You said drive UP to town, why am I going south?

We have an odd custom for referring to travel direction here in the southern Appalachian area I live. I'm about 30 min. north of a nearby town, and 1000 feet lower in elevation since I'm in the river valley and it's further up the ridge. If I was going to the town, I would say I'm going UP there. And likewise, if a friend in town complains it's snowing, I can reply that we just have rain down here. 


I think it's mostly a holdover from horse/wagon days, when having to climb a nearby mountain was a better indicator of where the next town was than just a compass point. And believe me, every mountain and hill here has a name, and often when people complain of the weather or traffic it's by mountain name rather than towns - seems they're still the default landmarks despite our ease traversing them. Also, it's usually quite a bit colder on the ridges compared to the valleys, and it just feels right to refer to a colder place as ‘up from here’.


Coming from the North originally I found this seeming inversion of direction ridiculous and refused to join in. I'm north of town dammit! Everyone knows north/south! Why say you'll drive up to a town, when you're actually heading south? I argued the point at first, but after I accepted the shift, it seems to fit so much better than something like a compass point. And now I refer to locations by up/down elevations rather than map directions by default. And so does everyone else. Until you have a visitor from the north, and you  accidentally add an hour onto their expected drive time because they thought when I said we'd drive up to town, they thought that town was north of here.

Travel Update: Driving & Safety

So my plan to post more frequently, and with photos, has clearly not held up.  But there’s always hope! It’s a new season, and I’ve started carrying my camera cable with me on trips, so I could actually upload some of the photos I take.

By now you know how I feel about driving in New Jersey. Every time I have to drive up there I try to come up with more succinct and pithy ways to explain just how ridiculous the traffic laws are. And in the “A picture is worth 1000 words” category, please view my GPS directions one night. 

No, this is not a traffic circle, it’s a normal 4-way intersection with a light. I particularly like how the suggested route looks like a question mark. And if the directions don’t bake your noodle, look out the windshield and see if that helps clarify where they hell I’m supposed to be driving.

Speaking of ridiculous directions, how about this caution sign in front of a hospital I was visiting during the winter. Now, warning elderly and infirm patients that the sidewalks and streets can be icy is important, but this is just a bit too wordy in my opinion. And they were at the curbs, which meant people were stopping in the lane to read them.

I’m on a plane right now, headed back up to my favorite driving location. It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve had to travel anywhere, and it feels like forever. The first leg of my flight had a great flight attendant, his lighthearted joking safety speech made me think I was on a Southwest flight for a minute. We were behind schedule, and he asked “at the request of the pilot” that we all lean forward during takeoff and lean into any turns. He said it was simple physics and would help us get to our destination faster. He also pointed out that anyone who has been in a car made after 1962 probably knows how to use a seatbelt, but just in case we didn’t he did a super slo-mo demonstration complete with Batman-like sound effects. It was great, and he had a lot more attention from us than the typical recitation does. I don’t know why more airlines don’t encourage their attendants to mix it up. This safety speech makes me wish I flew in the Southwest more frequently:

My first official trip

In preparation for my travels I splurged on several packing aids for carry-ons -- clothes envelopes, a universal charging amt for all my electronic gadgetry, a bag tether to hold my 2 bags together as one.  I also watched some videos on efficient business trip packing and was excited to try out what I learned.  I was very impressed how well everything fit in my bag, so well in fact that I was able to squish my pillow in too.  I'm so thankful to my chiropractor for recommending the contoured neck pillow to ease my neck/shoulder strain, but equally frustrated because now I can't bear to sleep on anything else.  So not only am I the twat at the airport with a laptop and 2 smartphones, but I'm also the tweed carrying a bed pillow too.  Still, I was really excited how easily everything fit in my bag.  Until I unpacked and really started thinking about the next few days.

Turns out I forgot to pack a few items.  Like shorts, pants, or any casual bottoms except for the capris I was wearing and running shorts.  I also forgot my pajimmyjams (PJs) and handknit wool bed socks.  This simply will not do.  I'm going to designate a pair of bedsocks for travel, and never take them out of my suitcase.  Luckily I found an awesome Lululemon yoga shop and got some new pants.  I had to get the regular length, since the talls were WAY too long for me.  I also got a beautiful purple tank top that I can wear without a bra.  Wow, I was so excited I rushed out of the dressing room to show the girl helping me.

On the flight up there was a 2 year old kid a row ahead of me who screamed nonstop from the moment she sat down until they opened the doors again.  Not cried, but that attention-seeking shriek that rattles the eardrums.  I kept expecting her to fall asleep from the sheer physical effort of yelling that long.  You could feel the tension throughout the cabin, and her mother didn't do anything to shush her.  I made up a story where the girl was on a game show and had to hit a certain unobtainably high frequency and volume in order to win the grand prize, and the continued screams were all attempts at winning.  It suddenly made the ordeal funny an somewhat sad, as she kept trying to hit that note but never succeeded.  At least it took away the frustration I felt towards her and her mother.

One last thing - what the hell is wrong with New Jersey roads?  When you pass signs that read "Left Turn Keep Right", what the hell is an out-of-stater supposed to do?  When all you want is to make a U turn and go back the way you came, why would you possibly think you should be in the rightmost lane instead of the left lane, and how in the name of Christ are you supposed ot get over 3 lanes of traffic at rush hour to make a right hand U turn at a light because YOU CAN'T TURN LEFT AT ANY STOPLIGHT??  There should be warnings about that plastered to the rental cars.  And the poor Garmin telling me it was recalculating was like that scene from Austin Powers:  Evacuation compl...comp...com...evacuation com..com...com...

Oh what hardship!

I had a bunch of photos on my camera to post, but something happened to my memory card and it fried. I got a new card cheap, but alas lost all the pictures :( If only I could remember what the photos were of, I'd have a chance at retaking them.

The house is still wonderful, and I wanted to share the one photo that made it onto my computer before my camera blitzed. People keep asking me what my commute is like, now that we moved away. It takes me half an hour to drive now, and this is the road I take. Just awful, isn't it? This is about the level of traffic I normally see. The only negative is that the speed limit fluctuates between 60 to 45 when it goes by towns, but everyone drives the speed limit and no one fusses when you suddenly drop to 45. The mountains do rise up more, but with all the trees it was hard to get a clean shot.

On another note, D brought in the mail and said there was a black widow in the mailbox! I'm not happy to hear this. I know we're pretty much in the country and have an excessive amount of bugs and critters, but I don't want to worry about getting a painful poisonous spider bite just checking the mail or moving a piece of wood in the yard :(