I posted a lot of these on FB, but wanted to include them here b/c it will provide a complete picture of the trip!
I broke the drive down into three days - the first day I drove 4 hours to my brother's house. The second day was the "12 hour" drive and I stayed in SC at Bob's sister's house. L;eaving an easy 2 hour drive on the last day (and the ability to "sleep in". Well, as best as you can with a one-year old nephew and my own dog barking at anything and everything at 7 in the morning. So I had to shush him in order to keep the baby sleeping so we could all sleep.... but by that point I was awake. Darn it.)
I took a different route than usual, which was kind of fun but also the most direct according to gogle maps. I didn't realize that this way would have tolls (I don't do GPS. Just the old-fashioned "take-95 the whole way" method). I paid about $30 in tolls (don't tell Bob!)
I was a little sad when I realized that I wouldn't be driving through Pennsylvania - such a pretty drive! But I've never been to NJ so before I exited the state - about 500ft from the border - I pulled over on the side of the road, opened my door and touched my foot down. Yes, I did and it counts.
NEW YORK Oh.my.gosh. Everywhere I go I look for beauty, and landscapes are my favorite. New York, you have provided my top three breathtaking moments (including Europe, but that was post-college i.e., a LONG, UNMENTIONED AMOUNT OF TIME AGO, so I don't really remember it). On this drive, the view from the Tappan Zee Bridge.was.Breathtaking. And you could see the Manhattan skyline in the distance! Not that I'm a city person but it's kind of neat to see the contrast of nature and buildings (far, far away, of course).
NEW JERSEY. $10.35 in tolls. Sure would have been nice to have used CRUISE CONTROL, but you have too many cars.... and buildings.... and people.
DELAWARE. $8.00. Your tolls were almost as much as New Jersey's but I was in you a fraction of the time. I blinked and Hello Maryland! Shame on you!
MARYLAND. Don't remember much about you except that I came from the EAST side of Baltimore across a lot of water. Probably stunk like fish but the windows were sealed and the A/C cranking by now!
VIRGINIA. In this state I learned that my mood is 100% correlated to traffic conditions. I also discovered that I have more than three emotions - I experienced a broad range of emotions - from surprise to shock to anger to incredulous to hope to rage to hopelessness... (Michelle McFarland would be proud!) And FYI - NEVER EVEREVER drive on I-95 starting 30 miles north of Richmond. 0 for 2 in terms of awful traffic (or 2 for 2). Like 1-2 hours. To drive 30 miles. I was told by a local that it's ALWAYS bad, esp on weekends. The moving truck driver told me he never goes that route - would choose to go 80 more miles just to keep moving so he goes through Winchester. Note to self.
NORTH CAROLINA. God bless you and your 70mph speed limits! Nothing but a beautiful, traffic-free road to report here!
SOUTH CAROLINA. It was dark so I don't have much to say about it except that I'm thankful for my in-laws' hospitality! I was 2 hours late so at least they didn't have to cook for me (but they ARE good cooks so that's kind of unfair). I did keep them up late waiting for me, however. And Bob and my MIL were apparently tracking me via satellite. Or at least via phone calls to all relatives to make sure I made it ok.
Oh, and within 5 minutes of being there, Allie got out of the fence. I was so glad to be able to let them loose and run around by themselves. That dog is too smart for her own good. And really annoying.
GEORGIA! When I saw that "Welcome to Georgia" sign, I knew there was no turning back! Well, I could have turned back and friends offered to house me/us, but I didn't really feel like doing that drive again. At least not anytime soon.
OTHER THOUGHTS
-From about Virginia, I bet I helped all the little kids playing the license plate game score MAJOR and previously unscored POINTS with my New Hampshire plate! Just think about how excited they'll be when I drive to Texas!
-No I didn't try to get any trucks to honk (Megan/Ethan Eshbaugh!)
-"Speed monitored by aircraft". REALLY? Do you know how much that would cost?
Overall, it was a very weird, cathartic drive. Do you know how nice it is (1) to be by yourself for 14 hours at a time and (2) to drive 14 hours with NO KIDS? Ummmmmm pretty awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment