Jonathan's Weekend At Liberty

My son and his friend went to CFAW (College for a Weekend) at Liberty University this past weekend.

His mom and I drove them to Toronto to meet a chartered bus that drove them all night Wednesday night and arrived in Virginia on Thursday morning.

We left home with lots of time to get there. I wanted to be able to go out for supper and relax a bit before turning around and heading back home again.

As soon as we got on the highway two of my indicator lights on my dashboard lit up. The Engine Warning light came on as well as the one for low air pressure in a tire. Great! I wasn't too worried about the engine light since it wasn't flashing, but I was concerned about the low air in the tire light. Driving to Toronto & back with a soft tire might not be a good idea.

Meanwhile, it's starting to get dark and some heavy fog is setting in. Actually, very thick fog. We found where we needed to be, but couldn't see much of anything beyond where we were.

I went into a store and asked about nearby restaurants, since it was difficult to see what all was close by. The store clerk mentioned a few places, but then crossed one off the list because the waitresses dress scantily. I agreed that it would certainly not be a good choice because I had two teenage boys with me. The store clerk upon hearing this information told me that if I had teenage boys then I should go to this restaurant because the boys would like it there. I quickly informed her that No - it really wouldn't be a good idea for me to take my son there.

We decided to go to supper at Jack Astors. I'd been to one twice before and knew the food was good. This particular restaurant has a turn-style door at the entrance. We each walked through a separate partition of the door and as we did we are reading separate signs posted on the door that says they are closed for the evening. As we enter, they inform us that they are closed because they are shooting a commercial! It was now pouring rain outside so we were more concerned about getting inside rather than stopping to read a sign.

We ended up at the restaurant adjacent, Alice Fazooli's; an upscale Italian restaurant. The food was excellent and we had a great 'date night' with our two sons before they departed.

My friend Cathy and her son Brandon.

Jonathan and I

The above pictures were taken with Brandon's phone, which is probably why they're a little dark.

The bus arrived just after 9:00pm and we got the boys and their stuff loaded on. At this point it is raining heavily. As Cathy and I were preparing to head back home I realized that I had not checked my tire. We stopped at a nearby gas station and found an air pump. Air at this particular station costs $1. We were trying to move quickly as we were getting drenched. Neither of us were proficient at pumping air into tires. The air machine had two slots for coins; one slot for quarters and one slot for loonies. I inserted 4 quarters in the first slot only to discover that I put the quarters in the wrong slot. Don't get them mixed up because it doesn't give your money back! Luckily I found 4 more quarters.

Remember, it is down pouring and we really have no idea what we are doing!

We couldn't find the psi (or whatever you call it) written on the tire because it was so dark. So we pumped air into the tire until it look better. The indicator light did not change... but the tire at least looked better.

I got back in the van...now drenched.

Now time to head home. In thick fog. Argh! The thick fog and heavy rain were not fun to drive in. My shoulders were tense the whole way home.

Earlier in the afternoon the Weather Network issued a Rainfall Warning. At the time, I thought to myself a 'warning for rain?', now really how bad could some rain be?

Well, it certainly made sense now, as I was driving with my wipers on the highest speed, barely able to keep up.

I returned to Toronto to pick Jonathan and Brandon up on Sunday.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. I took my daughter Brittany and we spent the better part of the day shopping at the Eaton's Centre. We went out for supper and then to a movie before the bus arrived. The bus was meeting all the parents at one of the bigger movie theatres, so watching a movie to fill in some time seemed like the perfect thing to do.

The trip to pick them up certainly made up for the horrible night I had when I dropped them off!!