Wheeling Trip part 3

The drive to Wheeling was quite easy. It's about 3 highways, two of which that feed into one another. Incredibly easy! However, I may never complain about Dallas drivers again! Good Granny! Some of those people (several of which were in great big rigs) would have no problem running you right off the road. It was crazy! There are even signs that warn you about erratic drivers!

But the scenery is beautiful!

The drive from Pittsburgh, Penn to Wheeling, West Virginia is one of the most gorgeous drives out there, in my humble opinion. There's something very clannish about the boroughs and townships.

At 2:18pm I pulled into my grandparents' drive. I had a happy reunion with my Grandma and Grandpa, as well as 2 of "The Aunts"; my Aunt Norma and my Aunt Patty. And, not surprisingly, almost immediately, I was sitting at the table with a bowl of soup, a Sloppy Joe and a whole chicken in front of me, courtesy of Grandma.

This was the outcome of the following conversation, literally, 2 minutes after I walked through the door-

Grandma- You hungry? Didju eat?

Taylor- Yeah, I'm a little hungry.

Yeah.... there was ton of food in front of me in record time with the instructions to eat up. I ate the soup and half of the Sloppy Joe.

As I ate, I chatted away & minutes later, yet another one of the aunts made her appearance. Aunt Maryanne came laden down with wallpaper books. Grandma is redecorating her kitchen & her children are helping.

Soon, the conversation turned to me and my little life. I was forced to break out the picture album and let them all get a good look at Mr. Darcy. (Yeah, they found out about him & wanted to see him. And Grandma made me get it to show others a couple of other times during the week) And I am proud to say that, unanimously, my Mr. Darcy was pronounced quite handsome.

Later, after a nap and a dinner of Pizza Hut pizza, of which Grandma had a major hissy when she realized there was a delivery charge & complained about it all week, Grandma and Aunt Patty busted out the dice and I found it necessary to escape... I mean join Grandpa in the living room!

My grandpa, Norman Pentino, is an Italian from the island of Sicily. He and his parents came to America when he was 9 years old. He's also a WW2 veteran. And he's really into his "tapes." For the purpose of this blog, the "tapes" includes the following: cd's, dvd's, videos, and cassette tapes. It's all a "tape" to him.

So, we watched tapes all night long! Specifically, concerts of Andre Reiu, The Highwaymen, Tammy Wynette, and Bobby Vinton. Every so often, one of the aunts or Grandma would wander in and complain that all Grandpa watches is those tapes and that I don't want to watch them. I jumped in every time and proclaimed that I did want to watch them. It was fun & I liked doing something with my Grandpa.... especially something that he enjoys so much.

Oh, by the way, a wonderful cd that Grandpa and I listened to was Patrizio, the Italian. He's a young guy who sings old Italian love songs. It's very Dean Martin feeling. I loved it so much that I bought my own copy! Some of the songs are in English, some in Italian and some are both! I highly recommend this cd!