...and so I ran off from my family for what is most likely the last CATS/Stitching Festival. I'm glad I made it to Hershey after wanting to go for so many years.

I started my journey early in the morning, dragging DH and kids out of warm beds to get me to the airport. The usual flight nerves prevailed with a side of 'let's wake up on East Coast time for two days prior'. The morning I was flying out, when I had to get up at 6 in the morning, I woke up at 3am and couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs to watch television for awhile before heading back to bed to nap until the clocks went off. I suspect the nerves were a combination of excitement and nervousness but they quickly vanished once we were in the air. Flights are interesting at the mid-week. The short hop to Phoenix cleared of business people and were replaced by families. LOTS of families. With babies. Thankfully all the babies were good and quiet for the majority of the trip.

Very boring, I know, unlike Suz's flight where she was entertained by a passenger taking the Scientology correspondence course with his leather bound Dianetics. I'm sure she'll cover more of that when she surfaces.

That reminds me... my parents were reading that back in the early 80s. Maybe that's what messed them up... no, they were just cracked. But I digress...

Suz and Kari met me at the Providence airport where we gathered bags and headed for our adventure. And Kari made sure I had a bagel when I got off the plane so that I wouldn't fall over. Ok, our adventure hadn't really started yet because it was back to Kari's house to eat and sleep for the night and do some necessary shopping. Gotta have Tastykakes while I'm there, right? Yum. By the way, Kari's kids are more adorable in person than the pictures she shows in her blog. And that little boy of hers is a flirt.

The next morning off we went to Hershey. The car was packed with suitcases and snacks and stitchers who were ready to get going. We didn't get lost, we ate well on the way and talked and talked and talked. We never did turn on the XM and listen to that comedy station but that's probably because we were creating our own comedy as we went along.

Uneventful car trip and easy hotel check in. Gotta love it. The guy at the desk seemed to fancy himself a comedian when we checked in. Nice large room, comfy beds (we wanted to either steal the beds or steal the bedding) and we settled into finishing nametags. It was a bit of a surprise when I pulled mine out to find no ping on the back (I used the tag I had from last year). Thank goodness Suz had some silk cord to save my rear. By the time we finished there was no way that we'd make it to Market before closing, which was ok considering that they raised the price for non-members to get in. And somehow $10 for an hour of browsing at closing time just didn't seem right.

We peeked into the lounge and met a couple of folks (jennamagee, SandiInVa, and someone else I'm forgetting...) and chatted briefly before searching for dinner. We ended up at Friendly's because Kari was astonished that we'd never heard of them before. It was friendly enough there, but we had a bit of a wait for our food while they were raising the crops for our meal. And butchering the cows. And forging the metal for our silverware which didn't come until *after* our meals had been delivered. We were there for an hour and a half start to finish.

Upside? We sat and talked and missed the downpour outside. When we left the restaurant there was a gorgeous lightning storm waiting for us to drive back to our hotel by. I don't get storms like that out here, and I was loving every single second of it. Oh, right... we're going to write a letter to Friendly's corporate office to let them know what happened that night (Kari... you've got those notes, and I'll sign it with all our names and locations if you get it to me).

Since we stayed in Harrisburg we had to drive a little ways from the show and consistently took a different route for the first few times we drove it until we figured out the shortest route. That night was fun with the lightning and a navigator (me) who was a little more awed by the light show than interested in the road signs. Still... we made it back to the hotel to see CSI and figured out on the way that Suz is the queen of random comments...

...I'll tell you about that tomorrow.