Over the river and through the woods.....

For many years, Thanksgiving was our holiday to travel.  After my in-laws moved in 1973, we started driving from Maryland and then Virginia to western Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's family.  After Thanksgiving, he would often stay for deer season and I would go home with the kid(s).  We had many exciting adventures on these trips.  One year, there was a big snowstorm and power was out for days.  We were staying at the old brick house owned by Richard's grandparents.  The house was built in 1810 and has walls three bricks thick.  Grandma had a gas stove and she would turn it on, open the door and hang a heavy blanket in the doorway to keep the heat in the living area.  We would play cards until it got too dark - usually around 4:30 - and then go to bed and huddle under the blankets.  This was in the 70's and up to this point, I had no idea that electricity was needed to get gasoline.  Except at Andy Morgan's on Water Street in Smithfield where you could get gas at his hand operated pump if he liked you well enough.  Fortunately, the power was back on in three days and we had warmth and lights again.  One year, my sister-in-law and I drove to snowy, hilly Preston County, WV to bail two fellows (who shall go unnamed) out of jail.  More than once, the family drove up the east coast to Massachusetts.   The traffic was always horrible and one year, in New York, construction workers were tying up traffic on the busiest travel day of the year.  What were they thinking?
Now we live in western Pennsylvania.  My husband's parents are both dead, we see his siblings every week and that leaves just the two of us for Thanksgiving dinner.  Our two children have legitimate reasons for not traveling to see us at Thanksgiving.  Sometimes we travel to Michigan since two of the grandchildren have a birthday near Thanksgiving.  The tradition has changed or maybe just wiped out completely.  No more over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house.  I miss those trips in the 70's and 80's even though the trip was sometimes quite frightful.