Dateline: DuBois, PA, June 4

Mapquest told us to take the Interstate southwest through NY to leave Niagara Falls, and that seemed out of the way to us. We'd been burned once by Mapquest's peculiar obsession with Interstates which took us perilously close to L.A., so we though we could do better by taking a two lane road straight thru PA.

Oh, Hubris - thy name is Rod. And Nancy. But never RoadPuppy.

Big mistake - lots of flyspeck villages with 30mph speed limits, PA drivers dedicated to driving the strict speed limit (or slightly below), and about 177 too many yellow ribbons for my taste.

And Morelli's food wasn't that good, either.

Dateline: DuBois, PA, June 4

Pardon me boy - is that the Pennsylvania snowglobe?

Dateline: Lorton, VA, June 5

My original plan had us beating cheeks back to Raleigh from NY - as if. Instead we spent one more night camping about 20 miles south of D.C. in a quiet forested park, where you could barely hear the roar of I-95 at 5:30 in the morning. Give the bears one more crack at us.

And around 2am I was awakened to the gentle drumming of rainfall on our tent - and the gentle splat of water on my face. I'd left the rainfly open. Oh, well, a quick zip and we were sealed for freshness. (Burping not required.)

The tent's first trial by water, and it passed with flying colors - all hands onboard and nothing soaked.

Dateline: Dale City, VA, June 5

Gee, who put that there?

IKEA got big. Real big. Lots for big girls to look at and buy.

And me?

Dateline: Dale City, VA, June 5

Gimme a cheap cinnamon bun and a good book and I'm good for hours.

And RoadPuppy?

Dateline: Dale City, VA, June 5

"Would I be interested in going home?"

Dateline: Dale City, VA, June 5

"Whew! I thought we'd become vagrants."