Since Saturday, I have put over 1300 miles on my car.  My ass aches in protest.  To give you an idea of what that works out to, I started a nearly fifteen hour audiobook on the first leg of the trip (down to Gastonia NC for Cavendish’s annual Butterbeer release and wizard celebration/market); I currently have about four hours left.

The actual business of driving wasn’t so bad; traffic was nice and cooperative in all respects.  The duration, however, wears on you, especially if your body is beginning to show signs of middle-aged wear.

The event down there was fun, anyway; I enjoyed playing music with my friends who make up the Blibbering Humdingers, as well as sharing the stage with our fellow wrockers Hawthorn & Holly.  The folks who came to see us play seemed to enjoy it; I just with there were more of them.  Timing was kind of weird this year, with the beer release happening at 3pm, and music not going on until 5pm.  3pm?  Line out the door.  5pm?  room was kind of sparse. Last year, the Butterbeer (a nice caramel ale – though I think I liked last year’s better) started flowing just as we were going on.

What matters is that we sounded good, even if the “muggle market”, which was hidden back in the brewing space behind the taproom, wasn’t exactly hopping.  I found a couple of nice little gifts for family, however, and had a couple of decent brews as well; can’t ask for much more.

The drive home was a little more eventful, owing to a bad reaction to a hotel breakfast yogurt smoothie that might have turned.  Let’s just say that I got to know the rest area facilities of I-85 a bit more intimately than I’d have liked, but thankfully, that’s all mostly settled.

Arriving home Sunday afternoon, after spending a little time just lying down not driving, the spouse and I went out to pick up a few groceries and swing by the Kroger bar for a pint, and ended up having a nice time with the regulars who got there for a little celebration earlier in the day, and were still around, even if we’d thought we’d missed it.

Monday started my last week at work for the year, trying to close things down for a couple of weeks, and afterwards, I spent four more hours in the car back and forth to SBC to pick up the oldest who wrapped her last final Monday morning.  It’s nice to have her back.

But yeah, my ass continues to ache.