On the road

I-90 in New York does tend to feel like it goes on forever. I’ve driven on both ends of 90 (Seattle and Boston), but never in the middle past Buffalo. I suspect that if I feel the NY stretch goes on forever, I should probably find a different route through the Dakotas should the need arise.

We would have loved to split off from I-90 and driven around Lake Erie on the north side because it’s a much shorter distance, but Arthur was worried about two border crossings with a car loaded down with so much stuff. If we get searched at Customs, we’d be there all day!

So instead we drove through two more states on our way to Michigan. As soon as we crossed into Ohio, it felt like we were in the Midwest – roads were under construction almost the entire route. This jives with my memory of driving through Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin several years back – “two seasons: winter, and road construction.”

I’d joked that there weren’t any major Ohio cities that don’t begin with “C”, but then we found some on the map. (Akron, Toledo, etc.)

Most of the drive was clear sailing, but we hit some traffic snarl when there was an accident. That cost us an extra hour or so. (Also, I must recommend listening to The Bugle Olympic-themed podcasts for a long drive :)

To make up for the delay, I posted rude things to facebook. Like, how I saw no proof that Cleveland “rocked” or that Toledo was “holy”. And the “entering Sandusky” sign poses problems it didn’t a year ago. (Facebook then pointed out it houses one of the best amusement parks in the country, so maybe we’ll have to get over the sign and road trip there next spring.)

Given 14+ hours of driving on highways, we ate more fast food than we’re used to. We’re definitely looking forward to having a kitchen of our own again soon. It’s been a week!

One of the problems with interstates is that you don’t really get a sense of a place. Like when I took the train to Holyhead from Edinburgh – all I saw of Wales was trailer parks. Wales is much more than that! (I hear it’s got used bookstores, for starters. Hm… a week in Wales before heading to Edinburgh next summer?)

I’d really appreciate suggestions of weekend trips to Ohio and Indiana so we can get off the highway and explore new places. Take advantage of our new location. (And we’ll certainly be heading to Chicago at some point. Although if Lisa is going to visit Boston now that we’re gone, we’ll have to punish her by not bringing pie. More pie for Arthur!)

In some ways it’s a shame we’re only here for two years. That’s only one summer. And (assuming I get a job, which I better!) I won’t really have enough vacation time to drive through neighboring states and take advantage of being in the Midwest. I love travel, and I love foreign travel (see: Wales next year?), but the U.S. is so huge that I also enjoy wandering around random places closer to home. What’s in Iowa besides corn? Let’s go find out! Hey, aren't the DCI finals in Indianapolis? Well, let's go!

(Yes, one of the things we’re definitely adjusting to is the sense of scale. It takes effort to drive through four states in 3 hours!)

Anyway, after another rude comment (“’Pure Michigan’? Where’s Impure Michigan – I want to go there!”) or five, we made it safely to Josh’s for the night. (Where he also kindly let us use his garage so we didn’t have to unload all of our valuables.)


Almost real. *gulp*