My Big Move

Ok so I promised that I would write about my trip every night but I didn’t realize just how tiring driving 2200 miles could actually be. So I am sitting in a Ramada with Mom. I am staying here two nights since I don’t have a bed and the one that I ordered online won’t be here until Friday. So I figured I would document my move while I sit here watching the Olympics.

So starting in Salt Lake we took I-80. Before I even left the state we had a problem. So I am trailing a truck by about twenty or thirty feet and I see him go over something flat about the surface area of a medium cardboard box. As the truck passed over it, it flipped up in the air and smacked my front bumper. Turns out it was a white board and I just missed what was written on it. It didn’t do much damage; it bent a little part down by the grill, and cracked the plastic rocker panel underneath the front end, so all in all a great way to start the trip.

Other than that the first day was really long. We didn’t stop to do any sight-seeing. We did stop to eat at a place in Wyoming called Chappy’s. It was a nice place that served a variety of foods. On the menu they had American cuisine, burgers and what not, they had Italian, Mexican and of course seafood, all in this little truck stop dive. Good patty-melt though. So we finished driving and made it through Nebraska and got into Omaha/Council Bluffs, but couldn’t find a hotel with any free rooms. And if Nebraska is hell then Omaha is Satan’s navel. It was late I was tired and all I wanted was to find a place to stay and get some sleep but no. So we drove on until we found a little place that was a gas station and a freakin’ dive; the kind of place about which they make scary movies. This place had only one decoration and that was a dirty stuffed panda in the corner. My bed didn’t even have a real bottom sheet so whenever I moved I found myself lying right on top of the mattress. So when the morning came we just got up and sped out of there as soon as we could.

The second day was more interesting then the last. We had a pretty normal trip from the West of Iowa to Chicago. The only thing that was very interesting was the windmills. They are everywhere between Wyoming and Illinois. While we were driving we even came across one that was being assembled. They build them in sections up and then use a crane to lift the fan up. I would have to be the guy that has to hold it steady while someone bolts it into place. So that was really cool. Well we got to Chicago but unfortunately we didn’t have time to see Wrigley Field and get some food so I had to make the tough decision. And I chose right. We went to a little restaurant that I had found online called Bucovina that serves authentic Romanian food. It was as good as I remembered it. It was also really nice to talk to a real Romanian again. I haven’t forgotten the language but it just doesn’t come as easily or smoothly as it used to so I will have to work on that. Chicago is a really nice city, we were able to get a few pictures of the skyline and it was beautiful. I have come to hate toll ways though. We started using them in Illinois and didn’t stop using them until just inside Pennsylvania. They were worse in Illinois. You had to pay every ten miles or so, where as in the other states you just picked up a ticket at the border and then paid whenever you got off the road. So if any of you decided to drive across the country, I would advise you to avoid the toll roads.

After Chicago we stopped in South Bend and took some pictures and then I let Mom take over driving. Everything was going fine until that night when we were looking for the hotel that Dad reserved for us. Well Mom was coming up on an on ramp and she moved over to the other lane and all the sudden lights are going off behind us. Mom pulls over and the patrolman comes up to the window and asks the classic question. “Ma’am do you know why I pulled you over?” And of course Mom answered, “Because I was speeding a little.” The patrolman said, “Well yeah you were going a little fast, but I pulled you over because you made an illegal lane change.” I automatically thought of Dad and thought how unlucky it was that Dad never signals and never gets pulled over and the one time that Mom fails to she gets caught. Anyway the guy was nice and let us go with a warning. Oh and the hotel that Dad got had to be the worst Howard Johnson in the world. It was just as bad as the first hotel, but it wasn’t Dad’s fault. The website rated it as a two star hotel. I don’t know what they were thinking but that’s place didn’t deserve two lucky charms stars. So we canceled that one and stayed at a Super 8.

Well the last day was nice. Pennsylvania is beautiful. William Penn must have peed his pants when he got the charter for that land. It is amazing. Maryland was beautiful too. It is just so much greener than Utah, I will miss the mountains though. Today wasn’t very exciting. We stopped in Hancock, Maryland for lunch at a place called Weaver’s. We decided to stop there because it reminded me of Weaver D’s in Athens, GA and if you don’t know Weaver D’s talk to Brooks. It was good, and the little town was really nice. D.C. was horrible. We didn’t actually go through D.C. but the road was jammed for ten miles and it took us nearly an hour just to go that far.

We are finally here and it is really nice. I am going to really like Richmond, and I think that I will enjoy the area in which I’ll live. It seems like a nice place, quite and safe. I think I will like my roommate, turns out that he was in Waterton for one of the days that we were there. I am really excited to start this part of my life, and I am looking forward to school. Thank you all for all the help, support, and love that you have shown. I look up to you all and look forward to doing my best to make you all proud!