Attention passengers, your departure time has been delayed

6 a.m. Thursday morning I was in no mood for joking around.

The night before I had stayed up until almost Midnight trying to finish my packing, doing laundry and picking up the house so we wouldn't come back to a total disaster area on Sunday. When my alarm went off I glanced up, thought about the time and smacked the snooze button. Nine more minutes and I could function.

18 minutes later I was running for the shower. We were scheduled to leave no later than 8 a.m. and I wanted to beat the other three people in the house to the bathroom. As long as I take in there, it was best that I went first anyway. By the time I finished there was a line at the door as everyone else climbed out of bed and attempted to get ready for the eight hour drive ahead of us. While everyone else did their thing I dressed, grabbed the last couple of things for my bag and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast.

At 7 a.m. the doorbell rang.

It was Jeff, who somehow along with Room Mate #2 had decided our departure time would be 7 a.m. Not 8.

"Didn't he tell you we were leaving at 7? Let's go! Let's get on the road."

"No, he didn't," I said as I glared at him. Happy morning people really get on my nerves.

"Everyone else is still getting ready. Come on in and relax. This could take awhile."

The rest of the crew ran around finishing up as we started loading the car which put us pulling away at 7:30. Not too shabby.

Then we hit the traffic. I-83 is the main corridor north for us and when it's backed up, you might as well pitch a tent along the side of the road and cement in a temporary mailbox. Right before we got to the split at Harrisburg we came to a standstill. There was a five car pileup that wasn't going to get cleaned up any time soon. So with traffic backed up quite a bit, we (read as the rest of the group) decided to stop for breakfast.

The combination of traffic, breakfast and bank stops pushed us back to a departure of 9:30. To someone who just wanted to get on the road and get there, this was not a happy time. I mean, if we decided we were going to leave early, then why the hell didn't we?!

Eventually though we made our way north, stopping momentarily in some little town in New York for a late lunch and making a bathroom break just outside of Albany. The closer we got to Vermont the more snow we saw going from little flurry patches along the side of the road in PA and NY to full out snow mounds just outside of Killington. The actual trip was pretty uneventful otherwise. Stupid Girlfriend ended up with a speeding ticket somewhere in NY around Binghamton, but that was her own fault. No sympathy here. I rode with the guys and either slept or read my Galmour.

We pulled into the rental place in Killington around 6 p.m.ish. The flakes were starting to fly by this point only making me more excited to get into my ski's and go rushing down the slopes. There was a definite bite to the coldness outside. Darkness was falling fast. Check in went quickly and before we knew it we were settling in at the townhouse for a night of drinking, Family Guy Uno and rest before we hit the slopes Friday.