The first day - on the road

The day started out early and relatively relaxed. So relaxed that we left a little bit later than we wanted. But that was not unusual. The big challenge this time was installing the car top carrier. We don't have a rack on the car but the Sherpa we got has straps that you can thread through the inside of the car and it was solid and fit all of our luggage.

We were on the road at 11 am and I spent the first hour and a half on a conference call. The Banana and La Suegra alternated between napping and reading while the Good Mr. Dr. drove what has become a familiar route for us.

The first part of the trip was pretty uneventful. We stopped in Connecticut for lunch and to start our picture game. We are all to take pictures throughout the day that cover all three of the following themes:

1. natural/ physical
2. historical/ cultural
3. something you've never seen before/ funny/ weird.

We'll be posting these in our own Picasa galleries.

The adventure really began when we found ourselves driving through a massive storm system. Of course, this happens when it was my turn to drive. Trying to safely drive through a blinding storm with ping pong ball sized hail is stressful enough. But then, we learned something about having a car top carrier that is strapped through the car itself: the rain will leak through the straps. There was absolute pandemonium when it started raining inside the car. And it was cold.

That lasted for about two hours. Then we started having real problems with our right front tire. We had already scoped out the nearest dealership to Williamsburg and where we could get a ZipCar if we needed to. Halfway through New Jersey I had to pull over because it was loud and the steering wheel was shaking. Turns out that we were missing a lug nut and the other four were very loose. The Good Mr. Dr. is convinced that it was sabotage but it could easily have been someone trying to steal the tires and getting caught. Either way, we caught it, fixed it and were well on our way to dinner.

Dinner was at the Waffle House
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. That was a treat because we were able to wander near a bunch of old steel mills, some of which have been repurposed as a casino, shops, and restaurants.

From the Waffle House, we went straight to Front Royal, Virginia. We made it to our hotel at midnight. And we were grateful for it. By the end of the day, we drove through parts of eight states. I do believe this is a record.