Oh good god.

It rained throughout every minute of our 9 hour drive out to the Family Christmas.

But we made good time. Great time, in fact.  Until we were 30 miles out of the Metropolitan Area. Then we slowed to a goddamned crawl.

Heavy construction + rush-hour holiday traffic + unfamiliar city + night + rain = No Fun

The Wife was driving through the worst of it, which kicked off when the exit crept up on us out of nowhere, forcing her to fight through four lanes of gridlock to make it to the offramp.  Fifteen minutes later, we both looked up to realize that - despite exiting the highway - we had somehow managed to get back onto the highway without turning or changing streets.

Of course, retracing our route (in theory a simple task) was complicated by poorly signed detours and crazy drivers.  One error wound up taking almost an hour to correct.

Finally, we pulled up to our destination. Exhausted, frazzled, more than a little in need of a bathroom, we gave Aunt Dee a courtesy call to let her know we were 'close.'  We figured we'd surprise her when she asked just how close we were by saying "Right outside!"

It didn't work out quite like that.

We said we were close.  She was surprised enough by that. "Oh!" said Aunt Dee. "I'm not quite done straightening up yet!  Why don't you drive over to Grandma's and hang out there for a while?"

Which was a completely reasonable - if at the moment, heartbreaking - request.

So the Wife and I looked at each other, and across the street to where we could actually see Aunt Dee in her house as she was on the phone to us, out of the rain, in the warmth of her kitchen.  We sighed, agreed, and drove on to Grandma's.

It was less than two miles away.  It only took fourty five minutes.