Thursday, May 04, 2006

In the homeland, once again..



Ah, it felt good to get home. Once we finally exited the Dulles Airport Hertz rental parking lot, after an hour of having arrived there, we were able to breathe a breath of fresh..ah..stop and go traffic. You ask, why in the heck would we fly to DC if we live in the Southern Tier of NY state? Well, if I were to lie, I would say that it was so that we could take in a little Americana, after so much Europa…

So, we had a little taste of the traffic in the DC area, which was at its prime at 5pm when we started on the interstate, going the wrong way..(we even stopped at the toll, payed, and were told by the booth tender that we needed to turn around.. hmm, can I have my $2.70 back?)
Before we got on the absolute right track, it took me almost taking the wrong turnoff and jumping a curb to avoid going the wrong way, again…tires squealing…burnin’ rubber in the burnt orange chevy….sweeeeeet! Of course, the driver I cut off didn’t think I was all that stellar.. but, hey, I haven’t driven for a few months, so it took me a while to get in the groove again.. (and I just felt groovy behind the wheel of that chevy!)

As soon as we emerged from the traffic, and were on the right track, we decided that we needed some real American nourishment. We bypassed the Walmarts, Outbacks and McDonalds, and decided instead to stop at the “Apple House” in rural Virginia. It was a gift shop/burger joint and it looked goooood. I ordered up the BBQ special…the juicy pulled pork sandwich, with baked beans, kraut and chips… and T ordered the #2, which was a hefty hefty portion of pancakes, potatoes, bacon and eggs. It was so big, it came to him on two heavily weighted plates and landed on the table with a thud. Ah, welcome home….. it was apparent to me at this moment, as it has been in the past, why we are the most obese nation. Full and feeling fat and a little perked up, for now, we left and resumed our travels onward.

On London time still, it was approximately 1:30am(8:30pm EST), when we decided that our eyes were feeling a bit too heavy to continue. So, we checked into a Best Western hotel in small town Maryland. We decided that since we were 5 hours ahead in our minds and in our internal clocks, that we could go straight to bed, and then get up at 3am to resume our journey. When we checked out mere hours after we checked in, I do believe that the desk clerk found it curious, raised eyebrows and all..

So, the journey ends for now, as we rolled into Ithaca, once again, this morning. It was nice to find that our house was still in tact, car still in the garage, pretzels in their ziploc bags, still somewhat fresh...

My first order of business, after unpacking and sorting through the mail, was a trip to Wegmans. My favorite place in Ithaca. I craved something homecooked, from my new Tuscan cookbook and decided on Ribolita (a homey stew with kale, white beans and bread) and Bruschetta… both things that I enjoyed more than a few times while in Italy… It felt good to be back in the kitchen, even if I have yet to test out the new sweet and bread recipes that I acquired throughout our travels. There is still time for this, and of course, as always I will keep you posted..

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

and how is toonces? is he home yet??

Sara said...

yes, after a couple days, he is back to his feisty old self...