Where The Hoof Meets The Asphalt

I'm already working on my headache for Memorial Day weekend travelling:

WASHINGTON - Despite record fuel prices above $3 per gallon, more Americans will travel by car over the Memorial Day holiday weekend than a year ago, according to a survey by travel agency AAA.

In a sign that energy costs will affect behavior, however, AAA said travelers are planning to stay closer to home and take shorter trips. Travel-related expenses for U.S. households are expected average nearly $600.

AAA forecast that 38.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more, an increase of 1.7 percent from last year. Roughly 32.1 million travelers — or 84 percent of the total — will drive, up 1.8 percent from last year, AAA said.

The AAA estimate is based on the results of a national survey of 2,000 adults.

**Groan**

As regular readers know, we're headed to Maine for Dad's memorial next weekend. The cost of flying all five of the Orgle Manor household plus renting a car once we get as far as Portland is prohibitive, so we're gonna drive it.

We usually do this for our summer vacation, but there the trip is spread out over 10 days or two weeks. Here we'll be jamming it all into five days, two days of which will be spent on the road in each direction. (One can drive it in one day, but it's a hell of a long day.) In general, on the way up we stop at the Missus' parents' place in southern Connecticut. This time, our initial hop is going to be all the way up to her sister's place on the north side of Bahston. The only way I can figure to do this on a weekday without getting hopelessly snarled in rush-hour traffic or arriving in the middle of the night is to leave Dee Cee at 2 ack emma Thursday. That'll put us at the GW Bridge by 6, thereby getting us in front of the in-bound Noo Yawk rush, and hopefully to Sis's place before noon. From there, it'll only be two hours and change up to our house the next day, although like heading for the Hamptons on the LIE on a Friday, if one wants to make this schedule one has to be on the road at the crack of dawn.

Coming back, we'll stop over in Stamford on Sunday night. Yes, that means having to drive from Connecticut to Dee Cee on Memorial Day itself. No, I can't think of any way around it.

Small wonder that my brain hurts.