We didn't sleep much in the very noisy hotel. Hagrid is so used to the dead quiet of home that when you put him in a hotel he hears every little noise and then lets me know he heard a noise by growling and pawing at me. I tried turning on the fan to drown out some of the noise from down the hall. I set it on heat but it got too hot then I switched to cool and it got too cold. At 3:15am I gave up and got in the car and started driving.......again. We drove another 475 miles and got to my Mom's around noon. I was very happy to get here and even more happy to be done with the long driving days.

It has been four days since I left Colorado and four days since I have seen the sun or temperatures above freezing. Finally an hour and a half from Laytonsville it stopped snowing, the sun came out and the temperature reached 36 degrees. I guess it will make me appreciate the hot, sunny weather in Fiji and Australia that much more. Bring on Summer.

Mom has 3 dogs, a dog door and a huge fenced in yard. Hagrid is in heaven. He will be just fine here for 2 and a half months.

We relaxed and watched football. Ryan came over for the Patriots game and we were all sleeping by half time. Tebow-time is over with a good old fashioned Patriot beating. Yeah! As my friend Pete says "Tim Tebow is a false football prophet".

Tomorrow we are having friends over for a Maryland blue crab feast. Can't wait. The best part is....no driving. Well.... that and lots of red wine.