Am beginning to get my bearings after the Convention; not all the "stuff" is unpacked as yet, and I haven't even started on the laundry, but the pillow table is reassembled, the music stand (to support the diagrams, etc) ditto, I've --essentially -- caught up with email, and added another triangle + to the 5.5 I managed to complete during the workshop (those snowflakes are *addictive* <g>). Nobody can say I don't have my priorites set straight :)
I was very lucky to have got a ride from Betty Ann Rice; I don't think I'd have managed if I had to travel by plane -- just my 24" square block pilllow (*the* pillow Ms Loehr approves of for this project <g>) would have been awkward. And I "had to have" my own table; from past experience I know that all the tables provided by organisers are far too high... Stacking 3 chairs does help me get high enough to see what's on the pillow, but feet dangling well above floor level don't help much in controlling tension. Of course the music stand was de rigeur -- where else could I put the folder with the snowflake grounds, not to mention any diagrams that I might be given? And the "class kit" bag -- 3 rolls of bobbins, box of thread, "tool box" (pincushion, scissors, crochet hook, pricker, pin pusher/lifter, etc), lamp with spare batteries (8 times out of 10, the light in the so-called "classrooms" is awful for lacemaking)... And all of it has to be portable, just in case we're not permittted to work in the classroom before or after the scheduled hours...
Travelling by car solved all those problems -- we both managed to carry all our necessities (including a gallon of wine <g>), though it was a tight squeeze.
Since the distance from Lexington to Hasbrouck Heights is 475 miles (Betty did the tracking on the web), with extra 50 for Betty to get *to* Lexington, we decided to take it easy -- drive a bit over half-way, overnight at some inexpensive motel, and get to the Convention site bright and early and well-rested (in preparation for the shopping spree and the opening reception <g>) the next day. We left Lexington a bit before 9 and moving unhurriedly, with a few stops, got a bit past Harrisburg, PA (the site of the next year's Convention) before stopping for the night. Betty mentioned that we ought to gas up soon, but we were both a bit tired, figured we'd be passing gas stations on the way; tomorrow is another day...
Indeed it was... :) We got off at a reasonable hour, enjoyed the drive... For about half an hour, when the car sputtered and "died" -- we were out of gas... :) Luckily, we were in the right-hand lane, and Betty managed to coast off the highway. Unluckily, it happened not to be a proper shoulder, but the bit where a ramp merges into the highway -- just as we stopped, we saw a sheriff's car accelerate in front of us...
Luckily, Bettty had a cell-phone (I still don't know how to use it, so don't have one). Unluckily, her service provider doesn't operate in New Jersey; her cellphone would let her call 911, but she could not reach her car service plan. Nor could she reach her cell-provider to tell them what she thought about them <g>
So there we sat, on the very tip of a merge, with cars zooming past us on both sides. Betty wouldn't even let me out of the car for a smoke (which, by that time, I needed rather badly), though she let me open the window all the way down and hang out as far as I could reach. Finally, someone sent via the 911 came and filled the car with enough gas to take us to the nearest exit and gas station; we lost only about 40 minutes through our adventure. But, as we got back on the highway, Betty turned to me and said: "drat that man... I've not been married to him for more than 20 years, and he *still* messes up my life; if I hadn't been talking about him, I'd have noticed that the tank was so low"
I must say I'm glad that my car *screeches* when it gets low; it used to annoy me at first, but now I think it's a blessing :)
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
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