The Rolling Stone

 Dear Diary,

We are putting miles on the new car.  Hubby was beside himself with planning for a road trip.  We seem to be moving into this relationship where he is the little kid with all the fun ideas and I am the old mom trying to keep things normal.  It actually has some balance to it, because I am a bit of a stick in the mud.  God forbid I should die tomorrow with my sticks still in the mud, which is hubby's greatest fear!

We took a tour of the new Gettysburg Battlefield and Museum and other stuff in the Pennsylvania area and then did a traditional old folks leaf peeper drive down the West Virginia and Virginia skyline.  Hubby did the driving and I did the photography...no surprise.

He was just beside himself with all the buttons and adjustments on the car.  Every five minutes he was checking how much gas we were saving, how he was charging the battery going down hill, how the cruise control worked, and resetting the trip odometer.  Conversation from his side consisted of, "We are currently getting 66 MPG!"  "I have a range of 400 miles left."  "Look how this engine takes these hills!"  "Isn't this a smooth drive?"  Yes, this is "my" car.

I, on the other hand, fiddled with the radio controls listening to satellite channels of public radio, CNN, smooth jazz, traffic and weather, and the SPA channel.  That last one is the one to listen to while driving past the golden, red, orange, peach and lime yellow trees in the mountains.  It is very Zen although hubby said it was putting him to sleep.  I did get a chance to use the seat warmer one morning which I must say was worth every penny.  Weather was cooperative for the most part and we needed neither heat nor air conditioning as we drove along.  We did open the fancy moon roof for a short time, but the wind going over head is a little noisy...maybe if we were younger with better hearing?

The car is now covered in dusty streaks, the floormats have leaves, and we feel we have broken her in.  We did stop at Harper's Ferry yesterday hoping to walk around, but could not find parking.  Actually, that is not true.  There were two parking spaces left below the train station, but both were over small puddles and hubby refused to bring wet shoes into the car when we would have to get back in!  So we drove on!  (Yes we could have parked down the road and taken the shuttle...!)

Now I am back going through hundreds of emails and deleting every single political request for support.  I am so done with this election!  I now must go through the 300 photos I took and delete most of those.  I hear you sighing with relief on that one.

Meeting up with a blogger next week, although we have not set an exact time or place.  Meeting up with grandkids to check out the Halloween fun on the 31st.  Finishing up on a volunteer gardening committee until next spring.  Time to put up my feet and let you know how I feel about the J.K. Rowling novel next.  Eventually I will get back to reading all your blogs.