An All Day Trip to Nowhere

Last Saturday my sister, Rosalee, and I heard that our sister, Jane, was ill and had been in the hospital for some time. We decided to go visit her on Sunday (even though it was Mother's Day) and make a day of it. So bright and early Sunday morning, I got up, packed up my puzzle book and crocheting, and started out for Rosey's house about 7:00 AM. After a stop in Lafayette to get some gas, I got there a little before 8:00. We then got in Rosey's car and started out for our visit and gabfest. Rosey drove the first leg and we had a good visit - discussing all the important things in life, such as our sister and brothers, our kids, my job, her redecorating, my unwanted company (that's another story in itself), and so on - and the time just seemed to fly by. We got to Watertown in due time and decided to stop and have breakfast. We went to Perkins and while Rosey dined on oatmeal and fresh rolls (yeah, really), I enjoyed french toast, bacon and hash browns. After eating as much as we could, we headed back out on our trip. I drove this leg of the trip. It took me a few minutes to get used to driving a van, which was sort of different than driving my regular car. But we were bopping along, still thinking of lots of things to discuss. We passed the Fort Drum exit, then passed the Theresa exit and was almost to Alex Bay. We were laughing about the time many years ago when Rosey was driving and took the wrong part of the Alex Bay exit and we couldn't figure out how the river got on the wrong side of us. We even thought for a second that we must have crossed the river and didn't realize it. It WAS night time and hard to see. But what we really did was head back north towards Clayton. Anyway, we were bopping along and all of a sudden the van started slowing down. I pressed down harder on the gas and it didn't work, it just continued to go slower and slower and we were just coasting along. We saw a state trooper ahead of us just sitting there on one of those turnarounds waiting to catch somebody going too fast. So we coasted right up next to him and stopped on the side of the road. (I'll bet there were a lot of motorists happy that we occupied that trooper for the next hour or so.) The van refused to start again. We looked under the hood, but of course that was useless - we had no idea what was wrong. Rosey called Chuck and it was decided to call a tow truck and have it towed somewhere and Chuck would come and pick us up. Sorry, Jane, no visit today. The trooper very generously volunteered to call the towtruck (after he checked out my license and Rosey's registration, of course). And in due time, a huge almost-looking new truck pulled up. We climbed into the backseat of the club-cab and visited with the tow truck guy's new wife while he loaded the van onto the back of the truck. In that short time, we found out she had grown kids, was newly married to tow guy and they each still had their own houses while building a new house for them together. She was quite talkative and made our situation a little easier. I thought it was cute that she sat in the little middle seat next to him - oh....newlyweds! Mr. Tow truck driver turned around and drove us back to Theresa where he dropped us off at Trickey's diner and carried the poor van off to the van hospital. We thought the name of diner was interesting as we have cousins named Trickey, but upon questioning the young lady who was working there, she said her grandfather owned the diner and he was from Albany, so we determined we were no close relation anyway. We spent about two hours there. There was a group of older guys in the diner who were having a lively conversation that made Rosey and I just look at each other and roll our eyes every once in a while. One was very vocal about his new girlfriend, which was sort of difficult to really believe. It was obviously a hangout for these guys - enjoying their morning coffee even though it was well past noon by this time. After sitting there working on our puzzle books and listening to the boasting and dubious conversation, we decided we were getting the munchies even though we hadn't had breakfast all that long ago. So we ended up having dessert - mmmmm, I had a delicious piece of lemon pie. Rosey was trying to get hold of Chuck again all this time, but no luck. Chuck finally called - he was in Alex Bay looking for us. Sorry Chuck, you went too far. So he got back on 81 again and headed back to Theresa. And eventually he showed up. Come to find out, he had a new phone and couldn't quite figure it out yet. He decided he needed a bite to eat and ordered a well-done hamburger to go. We waited for his burger and finally got in his van and headed back to Syracuse. Poor Chuck took one bite of his burger and found out Trickey's Diner was full of tricks, as his burger was almost raw and inedible. Poor Chuck was still hungry. But in due time we made it back to Rosey's house. I got into my car and headed home - arriving about 6:00 or 6:30. It was a really long day for a trip to nowhere and I was sound asleep in my bed by 9:00!