Driving across America #2: Mullens, WV, to Fonthill, ON
News ·Monday June 28, 2010 @ 00:32 EDT (link)
New River
Emily's Wall of Rob
The previous leg ended Sunday, June 20. The first stop on our tour was Emily's wall of Rob; she's absolutely bananas over him and the Twilight books. We were staying in her room, so it greeted us morning and night. It had been a long time since I'd seen any of them, but Emily was of course most noticeably older but we still got along famously. (And if that usage seems strange to you, it's probably "Chiefly British", however it's perfectly cromulent and you can jolly well look it up.)
On Thursday we went over to the New River Gorge bridge near Fayetteville, and walked around a little, got a few photos.
I didn't make any notes about between Sunday and Thursday; we mostly stayed around the house, sometimes went out to run errands, watches movies in the evening.
We went to the local pool where Emily has a pass (we had to pay $3/each) one day, had a nice time, but I really missed having swim goggles and ended up picking some up in Canada—at Canadian Tire, naturally.
Some of the New River Gorge photos:
Some of the family pets: Smokey, the (skittish, but that's a downgrade from "very skittish") cat and Muffin the dog:
And then some random pictures of people (Emily and mom Christine, dad Doug passing a plate, Grandpa and Grandma Pollock, and you know the rest), dinnertime and Guitar Hero™:
We spent a week there—planned to spend a week at both parents' and a little more than that driving—leaving on Sunday the 27th at 1440. But we picked up a passenger, and this is the way of it.
Honey and I had been joking with Emily, or Christine, about taking Emily to Canada; and then we started thinking about it more seriously, and Emily thought she could handle it (not having been away from home or even out of state overnight much thus far). Her parents permitting, I called my parents and asked if we could bring her along, and they said they'd be happy to have her come with us: so we proceeded to cover our bases for the border. The official sites indicated the important things: a letter from her parents with contact information and giving us permission to take her to Canada with us, provide medical care if necessary, and so on, carefully worded according to the requirements. A photo ID card, from the DMV ($5); her insurance card and birth certificate. We put it all into a folder and put it with our passports. She packed a backpack with clothes a cloth net bag with swim gear. Everybody gave her spending money for Canada, too.
We had two boxes of camping supplies and food in the back set so things were within easy reach; I stacked one on the other to make Emily room to sit (and sleep—it's about a 10 hour trip). We also left a few things with Honey's parents to make packing the trunk easier (and since Canada frowns on the rights of free people, I stashed my two handguns with Honey's grandfather—papa—hoping against hope that I would see them again). Emily was very excited about going to Canada ("If the border people ask where you're going, what will you tell them?" "CANADA… duh!")
We took the I-77/I-64 to the I-79 and up through Pennsylvania, stopping for gas and the state welcome center (to get a map… I like to collect state maps) and then at 1900 at Wendy's for dinner. We hit the I-90 tollway in New York at 2215, stopped for gas again, had an uneventful border crossing (I don't even think they asked for any of Emily's paperwork, or asked her any questions, although we made sure she was awake), and arrived at my parents' house in Fonthill at 0030.
Books finished: Give Me a Break, Beyond This Dark House, The Constitution In Exile.
