I think we left off at me getting off the Blue Ridge Parkway and staying in Charlottesville, VA. I've been having trouble sleeping. Well, I sleep fine, it's the falling asleep thing that's been a problem. Since check-out times never change, it started catching up to me and I've had a crappy few days. Nothing terrible, just tired and mix that in with some bad luck and little things getting on my nerves, the days end up being crappy, plus I don't get anything done. Four nights in a row, once I've finished driving for the day, I've just stayed in the motel room for the night. So not a lot to report other than the drives.
Charlottesville, VA to Pocomoke City, MD
Took the freeway most of the way. Not a bad view, considering. Got off on Ocean View Drive or something around Newport News to get to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It was a weird street. Seemed like it was ghetto-ish on one side and fancy seaside condos on the other side. The bridge was nice enough. First time I'd seen the ocean on this trip.
Here's me trying to figure out why the hell my camera won't take a picture on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (it was in video mode, obviously).
Here it is after I figured out it was in video mode. Not all that exciting a shot.
After that, I started looking for a cheap motel. Apparently they're not on the highway, but four miles off the road in the towns on the shore. Finally ended up pissed off enough at Virginia that I decided to gut it out and stay somewhere in Maryland. Took me for-fucking-ever to find a room and it ended up being, by far, the most expensive room of the trip (it wasn't all that expensive, but when you're staying in hotel rooms for 28 days straight, the cost of the rooms start adding up pretty quickly).
Pocomoke City, MD to Reading, PA
Mapped out a convoluted drive on little roads in eastern Maryland before I headed out. Somehow all the road names had two threes in them too. Someone got lost. I was trying to find the Whitehaven Ferry in eastern Maryland. Turns out, I'd missed a turn a few miles back. Before I realized that though, I saw this yard with a few of those fiberglass sculptures of deer. I can't stand those things so I was looking at them with hatred in my eyes as I drove past. The eyes followed me. As I was thinking, "That's weird..." I noticed the heads were following me too. All of a sudden the two fawns took off running (is that what the babies are called? What the hell was Bambi?). All that happened so fast, I actually flinched when they took off.
I'd meant to take a picture every time I got lost on this trip. I've been lost more than twice, but I've only taken two "lost" pictures so far. The reflection of my dashboard messed up the picture, but it's a huge marsh near those fucking deer and the ferry launch.
Here's me on the ferry. Exciting, huh?
That's all the pictures for that day and pretty much all there is to write about, other than spending two hours driving around Reading, PA trying to find a motel. Yeah, they have railroads.
Reading, PA to Danbury, CT
Started out the morning stopping at Office Depot for "supplies" (this will be explained later) and Barnes & Noble to buy a few books. The plan was to go through Scranton and find a "Welcome to Scranton" sign so I could use the poster board and marker I'd bought to add a little something to the sign. Sort of an inside joke. Hopefully the end result would be a picture of a sign that said, "Welcome to Scranton, except for L.S. who can suck it." As it turns out, I spent three hours in Reading sitting in a parking lot on the phone with the help desk trying to get my Blackberry working again. By the time I got to Scranton, it was time for my fantasy football draft, so I found me some wifi and did that. By the time the draft was over, it was too dark for pictures. I did get one picture on the way to the wifi though.
What do cows listen to?
After the draft, I decided to drive through to Danbury, CT to make up some time (I'm generally not driving late into the day). Once I realized where I was going, I sent my brother Ted an e-mail as he used to live in Danbury and I'd heard he was going to be visiting sometime recently, but I wasn't sure when. Alas, he'd gotten back from Danbury a couple weeks ago, but I got a lead on where I can drop his name to get some free coffee as well as a place to spend some time tomorrow.
That's it. The plan for tomorrow is to go through Rhode Island and cross that mother off my list (it'll be my 47th state). It's a short drive, so I'm not sure if I'll stay or keep going towards Maine (which will be my 48th state). I'd like to make up some time so I can stay in one place for two or three days before I have to head back. We'll see what happens.
