On the Road Home - Starting in Snow!

Today is the long road home as we travel from Harrisburg, PA to Sunnyvale, CA. This morning at my inlaws' house just outside Harrisburg we awoke to a dusting of snow!



Snow is uncommon this time of year in this area. Just 100 miles north it's more common. When I attended college about 200 miles north of here we'd get the first snow of the season looking like this by the end of September!

This also reminded me how long it's been since I've stepped in snow. It doesn't snow at all at my house; the forecast today has a high of 70! So experiencing snow is something I have to travel for. And with travel reduced the past 21 months because... well, you know why... the last time I set foot in snow was 2½ years ago— ironically on the second day of summer while hiking in the Grouse Lakes Basin.



To be fair I didn't actually step in/on snow here. The pre-dawn lows only barely hit freezing, so snow melted right away on the sidewalk and driveway. There was a fun coating atop our car at 8am, as you can see above.

Right now were at Washington National Airport (DCA) awaiting the first leg of our flight home. The drive down here from Harrisburg was easy, 120 miles in 2 hours. We allowed extra time in our schedule in case there was traffic in the morning. The downside of not needing that that extra time for the drive is that we have to spend it waiting in the airport terminal. Our flight doesn't depart until 12:50, by which point we'll have been here almost 3 hours.

Home, 15+ Hours Later

Tonight we're home, ready to sleep in our own bed for the first time in 9 days. The journey started this morning at 8 Eastern with a surprise dusting of snow, an easy 2 hour drive, and a long wait at the airport. From there our first-leg flight to Saint Louis was uneventful, but it was followed by another long sit in the airport. Our connection on toward San Jose left more than 3 hours later and was a bit late getting off the blocks. We landed in San Jose around 7:45pm Pacific time and were home-home by about 8:30. That's 15½ hours after we left my inlaws' house this morning. And it's 19 hours after my stupid body woke up at 4:30 Eastern and barely let me get 30 minutes of sleep all the rest of the day.

It's now past 9:30pm. I've taken in the mail, unpacked my suitcase, taken a shower, and am winding down for bed. Sorting the mail was kind of funny.... A week's worth of mail all landed in two piles: one for the recycling basket, and one for things that need to go through the paper shredder because they contain things like bank names and partial account numbers. Basically everything for the past week has been advertisements and solicitations. *Correction: there's one letter for Hawk that might require attention.

Winding down this evening is important because tomorrow at 8am I've got to hit the ground running at work. No rest for the wicked... except one solid night's sleep tonight. Hopefully.