Texas to Rhode Island, Part One

I decided to post this in increments for sanity's sake -- mostly mine but then after Joel's War Forecast on TIH. No map or PPP needed here, thanks. My daily entries were getting to be too much and most of them are just recounts anyway. If we had bluetooth in the car, you would have been updated on the hour, every hour. But then with our eyes glued to the computer, it wouldn't have been a healthy road trip and we would have missed some amazing areas.

DAY ONE:
Leaving at 5AM turned into 7PM due to D’s car being looked over and fine-tuned for the journey. Pretty much everything except shocks (which we desperately need sometime in the near future… ‘cuz dude, most interstate highways and local roads SUCK between Philly and New Haven). Two minutes into the trip Neely, our large-and-in-charge kitty for those of you who don't know, took the biggest dump at the corner of Lowden and McCart. Pulled over at Albertson’s to clean up. 30 minutes later we pulled over in Grand Prairie in a Walmart parking lot. One of the cats puked (diagnosis: carsick?) and also took another horribly awful dump. Thankfully I remembered the matches I packed for just this type of situation. Decided that we can’t pull over every time they poop. We planned to drive to Little Rock and stay the night but pressed on until almost Memphis. Starting collecting state souvenir magnets.


Hope, Arkansas

DAY TWO:
Bummed --- we missed the indoor heated pool and waffle/bagel bar. Super 8 claimed to have wireless but somehow we couldn’t connect. Super LAME. Traveled thru Memphis, Nashville, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Lexington, Huntington, Charleston and ended up in Flatwoods, West Virginia. The Home of Rock ‘n Roll and Country Music in one day. Naturally, we were both disappointed to miss out on visiting Hatch Show Print and others: me - Dollywood / D - Grand Ole Opry and the Grizzlies Pro Shop. Today we ended up driving through West Virginia until 4AM because every hotel we stopped at enforced no pet policies i.e. “automatic $100 pet clean-up fee no exceptions” and no outside or side doors to sneak them in. After trying to find another hotel via wireless at the first no-pets place (to no avail) AND next-door at the 24-hour McDonald’s (3AM at this point and the payment page was down) we drove another hour to the next town where a Days Inn did not allow pets. Super! The motel we stayed in was right near a jail yet had the most inadequate lock on the doorknob only. No deadbolt. No chain. Two chairs went up against the door. Oh, and we almost ran out of gas en route to Lexington. Below the E, light on, very stressful, but we made it… good thing I bought an AAA membership.


Driving in Nashville

DAY THREE:
Delaney says everyone looked weird in Morgantown, West V. My friend is a printmaking graduate student there but she was in L.A… so we couldn't meet up. Ate lunch at the Olive Garden. At this point I'm so sick of processed chicken strips and fast food in general. I've repeatedly told D that I'm done with chicken for awhile. Beef and turkey for the next couple of months. Checked out the Morgantown Salvation Army and then Dicks so D could try to find a Kevin Pittsnogle jersey. Nothing at either. Decided that so far we like West V and Maryland the best, respectively. To sum it up, today we've seen West V, Maryland, Virginia, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania. Washington was a two-hour detour, at the least. The White House was disappointing and had some weird sheets hanging on the balcony. Security was everywhere, blah blah blah. D would also like to mention that the roads in Penn are the worst roads in America and Philly is crappy all over. We ended up at Megan’s around midnight, hung out and then walked to the (un-air conditioned) bah for beers. Weyerbachen! PS: By now the cats have completely chilled out. They are so over everything.


Somewhere in WV - so pretty!

To be continued...