If You Can't Beat Them.....

       BLOG FOR SUNDAY, JULY 21ST

       Every year most of the members of my
family get together for a summer vacation
in Wildwood, New Jersey. It's the place
Bobby Rydell sang about a fear years back.
      I've been going there long before the
song. In fact me earliest memory of the
Jersey shore is of my Dad allowing me to
blow the car horn as often as I wanted and
going to a restaurant where they literally
piled food in front of me. Far more than I
could ever consume!
     I know know that I was 3-years-old and
that was VJ Day!
     I've been coming back almost every year
since then. I don't think I'm allowed to blow
the horn anymore. Certainly not as much.
And I haven't seen that much food set in front
of me since that day in 1945!
    A lot of other things have changed over
those years. There is, for instance, 50 times
more traffic these days. At least it seems like
50 times more!
    The worst area, as you might imagine,
begins with the Schuylkill Expressway.
     This is the not so super highway that
runs through Philadelphia and was obsolete
about a year before construction was completed.
     The traffic jam, especially on weekends,
extends onto the Atlantic City Expressway
and the Garden State Parkway.
     A few years back we can up with a plan
to beat the traffic. It involved me crawling
out of bed at about 5am and leaving home by
6. It did allow us to avoid most of the very
heavy traffic.
     Yesterday I followed the plan and was on
my way before the sun could totally fill the
sky.
     The 4 hour trip, given one rest stop, went
fairly smoothly with only an ocassional
slow down here or there.
      We had called the folks at our vacation
house to let them know about our plans to
beat the traffic. We requested an early check in
and they said they'd do their best.
      There "best" turned out to be 2 o'clock.
      So we equaled out! 4 house on the road
and 4 more parked in front of our home away
from home until we could actually unpack
bags of luggage and coolers full of food for
the week.
      I guess next time I'll have to join them,
the traffic that is, and, at least, get 4 more hours
sleep! I'll need the first two days here to catch
up on mine! I'll start with a nap in the pool!
      Hope all your roads are clear and all your
NEWS is good!