesome.

To assuage Sean, I found a playground that had a huge castle that he had climbed once before. He had been strangely quiet after our car escapade so I wanted to see if I could pull that laughter back out of him. It worked and all was well.

Still, I will endeavor to not repeat that this weekend.

Maybe I should have gone straight home.

One last thing. For those asking why we didn't just stay closer to Philadelphia, I will explain it as simply as possible.

Elkton, Md is 13 minutes away.

That is the location of the nearest Waffle House. It is, also, the last Waffle House we will encounter before we're home.

I like keeping that 20-year-old son of mine smiling.

Priorities, people.