My last post was written early on Saturday morning, sitting in our room in the Clarion Hotel in Scranton. It had been a long day of travel, and Linda was still asleep. I was at least able to get a cup of lousy hotel room coffee.
When she finally woke, we headed to the breakfast room where we found artificial scrambled eggs, a few lone breakfast links, home fries and an empty bacon container. The whole experience can be summed up as "Mediocre hotel, mediocre breakfast."
We got on the road early, and set the Garmin for the Gravity Inn in Waymart, about thirty miles north of us. Garmin is an interesting navigation tool. Since I have it set to take the shortest route (not the fastest), we seem to have lots of adventures. We drove through some residential areas of Scranton, before coming across Highway 6. While it wanted us to continue on past (I think it was going to take us through all the small towns), we headed out on the highway to the delightful electronic voice saying "Recalculating . . ."
Beautiful scenery was plentiful as we "climbed up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania (thanks to Harry Chapin for the song stuck in my head)" and we made good time with little traffic. We followed the Garmin's directions as we turned off and headed into the country. We passed the Waymart Prison, a lovely 1930's looking place, and found the Gravity on the other side. In fact you can see the tops of the roofs of the Prison from the Gravity's parking lot.
The Gravity Inn is a small strip of rooms on a small side road. At the (locked) office, the sign suggested that "Check in is at two. Please go to the restaurant to check in." It was only about 10:30, so we decided to find my brother Chris and his wife MacKel. The were already over at Kent and Joannes, where the "Pre-reunion reunion" would commence at 4 that afternoon. Back to the car, and I tried to set the Garmin to take us there.
The navigator was locked so badly it wouldn't even turn off. It was purchased for the motorcycle, and it's shockproof, waterproof, even Daytona proof. Apparently it wasn't Waymart proof!
Chris gave me directions, and we were soon at Kent and Joannes' house. They have a good wifi signal, so we found out how to reset the Garmin. We hung out and had lunch, waiting for two when we could check in at the Gravity and clean up a bit.
Aunt Josie (Dad's sister) stopped by for a while and we caught up with her. When she was leaving her bifocals betrayed her and she missed a step in the garage. She banged her arm, cut her lip, and her glasses hit her face near her eye. She couldn't remember what happened, and we were concerned that she hit her head, so I drove her car back to her place, and MacKel followed. We tried to get her to go to the hospital to be checked, but she insisted she would be fine. Knowing that you can't get a Maleckar to do something they don't want, we made sure she was comforatable, and promised we check on her later.
The afternoon was as we hoped -- lot's of family, catching up on each other's lives, beer, music and singing until the wee hours of the morning. The temperature was in the low 90's (hot for the Yankees, pleasant for those of us from the Sourth).We went back to check on Josie. She was up, sitting on the porch reading. Her eyes was swollen, she was icing her arm, but she insisted she was fine, and that she'd come over later.
As it was getting dark, Kent lit the bonfire as the temperature began to drop, and the gang moved down to sit around and sing while we watched the fireworks around us. All in all, a great start to the reunion.
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