I arrived just about 11:30 PM. Yay! But my knee was killing me. I could barely drive anymore. With as cold and wet as it was, my knee objected painfully to the abuse of accelerator/brake usage. Just past Morgantown as I got close to the West VA-MD state line in the mountains I hit a patch if impenetrable fog. Since that area has no lines on the road that are visible at night, this was beyond scary. Thankfully a tractor trailer flew by me and I slammed on over behind him and kept my eyes glued to his taillights and the back of his truck. I have no doubt that the majority of the way we were driving in the middle of the interstate. It was bad enough last time when it was just night, but at least I could see blacktop. This is insane. They seriously need to paint lines. And it goes almost the full hour from Morgantown, West VA to that first big city in Maryland.

So we finally got out of the fog in an hour and a half. at which point I could once more use the cruise control. YAY. But an hour later I was in Frederick, Maryland and started picking up some traffic. But still I was motley fine through the beltway and the like. And then I hit 95. I had to sit forever to get onto 95 even though it is like 10 PM. Get around the exit ramp and to where I need to merge to get onto 95 and see the hold up. There’s an accident right THERE.

So I get out and am doing OK again for the most part except people couldn’t do a consistent speed. And I mean a 20 mile an hour variation. *SIGH* Then I hit Dale City and it is all break lights. And from then on cruise was useless. There were two more accidents, one on 95 and one on the HOV. Then of course there was a hold up while all those people pulled off the HOV and back onto 95. Then I finally get to the rest area/welcome center that is about five miles north of my exit. And there’s another backup. Everyone was getting off there! I mean everyone! I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a backup on an interstate at a rest area!! Party at the VA Welcome Center????

Then it SHOULD be smooth sailing but of course once more… people in front of me just could not drive a consistent speed. There was just enough traffic that I didn’t want to try to pass anyone for fear of not being able to get over easily. Then I get off and of course there’s almost no one in Fredericksburg because it is almost 11:30. But then I hit every red light on Route 3 to my parents house. You have GOT to be kidding me.

I am still wondering where all these people were heading on 95. I mean hardly anyone got off at Fredericksburg. There were still a lot of cars going somewhere. It is not a holiday weekend, that’s next weekend. Very interesting. And I’d like to know about the night time part at the rest area!!

I just sat in the car for five minutes letting my knee unlock. I could barely walk into the house. 😦

And now I can’t find my keys. *SIGH*

Because of how bad my knee still hurts this morning we decided to not go to DC. That and it is drizzling. I’m kind of annoyed because I really really want to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. We will try to go another day hopefully. We’ll try to do something that involves a lot less walking today. DC is a LOT of walking and I frankly don’t think I could do it. Maybe we’ll go up tomorrow. Of course now I need to get on and see what else there is going on. There was an anime marathon today. Darned stupid weather and traffic and knee. 😦

Oh and on another note, yesterday was report card day. Caramon got the equivalent of 2 A’s, 3 B’s, and a C+. His teacher says she’s proud of him because he’s really improving and behaving better. His reading went from a 10 to an 18 in the last 9 weeks. Though I don’t know what that means it sure sounds good! Joram’s grade card is different It’s about 50 skills and almost all his slashes were in the highest category (I can do this myself) so we figure that’s “Honour Roll” type grades. Grandmommy and Graddaddy have decided that they did well enough to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s but they have to go on a weekday since Caramon didn’t make “Honour Roll” with his S+. (That’s Satisfactory. The grades go E-Excellent, G-Good, S-Satisfactory, N-Neutral. So we decided it is A, B, C, D and no F.) Joram’s teacher wrote a note and said that he comes to school happy and excited to learn. She says he’s such a delight in the class. She had Caramon and loved him but said she can definitely tell a difference between the two. She says Caramon is “all boy” and Joram is so mellow. She said the funny thing is that she saw the boys at totally different ages. Caramon turned six right after he started Kindergarten. He was one of the oldest kids in the class. Joram turned 5 right after starting Kindergarten and is the youngest in his class.