Forced Road Trips

The Rental's transmission died. Since it turns out that a transmission for a discontinued car that's worth whatever is considered "below a 'poor' Blue Book" rating isn't a good investment, I traded in and, a little bit, up for a new car.

This "new-to-me-old-to-the-world" car was graciously sold to me by my parents and to get it to Virginia, David and I drove from it across the country.

Driving for 2500+ miles without stopping is as fun as it sounds. I lost track at around hour 37 but I think it took me approx 52 hours. Slightly longer than anticipated because I had to stop in Hagerstown, Maryland – a mere 40 mins from home – to sleep for 90 minutes so that the hallucinatory images would abate long enough for me to safely make it that last stretch. And while we are speaking about hallucinations...ever so glad for tag team driving. It means that I can sleep while David drives and vise versa and/or when I wake up suddenly (call it a “mothers intuition” or a “Type A-induced need to control and/or paranoia”) and ask David, "how are you?" I’m able to immediately take over when he answers, "I’m not sure if the car is moving. Or the road."

And speaking of David and long hours in which I force him to psycho-analyze whether you can wear white after Labor Day, boys and the meaning of life, I learn that he knows the lyrics to a suspicious number of Taylor Swift songs.

I also learn that he is a remarkably good sport and when I find out that Iowa is 150 miles and Illinois is 60 miles longer than anticipated, he allows me to amuse myself out a terrible mood by playing "sunflower seed golf". This is where I try to spit sunflower seeds across the driver’s seat (where he is sitting) and through the driver’s side window from the passenger’s side window (where I am sitting). As expected, I’m not good at this. Seems as though my mouth/eye coordination is as good as my hand/eye coordination which explains why on Day 2 David found a matted sunflower seed in his hair.

Long story short, you can wear white pants after Labor Day if you do it unapologetically, Iowa is 310 miles long, Taylor Swift songs are alarmingly catchy, and David is great driving company.