The Trip Down
Okay, so this took an inordinately long time to write and I'm sorry. I'm going to torture you all even more by dragging it out over two (possibly three) posts.
Eight hours. That's how long it took to get from my house to our lodging in New Jersey. We stayed with Jay Krall at his home. Let me just say he has an awesome home and he also knows where to get some good eats.
But before we could arrive at Jay's and plop down on his criminally comfortable couches we had to get there. Just what does one do to pass the time during an eight hour car ride? Some people try and see as many different state license plates as they can. Some try to read the alphabet in order off of road signs. Most just listen to some tunes, Shaw, Grace, Lindsay and I? We listen to books, argue about musical ADD, laugh at each others tired, confused ramblings, give the GPS system a name and a personality, take photos of everything, and attempt to get the occupants of other vehicles to wave at us.
We keep ourselves entertained.
I rode with Grace and Lindsay down from Winthrop to Portland to meet Shaw for the rest of the trip. On the way to Portland I tried not to look at the speedometer and argued with Lindsey about music. I can understand if someone doesn't like country music (she can't stand it) or some of the random alternative stuff I listen to but what I don't understand is that even when we listened to songs she did like she would skip them halfway through. It was only when she started listening to "mash-ups" that she would listen all the way through. I suppose it's just like skipping through songs except you are saved the trouble of hitting "next." Sorry Lindsay, but I officially diagnose you with musical ADD.
Despite Lindsay's ADD about music she was surprisingly attentive when Shaw popped in an audio book. A six CD audio book. We listened to I, Alex Cross for nearly the entire trip down and probably half the trip back. The book was a murder mystery set in a series which revolves around the character of Alex Cross. I'd never listened to more than a few seconds of an audio book before. It was kind of cool, allowing multiple people to share in the same "reading" experience at the same time. Though sometimes I did miss parts due to conversation or simply inattention. You can't just reread the sentence again like a book, and backing up is a hassle.
Solemnly guiding us through the entire trip was the trusty Global Positioning Unit which we named Vera. (Yes Bailey and Don, I suggested the name, despite it not being a Callahan full-bore auto-lock). I say she was trusty in that we got where we were going and we got home. Vera was less that trustworthy in that she didn't like staying stuck to the window. Also Vera lead us straight through the Bronx on our way to NJ and would randomly decide we were not where we were supposed to be and "recalculate" our route. Once or twice Vera even claimed we had teleported several miles and were perpendicular to the road. Overall though, we were all happy with Vera's performa...*In half a mile, left turn* Yes, thanks Vera, we were ju... *Turn left..then..Turn left* Alright, we get ..*Turn left* ....Moving on....
We had one other GPS friend by the name of Dorothy. Dorothy was built into Jay's car and was our guide into the city. ...Had we followed her guidance I would probably still be lost in New York.
Here are a few sights we saw along the way.
Big bird on a truck.
The human beehive. Seriously, how can people live that close together?
I found my street.
Into the City
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