Home Again

This past week was one of my visits to Northern Virginia to aid with childcare for L (eldest grandson.)  As RT (eldest son) had driven my car up there on Christmas to get their gifts home and to have some transportation for a month.  Living in that area and on near a Metro line, they don’t own a car.  Where they can’t get on the Metro, they go on their bicycles.  If it is too far for that, they just don’t go.  On Friday evenings, L has his guitar lesson for 30 minutes and RT manages to get their grocery shopping done and they load it all on their tandem bike or take the bus home.  Having my car makes the whole process more convenient.

Because of the car already being there, I went up on the Amtrak train out of Lynchburg.  It will be more convenient when it comes into Roanoke.  I generally take the MegaBus, but there were no seats available on the day I needed it.  The train ride was an interesting experience, I haven’t really ridden a train since before Jim and I married and prior to that taking it to college.  For some reason, the train car was so hot, I stripped down to my t-shirt and slacks, but I wasn’t sharing a double seat, so I just piled all my snow layers in the seat beside me.  Having not slept well the night before due to worrying whether we would be able to make the 109 mile drive in the snow that fell that night and having to get up at 3:30 a.m. to make the trip, I spent a good part of the 4 hours dozing.

Normally, L and I try to find outings together, but he opted to go to the School Aged Afterschool Care program one day to go roller skating and didn’t feel well the next day.  Yesterday, he, RT, and I planned an outing to Chinatown in Washington DC to watch the Chinese New Year’s parade, fighting the traffic to get there and realize it was today instead.  We used the time we had put on the parking meter to get some lunch in a Chinese Restaurant (surprisingly one of the only ones in Chinatown) then did the art scavenger hunt in the Luce Foundation part of the  Smithsonian American Art Museum.

This morning, my car loaded, and breakfasted with bagel sandwiches made by RT for us, I pointed my car home and had an easy trip with little traffic and no bad weather.  That is supposed to begin later with a bit of everything predicted this week, rain, ice, sleet and snow and one model showing us getting our first major storm this season with 18″ or more of snow.  That will shut us in for a few days.

I enjoy my trips to help them, but am always glad to be home to my own schedule, our bed and routine.