unexpectedly driving all night -- and some pics

We went to bed last night at the house on Lake Champlain in Alburgh, Vermont that we had rented for the week with friends of ours. Mr. Doodlebug and I fell asleep around 11:30pm after cleaning and packing. We were obnoxiously awakened at 12:30 in the morning, just a short hour after falling asleep, to a blaring smoke detector outside our bedroom. Mr. D got a chair from downstairs and I took the battery out -- nothing -- then I unscrewed it from the ceiling, but couldn't get the wires unhooked. Mr. D yanked the wires free, both detectors in the house stopped alarming. We went to baby Doodle's room, he was sound asleep and breathing, there was no sign of smoke. Mr. D checked out the rest of the house. No appliances were on and there was no sign of a fire. It was strange being in an unfamiliar house with the possibility of something being very wrong and not being able to figure out what it was, or why the detectors went off. The ones in our own house detect smoke and carbon monoxide and we thought there was a possibility that these did both, too. We checked baby Doodle again. He was still breathing and completely unfazed by the chaos and noise.

We thought of calling the owner of the house but our cell phones didn't work there and we needed a calling card to call long distance on the land line -- who the hell has those any more? Then we thought of calling 911 and having some fire fighters come to the house to make sure everything was okay so that we could sleep in peace and be refreshed for our long drive home the next day. But the fire department is volunteer and it would have taken half the night to get them out to the house. Since both detectors were disabled we were cautious about going back to sleep in the off chance that something was wrong and we wouldn't be woken up again. We discussed packing the car and driving to a hotel to sleep, or driving all the way home. Since neither of us could sleep we opted for loading the car and starting our long journey home. We were on the road by 1:30am. Baby Doodle fell back asleep in the car. Mr. D drove to Glens Falls then pulled into a rest area to sleep a little. BD promptly woke up when the car stopped and demanded a snack. He couldn't be dissuaded so he ate a bunch of Cheerios out of the box and chatted with me so that I couldn't sleep either. I went to the bathroom, woke Mr. D up, and took over the driving. I drove past Albany onto the NY Thruway. Mr. D slept while I drove and BD talked.

About 40 miles south of Albany I pulled into a rest area and we switched drivers again. The sky wasn't as black as it had been and the sun was just beginning to rise. It reminded me that the last time I drove all night I was a freshman in college and much younger. I climbed in the back seat with BD (not an easy feat considering how much crap I had to move from the back to the front seat) to try to get him to fall asleep. He slept until we stopped again, only 60 miles later (we had to stop for gas and couldn't make it to New Jersey, which was the goal). BD enjoyed a Thomas and a Curious George DVD while I slept -- DVD-playing lap tops are awesome! Mr. D kept driving and got us all the way home safely.

So that was the last 12 hours of our trip to Vermont. The previous 6 days and 12 hours will be recapped in a future post. Don't worry, it won't contain as many grueling details.

Because I just downloaded our pictures I'll include them here so you won't have to wait in suspense.

We played a lot of baseball. Uncle Doodle (see his flip flop to the left) is playing first base at BD's request.



Mr. D and BD in the lake, which was surprisingly warm and waist deep for quite a number of yards.


You might think BD had placed his face in a bowl of pudding, really he had just finished eating a not-too-big chocolate ice cream cone. And he had already wiped his face off himself.


This is the face BD makes when you tell him to smile for the camera, or if you ask him to say cheese. We're eating dinner with Uncle Doodle in Burlington.


During our last day in VT (yesterday) we saw a spectacular double rainbow. You can only see one in this shot, but during a brief period we could see two. They extended all the way from land to land. It was amazing. Baby Doodle loved it. He turned 28-months yesterday.