In the random jump cut movie that is my life, the morning after I spent the evening photographing costumed otaku, I piled the family into the car to go to up to my adorable little cousin's (once removed) pre-baptism celebration picnic. This branch of my family is prone to celebrations at the drop of a hat. Graduations, birthdays, weddings, babies. Anything that can be celebrated with a party and a cooler of cold beer will be memorialized. My aunt and uncle have a weekend home less than 90 minutes from my house and I see them more often my own parents. I have been mooching Thanksgiving off them for years. I bake a few pies and then show up with my way-too-small-for-a-turkey-just-for-us family and have a good time.
My cousin lives in a hitherto unknown-to-me corner of Pennsyltucky about 200 miles from my house. I won't say it was in redneck territory, but you pass an ATV drag strip on the way to his house. With bad summer traffic that translated to 5 hours up and 4 hours back. All for some free food, cold beer, and a photo-op with the newest member of the family. Still, it was worth it. I will often say, "I have travelled farther for less." I think nothing of daytripping to Philly for an excuse to go to Tony Lukes for pork cheesesteak with brocolli rabe.
Sometimes the trouble of a roadtrip doesn't payoff. We have all had trips where you seem to get there just to turn around and wonder why you came. My worst trip was in college where I drove two hours to go to a wedding that lasted 15 minutes tops. I'm not even sure the bride and groom came to a complete stop as they recited their vows when they passed the front of the congregation. And then we found out we weren't invited to the reception. It was a Baptist wedding, so we weren't expecting a lot. Just some juice and cake in the church basement. Instead, nada. Needless to say those people aren't on our Christmas card list.
So to the peanut gallery: What is the farthest you have travelled for the least satisfaction? Anything counts. It's the lowest pleasure to travel time ratio that counts.
25 comments:
We have travelled 2 hours on a Saturday morning just to go to a couple of garage sales. But it was a nice drive and we had nothing better to do.
I travelled 3.5 hours to the mountains only to fall of a horse and then travel 1.5 hours via ambulance, over two cattle grids, to get to the hospital. Then later that evening I travelled another 3.5 hours back to Sydney in an ambulance to get to another hospital where I promptly threw up.
Does that count? :o)
Your cousin is very cute! And michele sent me.
Its usually 2+ hours to Long Island to my brother-in-laws house with the babies in tow. Here via Michele today...
Michele sent me.
Well, as sad as it sounds, I can recall many 6-hour trips to see my family where I came home more stressed out and upset than when I left. Fortunately, having a couple of kiddos for the family to dote on has helped a lot with any family tensions.
Any drive to the family homestead is headache enough.
Michele sent me!
Hey yellojkt! Michele sent me. It's been awhile. As to your question, well, I once drove all the way to International Falls (just on the border of Minnesota and Canada)with a roommate. As a "special thing", we drove into Canada. About 10-15 miles, max, into Canada. This was my first (and so far) only time out of the country. It was so boring! There was a paper processing factory. Borrrrringgg! This was, like 20 years ago, and I remember the crosswalks had pictures of people walking and a red hand. I laughed and laughed at what I thought was rediculous.. Now we have the same things here in Minnesota. I'm not sure if I call that progress or not.
P.s. I don't know wether to be hurt or not... you have my sister in law (princsiss) and my bestfriend (geekwif) blogrolled and I'm missing. I think we come as a trio, don't we? JK!
That's a hard question... probably a two hour drive over to my family and then finding them 'not home'...
Here via Michele's
How about driving five hours on a Saturday to play a gig, only to discover the gig is the next day, and have to drive back and then drive back the NEXT day? I blogged about it:
http://pratie.blogspot.com/2005/08/disastrous-greenville-gig.html
I also linked to your site today.
I live in VA but come from MA and used to travel to a yearly family cook-out every labor day. When my kids were young we could only go for the long weekend so we could get back for them to go to school. 14 hours each way for a couple of days was a BURNOUT. No wonder I only fly now. Michele sent me.
Three days across the country for a family-from-hell 10-day visit. I still have nightmares.
Dropped in from Michele's this morning. Thank you for reminding us why family, despite all the annoyances along the way, still matters.
Thank you for stopping by my sight..
The destination itself wasn't at all unpleasant. We were, after all, headed for home, San Diego, California.
It was the 2500 miles in a car with who 'was' my husband, who's idea of telling a pregnant woman that needs to use the restroom to just change positions and get the baby off her bladder. A car sick five year old that argued constantly with the three year old who always wanted to know if we were almost there yet. And, realizing he clearly needed glasses because "No, that is Not a car with a CB radio you are trying to follow at eighty miles an hour it..is..a..COP!"
The kids and I fixed his lack of rest stop's... started early feeding him LOTS of coffee so he too had to go!
an 8-hour trip out of the city for some r&r was unforgettable. yet despite having a sore butt from sitting in the car that long, it was still well worth it. just dropped by courtesy of michele. :)
Michelle sent me.
Such a cute little one!
I went to Las Vegas for four days alone once. For a conference. It was awful.
Hello, Michele sent me!
I think maybe the beach trip (4 hrs) that resulted in my children having strep throat, a bad burn from a jelly fish, almost falling out of the car (before seat belts) and staying in a trailer that belonged to an acquaintance of my husband which had NO air conditioning. Worst trip we ever took!
"Anything that can be celebrated with a party and a cooler of cold beer will be memorialized."
Amen to that.
As for wasted travel time, I've been pretty fortunate, other than the occasional two hour drive to the beach only to have it rain for six hours. But the KFC had a roof, so it wasn't a total loss.
Cute baby in the picture!
As for trip....it goes back to when I was dating. I traveled about 1200 miles and I got a phone call from my b/f and he broke up with me on the phone. He waited till I was gone to do it. Bum! :lol:
Oh and Michele says Hi! :)
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog. In college I went with my boyfriend to pick up a jet ski from a friend. We drove 8 hours there and 8 hours back straight. That was all in one state. East Texas to West Texas. I never got to ride the jet ski so it was pretty much a total waste for me. Do I win?
I had no idea I would hit such a rich vein. It seems bad roadtrips are a universal experience.
I was in river boat trip on the Volga in Russia. The boat was an old Soviet one, the foot aboninable, which made me really ill.
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she is a beauty adn i LOVE that cake!
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