Road Warrior Momma: Day 7

Day 7 - June 4, 2012

Ashbury Park, NJ - Hartford, CT - Norwich, CT

3 ¼ hours/183 miles - 40 minutes/40 miles

We are cold!!!! As I write this, it’s 52 degrees and freezing! And the weather forecast for the next couple days doesn’t look promising. There’s a reason the summer season doesn’t kick in till after the 4^th of July. O.M.G. it’s cold.

We left NJ around 10a.m. and honestly, we had an easy drive (after help form BernadetteJ). Rained the whole way, but no major traffic. We got to Hartford in 3 hours and went right to the Mark Twain House. (This was a mommy thing.)

The check–in was rough…the kids were giant PITAs…seriously. (PITA=pain in the ASS). The guy who was handling the ticket purchase actually suggested that I may want to reconsider, because there was a lot of information being dispersed by the tour guides and interruptions and distractions were not appreciated. Seriously, he said that. Well, a major (the cold and tired part) of me wanted to tuck my tail and bail…the other part thought, “screw you!” My kids will be just fine.

Of course, I then threatened their lives. Seriously…I told them they better act like they were on a school field trip, with their teachers (as opposed to their mother, how sad is that?), and if they didn’t…there’d be no more trips to the pool, for the rest of the trip. I stressed to H&A that they better worry about themselves and stay out of B&C’s way. I was a freakin nervous wreck.

Then, we started the tour…guess who was tour guide? Yup…the guy from the ticket counter. He wore red pants, with a red and white striped shirt (think candy striper, and it was not a uniform) and had long hair to his shoulders, with a round face (that actually reminded me of my dad’s face at 25 years of age). He was full of himself and Mark Twain….and did not like interruptions. He was particularly irritated when two different cell phones rang during the tour. I was on pins and needles, because I’d given my cell phone to Bear, so he could watch YouTube (on silent) while we toured. It was like sitting on a keg of dynamite.

We made it, though! Without incident! I said as much too the guide as we exited…and he just smirked at me.

Then we headed to the state capitol….which was gorgeous. We went inside and I was immediately accosted by people asking me to take their pictures Apparently, there was a big swearing in of new lawyers who were admitted to the Connecticut Bar Association and they all wanted their picture taken with their families, their certificate, in front of some legal eagle statue.

Then we headed to Norwich, which is where our hotel is & we encountered more rain. I’m not sure if it was the rain, the temperature, or the yelling form the back, but I got in a really bad mood…kids were seriously testing me. Then we made a grocery store stop for supplies…and they acted like they’d never been in a darn grocery store before. So, I took all TV and technology away for the night. We got to the hotel, unloaded, and then I visited the Courtyard (by Marriott) bar…they all have the fancy bar now. I ordered a Cosmo to go. The kids are doing their school worksheets and/or reading a book. No pool tonight. Dinner from the Marriott market (doesn’t appear to be a lot of other options nearby, this seems to be a one horse town). Early to bed, as we are going to Bean Town tomorrow, which should be fun, touring in the cold rain…