PA for 50 more hours

Not that I'm counting down or anything, but we would like to be on the road by 11am on Saturday.

So things are pretty calm this week in Pennsylvania. The trip back from Virginia Beach was smooth, oh except for the part where we were almost in a tornado.

We aimed at 11am departure, and didn't go too far off the mark by leaving at 11:45am. I'm glad we got out of there when we did, because a couple hours after we left we hit a really bad rain storm. The clouds were so low and black and you could see the rain swirling around amongst them just before the torrents obscured almost all vision as we drove through it, and I even said to Jake "wow that looks almost like a tornado". That was around 2pm. At around 3pm an emergency broadcast came over the radio warning about the three tornados that had been spotted in the Hampton (been through it) and Claresville (was near it) areas. The announcer went into great detail about what to do. People in those areas were to huddle in their homes in central closets covered in blankets or the basement, or the bathtub, and those in cars and mobile homes should get out and lie in ditches covering their heads with their hands. I am VERY afraid of tornados, and to have been this close makes me shiver. In fact, writing about it will probably make me have nightmares tonight.

We made it to Manassas at just before 4pm, and had an hour to kill in the big mall there until we were due to meet up with Jake's oldest sister Cybil, which we did. We had supper and then went back to her house for a while to visit. I finally met her husband Ed and stepson Quenton (15). They're very nice. Quenton and the boys got along really well. Cybil is pregnant and due mid-July, but she was told at her last ultrasound that she might be a week or more ahead of the originally set date. She got pregnant in October but didn't find out about it until February or so, so REALLY surprised was she. We had a great visit with them and were on the road again by 8:30pm. We made it back to Johnstown just after midnight.

Jake's sister Erica had come in for a visit (she lives 2 hours away) and had brought her daughter Emily (almost 4). We were glad because originally she hadn't been able to arrange childcare for her 2 older sons (Nicolas 7 and Nathan 5) since they go to school, obviously.

I will continue at another time.
Ciao for now!