Nov. 23rd, 2023

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Thanksgiving Travelog #9
Camp Hill, PA - Wed, 22 Nov 2023. 11pm.

Wednesday afternoon/evening it was time to switch families for our Thanksgiving family visit. That meant switching locales. We left from my sister's house in northern Virginia in the late afternoon to drive to my inlaws' house outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

From years in the past I remember day-before-Thanksgiving, aka Thanksgiving Eve, road trips being brutal. Traffic was awful all up and down the major arteries. The past few years, at least, it hasn't been so bad. For example, in 2021 our Thanksgiving Eve drive was smooth sailing— even from downtown Washington, D.C.

...Okay, but in 2021 that could have been lingering reduction in traffic from the pandemic era. Well, this year record holiday travel is forecast, particularly for people driving places. What did that mean for us?

Our Thanksgiving Eve trip was not totally smooth sailing but it was still pretty easy. Traffic maps showed us the usual driving route up to Harrisburg, sticking to major highways the whole way, had slowdowns in a few areas. A backroads route around the outskirts of the DC area was faster by about 15 minutes. Of course, even that "backroads" route involved a few 6-lane highways. I still think of them as backroads because years ago they were all narrow 2-lanes... with traffic backed up for miles at commute times. What a difference better roads make.

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
Thanksgiving Travelog #10
Camp Hill, PA - Thu, 23 Nov 2023. 11pm.

Another Thanksgiving is in the record books. There was a big meal. Whatever. Thanksgiving isn't a big deal for us, per se. We don't cook huge meals. We don't celebrate traditions or mythologize the day's history. We do travel for Thanksgiving. We travel to visit family most years[1], family whom we otherwise see only once or occasionally twice a year. It's seeing that family we celebrate. Family is what we're thankful for.

The big meal today was at the house of my inlaws' close friends. They and my inlaws both love to cook and host dinners. Thus, they take turns for Thanksgiving (and Passover). And by "take turns" I mean they both cook for each holiday. Today was Thanksgiving dinner at the friends' house; Saturday is Second Thanksgiving at my inlaws'.

[1] Since traveling to visit family has become our Thanksgiving tradition I checked back through my blogs to see how often we've done it. Across the previous 5 years we're at 3 out of 5. Last year and the year before we traveled to visit our parents and other relatives. In 2020 with the Coronavirus pandemic raging Thanksgiving was canceled. We cooked a meal for ourselves at home. In 2019 we traveled to visit family. In 2018 we traveled but it was for hiking trips in California. That year we ate Thanksgiving dinner at a Denny's restaurant.

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