summer trip: day eight

Miles so far: 2072

I now know that I under-calculated the number of miles that we would travel on the trip. I know that it is about eight hundred miles from my parents' house to our house, so it is now looking like a three thousand mile trip.

Also, for as bad as NJ looked on Monday, Tuesday morning he looked a lot better. Now, almost all signs of pox are gone.

Tuesday morning we left around ten for Scranton. We probably would have left sooner, but someone who will remain nameless was a little sluggish that morning.

Under normal circumstances, the trip would have taken five-and-a-half hours. Since we stopped for lunch at an actual restaurant, dealt with some of NJ's digestive problems, and took a scenic tour of the the area around Nescopeck, Pennsylvania, while I insisted that we weren't lost, we arrived at our destination almost eight hours later.

Just about every time Golden has visited the keystone state it has been in the winter in overcast weather. Not only that, but she has visited mostly the areas of the state still reeling from steel and copper mills shutting down decades ago. As a result, she has had a less than stellar opinion of Pennsylvania. Every time she heard someone call it a beautiful state she disagreed with this assessment, though she kept this opinion to herself. This time she got to see some of the more beautiful areas of the state in the summer sun. I believe that her opinion of the state improved.



I did give some thought to what I consider a mountain as I travelled through the Appalachians. I think that because all of the Appalachian mountains that I have seen are covered in trees, I never considered them mountains. I always figured it was the size of the Rockies that made me view them more as mountains than the Appalachians. I now think it is just because the Rockies are rocky. The fact that most Appalachian peaks are tree-covered makes me see them as overgrown hills.

My grandmother and great aunt are staying with my aunt in her house north of Scranton. It is a large farm house away from the population that was probably built around the turn of the twentieth century, which they are currently remodelling. My aunt's grandson and granddaughter are currently also at the house, so there were people everywhere.

The area around the farm house is something that Dwight Schrute would be proud of. I didn't see any beet farms, but I know I must not have been looking closely enough. I schruted it.A big part of the reason that we travelled to Pennsylvania in the first place is so my grandmother could see her great-grandson. She repeatedly expressed her appreciation that we brought NJ to see her. Two problems, though, are that she is having trouble with her memory and NJ would cry any time we tried to hand him to her. He simply would not have someone other than his mom hold him. Even though there was not much more I could do, I feel bad that she didn't get to hold him without him crying.

Around noon today, my aunt took Golden and I to the Teen Challenge adolescent center where my uncle works. Then she took us around Scranton. The Teen Challenge center is very new and is still in the building process. The views from the complex are spectacular, though.The point of going into Scranton was to see if we could find the "Welcome to Scranton" sign from The Office theme. We found a newer sign, but not the old one. I believe I heard that the old one was taken down, but that it might be around somewhere for visitors to see. That information didn't help us any.We got a late start to my parents' home today, which made all of us a bit nervous given how long it took to get there. The trip back was two hours shorter than the trip there, though, since NJ didn't cause much trouble.

After today, I am feeling pretty good. The next two days should be much slower with no excessive travelling, though I do have a few things scheduled. Going at a slower pace is something I am beginning to really appreciate.