NotTheRock Musings

Fortunately, we had no incidents with the local constables on the way home. What we did experiences, though, was more about how seedy Louisiana is and how freaking long a trip this is.

We left NJ at 3 PM on Monday, knowing we wouldn't have a real long day of travel. We made it to Roanoke, VA by about 10:30 PM and decided that was a good place to stop for the night. It also meant we had a hell of a lot left to go -- when you look at a map, NJ to Roanoke looks like you've barely left.

I set the alarm for 6 AM and hoped to hit the road by 7, which is 6 central time. I did this because by the time I went to sleep I had it in my head that we could get home in one more day, rather than having to stop a second time.

Well, we awoke at 7:20. Whoops.

In the end, we were on the road about 8:30, Eastern Time. And we plowed ahead. The rest of Virginia, then into Tennessee, touching the corner of Georgia and then on into Alabama.

Alabama's a big state. And so is Mississippi.

I drove until about 3 PM and finally needed to be relieved and so my darling wife took over. I tried to rest my eyes but didn't sleep much. Truthfully, though, even being awake but riding shotgun is better for you because you're not using your brain as much as when you're driving and making however-many decisions-per-second.

Lovely Wife finally ran out of steam after about 350 miles, in which she drove us through most of out Alabama portion and all of Mississippi. After seeing the "Bienvenue a Louisiana!" sign, we found a seedy place to stop (there's no other kind in Louisiana, it turns out) and switched. Maya got to take a walk in a dark, murky field next to the gas station that had bottles and old car engine parts strewn about it. Lovely. And every person who walked past the car my wife was waiting in looked sketchier than the last. Time to go.

So at this point we had about 400 miles left. Seems reasonable when you're on a 1700 mile journey (or, 3700 miles, if you count the miles driven since we'd left Houston). I was ready to roll. We got some dinner and I had my first energy drink ever. Full Throttle, I think it was called. I had no idea if it was going to have some effect, no effect or make me go clinically insane.

I felt okay for a while and we talked to friends on the phone for more than 100 miles. But those last 200 or so were brutal.

The good news is we got home to our beds (at about 1:30 AM Central) and were able to sleep at our own house and wake up on New Year's Eve at home without more travel ahead of us, and I think that was worth the 18 hour day in the car.

In total, we left Houston the morning of 12/20 and:

-Used ten tanks of fuel
-Drove 3700 miles
-Got one speeding ticket (thanks, Virginia)
-Celebrated Christmas
-Introduced Maya to snow (she's not a fan; clearly a Texas dog)
-Brought Maya to seven new homes she'd never peed in
-Set up my parents' home computer network (they're amazed by wireless Internet and video chatting blew their minds)

We also saw more than thirty different state/province/gov't license plates on our trip, but I don't care to list them here.

Home sweet home.

Labels: driving to Tejas, Houston, Merry Christmas, on the road again

Experts everywhere are asking themselves this question... has NotTheRock finally run its course?

Sure, back when it started in January 2003, it was a good outlet for me. And it was a way that my friends (those who knew about it) could hear my inane ramblings and be mildly entertained by it all.

But since then I've started the sports site Boiled Sports with a couple of friends and it's done really well. Sure, we're not millionaires yet, but I have a good feeling about 2009.

Plus I use Facebook now which, like anything else, will also fade from popularity and I'll abandon it, just like I abandoned the juvenile MySpace (which I only joined when a friend who is OLDER than me pushed me to do it).

Of course, Facebook has my real name on it and so when I bash things or people, I have to deal with the repurcussions. And who wants to be responsible when they slander others? Not me.

And so NTR remains valuable to me in that I can write things here that are about my life and yet are somewhat separated from who I specifically am -- thus, I am really writing to write and not just arrogantly posting updates about my life, as though anyone cares (see my rant about Facebook a couple posts down).

The thing is, I used to post a number of times a week, at least. Going a week without writing was unheard of. Now I go a month at a time. This is simply unacceptable, and I admit it. Those few of you who DID come here regularly did so because you expected at least something to feed your desire to read drivel on a daily (or near-daily) basis. So again, I'm sorry I'm failing you in this way. I have ideas to figure things out and improve the situation but they'll have to wait until after the new year. Until then, you're stuck with my scattershot, poorly distributed approach.

So what has been going on?

Well, our dog is still cute.

We went to Mexico for Thanksgiving. That was rather awesome.

We're driving back to the Northeast for the holiday this year.

Back when we were making our plans for the end of the year, we made the official decision to drive home. When we went up to NJ in July, we probably spent $1200 just on travel. I think our plane tickets were close to $500 each, plus the dog was another $200, plus we had to rent a car to get to the 'rents beach house. I didn't want to spend like this again and travel through two of the busiest airports in the country during Christmas week. With a dog. A dog that really doesn't fit into her travel case anymore. Have you ever tried to put an unwilling dog into a small duffel bag? (A live one.) It's not easy when they don't want to go either a result of fear or obstinance.

So we just said, hey, a road trip will be fun. Note we don't have kids yet. Not that air travel once we have children will be any more appealling. I think that that point, we'll just host all Christmases until our kids are 21 and then we might consider going elsewhere again.

Anyway, we decided to drive home. And then just last week I looked at plane tickets for the dates we're traveling.

I shouldn't have done that.

$258 per person, round trip. Come on.

But at least gas is a hell of a lot cheaper now, too. Even with the cheaper flights, I think gas will only cost about $270 for the whole round trip. Plus we'll have our own car with us for jaunts around the tri-state area.

My Acura has never made this journey before, to my knowledge. If it snows and the traction control has to function, I imagine the car will have another light come on that says, "Are you serious? I'm a Houston car."

So anyway, we're off this Saturday morning. I would love for us to hit the road super-early so that we get a long day of driving in and have a shorter day on Sunday. Sunday our destiation is my sister-in-law's place in Virginia. Then on 12/24 we'll journey up to NJ to spend a few days at my parents' place. Some other visiting in NJ and NY will follow and then we'll hit the road again and head back around the 29th or 30th.

We'll travel east out of Texas into Louisiana and then catch I-59 North, which runs Northeast (how fortuitous!) up diagonally through Alabama and into Tennessee. I hope to get to Tennessee after day one. That would leave us just 500-ish miles to our destination in Virginia. We shall see.

So that's enough rambling for today. See you next month!

Just kidding. Sort of.

Maybe.

Labels: holidays, in-laws, married life, Maya, Merry Christmas, on the road again, road trips, traveling

Yes, it's that time again. It's kind of hard to believe it's rolled around this fast. Why, just this time last year, I was proposing to my lovely Watersyne and asking her if she's please marry me. Then, poof! A year has gone by, we're married with three kids and a labrador. Okay, well, not quite, but it has been a nutty year and now we're living in Texas!

Happy Holidays to you and yours and check back soon for updates on the drive to Tejas.

Labels: Merry Christmas