Day 1 - January 16, 2009 
Bette Davis said that “old age aint no place for sissies”, well neither is a road trip from Chicago to Washington DC, and I found out that I am indeed a sissy! Even traveling in a 15-passenger van with 6 other people that I like very much,, is a horror. The fact that it was -14 degrees when we left, that 3 of u
s were in various stages of the flu or a head cold and that the roads were full of black ice, --did not help. Oh we did everything possible to stay upbeat. We listened to comedy on the satellite radio, played Black history brainquest, grooved to Estelle, laughed and joked but we were all taking loads of Airborne, Dayquil, Chloreseptic and every Vitamin C product known to man. At one point several of us were in
one of the pit stop bathrooms and all you heard was sniff sniff sniff—it sounded like an 80’s rock band was in the stalls. It was such a pain for me. Being in a van 14 hours is like 2 days at work (with better company of course). The black ice slowed us down tremendously - there were minivans and trucks in ditches where they had skidded off the road. The worse was the FedEx truck turned over on its side, but if it’s late it’s free.
Finally we get there and our hosts are up & waiting. We are actually staying in Maryland at one of Deborah
Crable’s parent’s houses. The house is great; multi-levels, 3 bathrooms and overlooking a lake. They insist I take the master bedroom with the private bathroom. (Okay sure;) We also have a second house (one of Deborah’s sister Donna & her husband Mario’s 
houses) across the street that’s just as beautiful & with a theatre. Jackpot! Deborah never told me they were ballers.We all settle in for a much needed good nights sleep when suddenly I hear all this commotion. Sounds like a heated debate, maybe someone left a TV on. It gets louder and louder. Everyone is asleep and the TV is off. What is that? I look out the window—there’s the problem. It’s the damn geese! First they bring down a plane in NYC, now they keep me from sleeping. The thought of frois gras is sounding pretty good to me about now, if I wasn’t a vegetarian… Maybe a goose dinner for everyone. Oh no, now the ducks have joined in the fray. I cover my head with a pillow and dream of flying south for the winter…
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