Cool, Calm, and Connected

Ah! We finally are connected to the real world (phone and email) and the fantasy world (cable and some Internet). You decide about this blog.

Let me tell you about the first two days after disembarking from Westminster, Maryland. Jenevieve drove all the way. The toughest parts of the drive were Highway 30 in Pennsylvania and the Chicago Skyway.

Day one, July 31, 2007 - We left Westminster on a hot sunny day after Jenevieve's mom took pictures of our stuff packed away in the moving truck. The 5 minutes of driving through Maryland was no sweat. However, highway 30 was tough because of the series of mountains we had to climb. I thought we only had to drive over one hill, but the highway presented us with 3 separate climbs. That's a lot for a heavy truck and a nervous driver. Jenevieve did all right, but she was angry with Google maps for not warning us about the amount of uphill driving involved.

Then we reached I-70 and most of the uphill and downhill driving was completed. Unfortunately I-70 rarely offered a straight drive. It was a curvaceous drive all the way to the Ohio state line. We also hit our first slowdown outside of Pittsburgh with one-lane traffic due to construction. Only a 15-30 minute delay.

We were happy to leave Pennsylvania as we entered Ohio with its straight roads. We were also hungry and low on gas when we got into Ohio. It took about 20-30 minutes until we found an exit for gas and another 5 minutes to find another exit for food, just outside of Cleveland. We ate lunch at around 3:00pm.

A straight and long drive on I-80 from Cleveland to Mishawaka, Indiana. The tank was again nearly empty when we were a few miles away from our hotel. We filled up the tank and bought junk food for dinner. Then 2-3 miles later we stopped at our hotel for the night. We both had a good night's sleep at the Country Inn & Suites just 3 miles away from Notre Dame.

Day 2, August 1, 2007
We wake up around 7:30am, eat our free waffle breakfast at the hotel, and depart at 8:45am. Between Mishawaka and Chicago, we play around with the radio. One of the first songs we heard was by the group Chicago (25 or 6 to 4). Then it was classical, then disco/funk, then jazz, then we gagged at the disgusting atmosphere of Gary and Hammond, Indiana.

Surprisingly traffic was running smoothly into Illinois, but then we hit construction just before I-90 and I-94 converge at the Chicago Skyway. It was suddenly one-lane traffic and we were in the exit lane to South Chicago. After a few wrong turns, we made our way back onto the Skyway with only a 15 minute delay. Construction stopped midway through the Skyway, so we quickly left it behind.

We paid our last toll before filling up with gas again in South Beloit. As we left the gas station with doughnuts in hand, we were making good time. Welcome to Wisconsin! Hooray! Welcome to the longest stretch of a construction zone of the entire trip. Boo! Hiss! We were slowed down into one lane of traffic for 30-45 minutes until we saw the off-road construction. Seconds later, the zone ended and it was smooth driving to Madison.

I realize this blog is getting long, so I'll save the more interesting part of the first two days for the next blog.