The night before a trip always puts my nerves in a twist.
I’d been fretting the entire evening. I’ve gotten so that I don’t like traveling without my husband and I had pretty much convinced myself that I didn’t want to go. But this trip with my daughter was to visit the Spring Extravaganza in the “Antiques Capital of the USA” — Adamstown, Pa., a destination claiming to have 7 miles of antique and flea market dealers and one that my husband had no interest in whatsoever. I knew we’d have a good time once we got there. But first there was a little matter of a funeral.
The weekend before our scheduled trip, my uncle died. He was 15 years old when I was born and from the day I learned to walk my toddler objective had been to serve as his shadow. As a little girl I adored him and he plays a role in nearly all of my earliest memories. I was sure the timing of his death just days before my planned vacation was his way of playing one final trick on me.
The funeral was set for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the first day of our scheduled Adamstown trip. I scurried to come up with a plan. The B&B reservations I had made were non-refundable but I was willing to cancel and take the loss if I had to. I mapped out a route from Ohio to the funeral in West Virginia and then to Adamstown, PA. It meant scheduling a late arrival at our B&B but it was possible to do in a day and, in fact, only added about 2 hours to our drive time.
On Tuesday night I was packed and ready but when it came time for bed I was too nervous to sleep. At midnight I was still wide awake, going over details in my head and giving myself the list of 101 reasons I shouldn’t be leaving home right now. Finally, by 1:30 a.m. I was exhausted enough that I fell asleep on the couch.
Continued in “Antiques Extravaganza: The Funeral”
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