Roadtrip Day #3: Surrender
This post is slightly belated… but it has arrived at last.
I woke up still upset about my first speeding ticket. I needed to get out of Virginia fast and with a speeding ticket in my hand, there was no way I was the one to do it. Anna got us across the border and once in West Virginia I was ready to give driving another go. Slowly and steadily I eased my way back into it, garnering the courage to reach a maximum speed of 4 mph over the speed limit (and only on occasion)…
Our third day had been relegated to a mere driving monotony with no stopovers to break it up. We did, however, have a slightly unexpected trip onto Manhattan Island – a route that was laid out in our AAA TripTik, and which we certainly did not really intend, particularly had we fully comprehended that while on the map it looked “close” to the heart of the city, it was really a lot closer than we thought. After wading through the traffic and passively dealing with New York drivers, we made it into Connecticut where we managed to go about 20 miles in probably 45 – 50 minutes, thanks to ‘expected delays’ that never really seemed to have ANY sort of cause…. Once we pulled off the highway Wesleyan-bound (where we were to stay with a friend from high school) we made the impromptu decision to drive on to Boston that night. Only 2 hours away at that point, and with the ominous threat of snow in the morning we opted for 2 hours of nighttime driving versus 2+ hours of driving in the snow (particularly since neither of us have any experience driving in the snow). After dinner and coffee in Wesleyan we hit the road again and played non-stop 90′s pop the whole way back to Boston, belting out classic hits such as the entire Backstreet Boys collection, R. Kelly, oldies, and pretty much any other guilty pleasure songs everyone is culpable of listening to (and knowing all the words to).
Once back in Boston we crashed with a friend for the night and the next morning I had my first opportunity to scrape ice off of my car and drive in the snow! And now, after a long, cold journey, my car is safely tucked away in an on-campus garage taking a break & leaving me to fend for myself on the snowy/icy surfaces around campus (the fall count has only reached 1 thus far, but it was epic and involved a 3″ puddle of water, into which I essentially ended up kneeling…)
And thus ends the saga of the halfway cross-country journey. We made it 72 hours straight together without killing each other or even disliking each other (at least, I don’t think we dislike each other….??) and currently we are still weaning ourselves off of our dependence on each other (I still hope Anna will be able to figure out left/right and east/west on her own soon, and that I will be able to do basic math one day).
And now it is back to the harsh reality that my last semester in college is upon me and classes begin for the last time tomorrow morning. Eerily close to the great unknown… but there is still plenty of time to savor all that’s left.
