When one is up at 4:15, and on the road by 5:10 (so close to 5am, when I wanted to leave - AMAZING), and drives for approximately 16 hours - there are a lot of questions raised, and sights to document. Below are a couple of the most notable. (Hopefully the sister road trip works for the return trip - I like alone time, but this was excessive!!)
- Drivers who aren't me: please use your cruise control. It is a standard feature, in all cars on the road these days, and will save you from being run off the road by a travel-weary Natalie. Especially disturbing? The car with the "Harvard" sticker in the window. Smart enough to get into Harvard, but not intelligent enough to enable the cruise? Sad.
- I saw 4 cars pulled over in the Chicago area. This would not normally be notable - but I found it interesting that they were all small, red "sports cars". I include this because I may owe my sister Wendy an apology. According to the Chicago PD, her red Beretta may have, in fact, been a sports car. =)
- Toll roads are ridiculous. Not only did I spend $87.95 on tolls today (to drive on public roads, mind you) - but one toll was also the site of a bad driving scenario by me. I pulled up to a non-cash line, and had to back up in the toll area (seriously - thank God there weren't many cars) and pull over into another line, 4 lanes over. Oops. I blame the tolls.
- Those of you that are familiar with LaLisa (my car) - or read Wendy's shout out - probably realize I am missing the passenger side mirror. I have been for about 4 or 5 years now. There was an unfortunate garbage can accident one morning - and the mirror didn't survive. I haven't "found" a replacement, yet. Anyway - I was driving down the highway when what to my wandering eye does appear???!?!!!??! Another Grand Am with it's driver mirror hanging on the side of the car. I think maybe it wasn't my fault that it broke? It should maybe be a recall for this type of vehicle? I am certain I am innocent - my driving is flawless (disregard the last bullet).
- for a Saturday, there were a lot of buses driving in Kentucky. The strangest bus was labeled "Mitchell (or some other name) Home School". Why would there be buses for "home school"? That doesn't make sense. And there was more than one - so it isn't like one family made their own bus (sad in a whole different way)
- The interstates through West Virginia are like the tracks at Kart Kountry (the go-cart track near Brainerd, where my family has been banned due to unfair treatment
during Family Fun Weekend). They zig and zag - sharp turns constantly. I am thinking I put on about 58 miles, but only got about 12 miles in the direction of my final destination! - And finally - this tidbit on the sign in front of one of the hotels here in Beckley: Every Saint has a past and every Sinner has a future. Thank you, EconoLodge. That is brilliant. (please keep in mind that I am mildly delirious, so brilliant may not be entirely accurate)
Congratulations to my cousin Dillon, and his wife Janelle! They had their first baby - a boy named Joseph John, today.
This is all I can manage tonight. It is time for rest. I am looking forward to getting checked in tomorrow, and gettin this show on the road! (or off the road, actually)
So happy that you made it - and even happier that the weather was not a complete nightmare....
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