puszysty

Today was what was supposed to be my relaxing day in Virginia Beach. Turned out to be more disappointing than relaxing. What was supposed to be a 3 hour or less drive was over 4, because traffic kept getting congested in the most random places (sometimes not even anywhere near a city). I didn't make it there until 2 (since I left later than originally planned), and I hadn't eaten lunch yet so I was really cranky. All the park places only took cash, and I couldn't find a Bank of America in sight so I had to go into Rite Aid and buy something. Good thing I was low on sunscreen. Parked the car successfully and went to get something to eat...and the first place I went wouldn't take credit cards either. So I ended up at Subway. Changed into my suit in the bathroom there.

Get to the beach and there's a red flag up. I could go in the water but not very far.

Absolutely no public bathrooms at the beach that I could see, so was going to change out of the suit in the Rite Aid I'd parked near....and they told me they'd closed their public restrooms for good. Arg!

Virginia Beach itself strikes me as sort of a second rate Miami. It was okay. I don't think I'll be driving 4 hours to get there again.

Went to Captain Chuck-a-mucks for dinner as I had planned. Though the crab was good, the portions were small, especially given what I paid. The owner was there working, but despite the fact that he walked by me a number of times, he never said "hello, welcome to chuck-a-mucks; hey, how are you today?; how are you liking the food?" nothing. I was disappointed with the place.

Despite my dislike for roller coasters, I may have been better off going on the Busch Gardens trip some people organized. *sigh*

I had an Ikea expedition today. It was supposed to be more a "trip", but turned out to be perhaps more than I bargained for. Ikea is about 2 hours from here, up in Woodbridge, which may or may not be considered a suburb of DC, I'm really not sure. And indeed it did take me 2 hours to get there.

I found lots of things I wanted...then discovered that the only box I could even reasonably fit in my car was for the dresser. So I bought the dresser and just said "alas" to the bookshelf, bed frame, and chair.

Remind me never ever to move to northern VA. 3:30 is when I left Ikea and I hit rush hour traffic. Not to mention the traffic continued almost until Fredericksburg, which is a full 50 miles from DC. Dear lord, 50 miles from Austin would get me south of New Braunfels. Our traffic jams didn't even make it quite to the southern city limit.

Since I had spotted a Target in Fredericksburg, I stopped there to pick up a mattress pad for the bed I had delivered this morning (no more twin OMGYAY). While there I found a bookshelf that was tall enough for what I wanted, was cheaper than the one at Ikea, and was in a box that fit in my car! Yay! So I bought that, a blanket, and a desk chair. I should've just said screw Ikea.

One other notable: the way it had me take out of Charlottesville, I had to turn on like 6 different roads to get to Highway 20. Well, Highway 20 runs right into downtown, so I decided to take that back. The speed limit on that road is 55, but that's more of a "we dare you to go 55 without hurtling off the road and killing yourself". Dear lord was that windy. I'll follow google next time.

JC!


(Sorry this took so long. I kinda forgot about it whilst moving.)

Captain Chuck-a-mucks is in Virginia! \o/ Of all the places I've seen featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, this was my #1 "I wish I could go there" spot. I'm planning on going to Virginia Beach anyway this Saturday, just to chill at the beach for a day. And this place is sort of on the way. :D One word: CRAB.

Anybody here been to Virginia Beach previously? All I've ever seen of VA is Arlington and parts of the Appalachains (Harrisonburg, specifically), so the rest of the state I know very little about.

I tried to take a back way from the grocery store today and got on the highway to go to the next exit (which was my place). Not knowing what exit I was getting on at, I ended up going the wrong way on the highway and ended up in the next town over instead. The thing about I-64 is that all there is, is trees. No billboards, you can't even see any buildings on the side of the road until you hit downtown Richmond. I would've never known Charlottesville was even there if there weren't signs saying it was. Needless to say it makes me a little directionally challenged. Charlottesville proper I can get around just fine. Pretty much everything is on 29/Emmet St.

I'm not participating in this one, but I thought ye popslashers should at least be aware...

I'm here! Arrived yesterday actually. I've managed to set up my bathroom and have gotten....one box unpacked. I'm sort of waiting to get a bed before I unpack too much, as I don't know where any of it is going to go.

I also need to replace my Texas icon I think.

Roughly 700 miles from Little Rock later, I'm in Abingdon, VA. It's been a long day. The roads in Arkansas were surprisingly nice. I think they clean up their road kill on a regular basis (or eat it....)
Should be in Charlottesville hopefully early tomorrow afternoon. As long as I get there in time to get my keys. :)

Herzlichen Glückwünsch zum Geburtstag trovia!

I can post from my car. Somewhere east of dallas. I got out about an hour later than anticpated, but still in good time. I should have used more boxes for mailing but oh well. It's being mailed to me thanks to a friend I totally owe big time. But being on the road is much less stressful. Can finally relax yay.

Moving sucks enough, and I had to come down with a fucking cold right before. I barely slept last night I was up hacking my lungs out.

I am ready to just have my car packed and ready. Minus my damn cough, I should be ok once I hit the road.