Teryl Magee and I arrived in Silver Spring, Maryland, today after a less-than-eventful drive up from Tennessee. Our apologies to all who wanted to join us via ustream on the drive. I gave up my Verizon USB connection several months back, so we had to rely on our cell phones to stay in touch with everyone via Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook. Since I was driving, I tried to keep my texting to a minimum.
We got a late start yesterday. I was supposed to pick Teryl up in Maryville around 6-ish. I didn’t leave Cleveland until then! I kept making stops, picking up supplies, visiting with friends, and generally not really caring much about the time. So we left Maryville around 7:30 and drove to Roanoke, Virginia. That’s pretty much the half-way point.
The free breakfast at the Quality Inn Suites was not spectacular. I guess that’s why it is free. I wouldn’t have paid for it. The 2 ounce cups for water and coffee was the last straw for me. But we ate it, and we were on the road again this morning at 6:30.
About two hours into our drive the air conditioning in my car decided to quit. It made a really loud clacking sound, kind of like playing cards in the spokes of my sting ray bicycle when I was 10. Then…nothing. It was annoying, but not extremely uncomfortable, and we made it to the Courtyard right on time around 10:40 this morning.
We dropped our suitcases off at the hotel (no rooms were ready yet), got back in the car and headed to the airport to pick up some friends at 11:00. THAT is when the we reallyl noticed we didn’t have any air conditioning. The directions to the airport from the hotel took us right through the heart of Washington, DC. We must have hit every traffic light and road construction crew between here and Arlington. The sun was fully up by then and we were melting. The strawberries I had in the back seat started to sweat and look like strawberry shortcake topping, but not in a good way.
After arriving back at the hotel, taking about an hour for a well-deserved lunch at McGinty’s Irish Pub, and finally getting into our hotel rooms, Teryl took the car back to the airport to pick up two more friends. Poor thing. I just got a Skype message from one of them about thirty minutes ago. It read, “You’re car is hot!” I don’t think that was a compliment.
So there you have it. Our first few hours in Silver Spring. The DEN LC Symposium starts tomorrow morning. We have a short meet-and-greet tonight, and then tomorrow will be back to back work sessions followed by a little fun time tomorrow night.
Ahhhhh….this is what vacations are all about.