Oh where oh where has Mary gone...

Oh where oh where could she be...!!!

Good question!

We left a little later then we wanted to on Thursday because of family stuff and headed out, much to Rollie's dismay, during the morning commute with a plan to push as far as possible. My father, being his lovely kind self, made me drive the first leg after 4 hours of sleep. Ok ok ok he asked and I said yes but nothing is as boring to look at as the Garden State parkway (Howell am I wrong?). We drove through Connecticut, into New York, New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. The prettiest part of the drive was through part of the Appalachian trail on the Pennsylvania turnpike...not that I enjoyed it half as much as my mother did...snoring and curled up in the fetal position in the backseat of my maxima. The poor thing was passed out for most of the drive except when we stopped to hit the bathroom (3 times in 10 hours) for a total of maybe 20 minutes out of the car! I would have had better luck if I had brought a leg bag for each of us...maybe then we would have made it through Ohio! We stopped for the night in Monroeville PA to get a good night sleep...or at least they did. Between the air conditioner blasting on and off and the occasional see saw snoring, I managed to get about another 4 hours. Ahhh you gotta love insomnia...another lovely parting gift from working the night shift!
This morning we woke up bright and early...4:45 to be exact...so we could make as much headway as possible. We proceeded to drive for a pretty monotonous 10 hours...cornfields a plenty! I kind of felt like Bubba in Forest Gump after awhile as I tried to come up with all the words that contained "corn" to pass the time (cornhusk, corny, cornicopia etc etc etc) As we passed from Pennsylvania through Ohio (sorry Kerry...no stops this round) into Indiana and finally into Illinois I would be lying to all of you if I didn't say I thought "what was I thinking?" And then, out of nowhere, a sign. Literally a sign that stated "Jesus is Real" and all I could think of was a time I took a roadtrip with Kerry and Steph to Western Mass and we passed all these "Jews for Jesus" buses and Kerry saying "isn't that a contradiction?" and having to call Sarah Bloom to ask if she had ever heard of such a thing! Anyway I started laughing and couldn't stop for 5 minutes and I think my parents were ready to toss me at the next rest stop. Nothing like a good laugh to brighten the mood of a long ride! As the day winded down, and we gained an hour as we crossed time zones, we decided to stop just before St Louis with the plan to tackle the arch tomorrow and then drive on to Kansas City Kansas. Ohhh how I look forward to that journey!

In summary
miles traveled: 1256
states crossed: almost 7
cornfields passed: too many to count
arguments and disputes: 48 (averaging almost 1 an hour)
times I thought of hopping on a plane back to Boston: 3


Ok folks that about does it for today. I hope to post some pictures tomorrow. For my work peeps, I miss you but I don't miss work. Drum up some business though so I can pay off my debt from the trip. For my Waltham and Salem friends I miss you as well and will see you soon. And for my family (i.e. my sisters, brother and sister-in-law) we miss you also. Hope the kids had an awesome Halloween...can't wait to see pictures!

P.P.S.
Ohhh and if I forgot to add anyone to the blog please either let me know or just forward them the blog site! I don't know how interesting this is but I am trying to make it entertaining!

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