On the trip...

Hello everyone. This is Matthew. Like Cacey said (below), we've got some issues with internet right now which are preventing us from loading pictures on the blog. But I was thinking you may like to hear some updates even without pics.

Cacey and I got up at 5:30 AM on Wednesday, July 29th to finalize the packing and the apartment before pulling out. We left at 8:25. (We used walkie-talkies between the moving truck and the Rav-4, so we were in communication the whole way.) We drove north to Commerce, GA and got on I-85, which we took another 30 miles out of Georgia. Then we drove 100 miles through South Carolina, including Greenville and Spartanburg. Then we drove 225 miles through North Carolina, including Charlotte, Greensboro, and Durham. We stopped in NC for lunch and a break. Then we drove about 70 miles through Virginia, to the point where I-85 hooks up with I-95 and then disappears. We stopped there, in Colonial Heights, VA at about 5:30 PM for some important rest. We checked into the Candlewood Suites hotel and got a little McDonalds, while we watched the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays playing in Florida on ESPN.

Second day we got up bright and early (5 AM again...although Elijah got to sleep in a little later) so as to avoid New York during the rush-home. Unfortunately this required us to go through Richmond and then Washington via the Beltway Express during the morning-rush. It didn't help that they're doing lots of roadwork on the Beltway right now. But we went across the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge (and the Potomac River) slow, so we got a good glipse of the Washington Monument and the Capital building. After about 100 miles in VA and then some more going around D.C., we went through Baltimore, which really is a city full of red-brick buildings, just like all the pictures I've ever seen. From the road we could easily see Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles play baseball, and the stadium used by the Ravens football team. We trekked a 100 miles through Maryland (can you believe it's possible to drive 100 miles in Maryland without backtracking or sidetracking anywhere? --there's only one way to accomplish it, and I-95 succeeds tremendously), stopping for lunch just south of Delaware (more sandwiches from the cooler, made by Cacey in the trunk space of the Rav). We used this time to go over our strategy for New York (i.e. what to do if we should get separated, etc). I was a bit anxious because I was driving that huge truck: 26 feet, not counting the cab, which was huge.

Then we hit the road again and drove through Wilmington, Delaware, before getting on the New Jersey Turnpike (to bypass Philadelphia and make a B-line for New York and onwards). We drove the Turnpike about 120 miles, stopping once for fuel and one more strategy session for New York.

When we got near Newark, NJ the traffic started getting crowded and slow, but that was okay because neither of us wanted to deal with fast, crazy drivers at that point. We crawled past the Newark Liberty International Airport and saw lots of big passenger jets landing. From here we also got our first glimpses of the lower Manhattan skyline, which sent chills up my spine. On I-95 we were a few miles from it, but it was still amazing. I could easily identify the Empire State Building and 40 Wall Street. Then we drove passed Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands. And then at about 3:30 PM we hit the George Washington Bridge, which is basically where all the highways of the world (apparently) converge at once into a big mess of cars, tolls, and honking horns. Probably an hour later, we had crossed the Hudson River via the GW Bridge, also the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and gotten on the New England Expressway, which was when the traffic really got bad. I couldn't believe it, but it was much slower from Westchester County NY to New Haven County CT than it had even been in New York City. Go figure. I guess its because that's virtually the only way into New England (which includes Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachussetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine). It was only 40 miles from New York to New Haven County, but it took us well over an hour because of the traffic. We finally got to our exit off I-95 at around 6 PM, Thursday evening, July 30th, 900 miles from Athens. (By the way, there are tons of tolls between Washington D.C. and the New England Expressway, so if you're planning a trip that way, bring cash...)

We went ahead and got some essentials off the truck, including the dinner table and the beds. Then we went to get some groceries and got in bed around 1 AM I think...

So that was our trip. I'll write another post soon about everything that's been going on since then ASAP.