She Dey Pon Top A Di World

I type this from my cousin-in-law's laptop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (big shout-out to kb.)

M was very excited to visit her cousin when she moved up from New Orleans to NC earlier this year, so we decided to take a post-Christmas trip down here while PG's daycare and M's work are closed. The original plan was to leave on the 26th, but there were still a few presents to be presented at my brother's house and some Rock Band 2 to be played at that same location (it was awesome, my friends - Trackrick was wailing the tunes!) And so, we left on the 27th.

I can't speak for the comparative wisdom of leaving on the 26th, but leaving on the 27th proved to be somewhat ill-advised. I'll get to the why in a little bit.

We made a brief detour in Northern Virginia to visit my cousin, who is moving to Paris with his wife and kids on the 29th. They had some toys they were looking to unload, and PG, being a kid, was a prime candidate for receiving such bounty, so we got some stuff while we were there. We had recent experience in moving, so we didn't stay long, knowing that they needed their alone time to get ready for the trans-Atlantic relocation.

So, already running a bit late, due to the detour and our own delayed preparations leaving our house, we hit the post-Christmas traffic on I-95 in Northern Virginia. One might think that Sunday would be the day everybody goes home after a Christmas visit. Apparently, more than one would think that and they all decided to travel on Saturday instead. And so, the normally 30-minute trip from the I-495 merge to Fredericksburg took two hours. For reasons known only to the unseen forces that control traffic, things got a lot smoother after Fredericksburg, a town that, as far as I know, isn't the type to siphon off a lot of traffic. Keep an eye on the comments below; one of my reader's lives in Fredericksburg and may have some insight into the phenomenon.

We eventually got to Chapel Hill, no thanks to the as-always confusing Google Maps directions (don't get all smug, Mapquest - you wouldn't have done much better.) PG slept a little in the car but that probably didn't make up for the 3 hours late bedtime. She got to play a lot once we got there.

So, here I am in North Carolina for the first time. I have now stepped foot in 28 states and seen 29 from a car.


(Title reference: "Oh Carolina" by Shaggy. I think he's saying "She dances upon the top of the world," but it's kinda hard to tell with Shaggy.)