We had fun catching up with our Schnauber/Robinson relatives, most of whom we haven't seen in several years. We were celebrating my Mom's 80th birthday because all 5 of her "kids" were there and many of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It was a surprise for her (especially since her real 80th isn't until February, but the weather is too "iffy" to get all of us together in the winter) and she couldn't figure out why people were wishing her a Happy Birthday (until the cake came out)! She thought her brother had put them up to it!
We had a great time with our Texas Snowball Fight - if you've never done this, buy a bunch of bags of large marshmallows and go at it! Adults and kids alike all enjoyed this...
Just to keep this post house-related...my brother and SIL moved into their house a couple of years ago. This is the bathtub in the master bathroom. It is about 7' long and 5' wide! My SIL puts all her grandkids in there in the winter so they can swim when it's too cold to be outside in the pool!
So, we left the reunion about 5:45pm and drove for a while without any problems. DD took over the driving and shortly after that, we found ourselves in traffic that was at a standstill. It took us 35 minutes to go exactly 2 miles! We couldn't figure out why - no signs of accidents, or anything else. Two more times that traffic came to a standstill, still without any sign of the reason. We finally decided to get off the thruway and attempt to get somewhere on the back roads. We got on route 21 south and figured we would eventually get to 17 West and from there to 90 and 79 south. Somewhere around the small town of Cheshire, we had to pull off the road because the downpours were so severe DH couldn't see the road, and it started to hail! Here is a shot out my window of the "river" that was flowing on the sidewalk next to our car...
And this is what the street looked like after the hail stopped falling...it looks more like winter than summertime!
We finally came to route 390 and took it down to route 17. We stopped for a very late dinner (9:30pm) in Hornell, NY at a Friendly's. We had a lot of fog between there and Erie, but DH made good time. I took over the driving near Meadville and stopped for gas in Butler, PA. I decided to stay on the back roads instead of getting back on the highway. Maybe I shouldn't have done that...
I was pulled over by the police as I drove through downtown Butler at 1:45am. This is the first time I've ever been pulled over for anything but I was so tired, I didn't even care. It turns out that they pulled us over for a burned out tail light, but it took them a while to get around to telling us that. They ran our plates when they pulled us over and the license plate came up on their system as being inactive. They had us get out of the car so they could show us that the license plate didn't match what was on the registration, but the VIN number did match. They were very confused, as were we. The plate number on the registration was very close to our actual plate number, so perhaps it was just a typo by someone. We've had this car and plate for about 8 years, so it's amazing no one ever noticed before. I'm sure the policemen thought they had drug dealers, or a stolen car, or something when they couldn't run the plates!
We finally made it home at 2:30am. Our 6 hour trip had turned into 8 hours and 45 minutes! I'm still not sure if we would have been better off staying on the Thruway in all the traffic jams, or if we made the right decision to get off. I'm just glad to be home! (We decided that the traffic jams were due to torrential rainfall and hail along the Thruway near Buffalo and Rochester.)
The landscaper and his crew are here this morning working on the patio area beside the kitchen and family room. Needless to say, we didn't get to sleep in very long this morning, and DD had to be at marching band camp at 8am. It's going to be a long day! I'll try to get some photos of the work the landscaper has been doing and post them later today, or tomorrow.
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