Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Road Trip

The day after tomorrow I am making the trip. The trip I have made so many times I have lost count.  Bristol TN/VA to Lorain, Ohio.  We moved from Cuyahoga Falls in January of 1988.  It is now 2014. 26 years, probably 4 trips a year on average, yep. Over 100 times.  People always say oh it must be a nice drive through the mountains. Or 7-1/2 hours, that is really not too long.  Those people haven't done the same drive for 7-1/2 hours over 100 times.   In high school I had exactly enough Smiths on cassette to listen to my Walkman the whole way.   Now my playlist is a little more varied, but still has Morrissey serenading me. I have had many road trip companions over the years.  My family of course.  My high school friends to go to concerts in Cleveland.  Rachel and I to see INXS at Blossom.  I will never forget stopping at Biscuit World in the middle of the night with my dad, Sharon, Priscilla and Shannon to go see the Rolling Stones.  My kids, my husband, my grandmothers.  Sure each trip was/is different but generally different is not a good thing.  There was the time the van broke down in Sharon, WV.  There were multiple traffic jams due to construction, accidents or holiday traffic.  I have done the trip in one day and in two days.  Sometimes the two days were planned.   One of my favorites is when Will and I left work to drive part way for our Christmas together with my family.  We had just gotten engaged and sat up in the hotel talking about how we would tell my parents and the boys and planning our future.  Sometimes the two days were not planned.  Christmas blizzard forcing us to stop in nowhere southern Ohio.  There are a few things that are always the same though.  We drive for about an hour on I-81 to get to I-77. On 77 you go through 2 tunnels , 3 toll booths, 2 big bridges and "the football bridge".  Then you get to the Turnpike and you are almost there.   We all look for these landmarks to gage the time.  I will hear somebody from the backseat yell was that second or third tollbooth.   I can tell you which restaurants are at all the exits.  Want Bob Evans?  Stop at Macorkle Ave in Charleston, WV ( approx 3 hours from home) or Ripley or Parkersburg. The one in Marietta is really not that good.  Make sure you  have everything you need before you leave Marietta because it is the deadlands until you get to Cambridge.   Knock on wood I haven't had too many speeding tickets and we have always arrived safely.  I am expecting this week's trip to be uneventful as well.  The trip has gotten much easier since they put DVD players in cars.  And right now all three kids love Frozen so if you see a Toyota Sienna driving up 77 on Thursday with the lady driving singing Do You Want to Build a Snowman at the top of her lungs it is just me.  Honk and wave!!!

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