The Ministry of Happiness

On the Road: Cross-country Day 1

So every time I’m doing a cross-country road ship I have this whole day full of stories.  Things happen, wild traffic, on one trip I almost drove right into a tornado in Pennsylvania.   Typically I might mention some of these things to a friend, or on Facebook, but I decided that this week, I’ll do my best to bring you along on Michael’s Magical Mystery Tour.

Ok, the picture above is where I started this morning, upstate New York and a lovely 19 degrees Fahrenheit when I got in the car.  A chilly start to say the least.  It was fun watching the temperature as I first went south, then west and then southwest.  It started going up slowly but by time I hit the Virginia border this afternoon we were well into the 50’s and by time I stopped for the day here in Christiansville, VA it was 65 degrees.  Needless to say I’m pretty happy to be walking around comfortably in a short-sleeved t-shirt.

It was a heavy traffic day, felt like national traffic break today.  You know traffic breaks, when the cops get side-by-side across all the lanes, hit their lights and slow down until traffic stops.  Instead today it was never quite a stop, and it was being done by truckers driving tandems, utterly frustrating.

I really don’t like driving through Pennsylvania, I really hate driving through Pennsylvania, and as usual they were doing their thorough job of enforcing the speed limit.  My favorite bit, I-81 pretty much through the whole state has a speed limit of 65.  So you see a sign, next 8 miles, 55 mph.  Of course there are only two 55 signs across the 8 miles as well as two-speed traps, both with cars pulled over.

Probably the most interesting thing that happened today was that while getting gas I heard someone say something.  I didn’t quite catch it, but felt like it was directed at me.  A minute later I caught another comment, it was about my car.  The person was really friendly and engaged me in conversation kind of excitedly, felt almost like he was flirting.  But I finished up, said goodbye and hit the road.  He was right behind me coming out of the station and on to the highway, did I mention he was a big, burly, hairy guy.  He pulled up along me, smiled and waved and drove on.  As he passed me, I caught the pride sticker on the back passenger window and then got a look at his plate, ursus 4U.  I got a quick chuckle out of the whole situation, it’s nice to be appreciated.

Finally, as I rolled into my hotel here in rural Virginia, I availed myself of the happy hour soup and salad that was available and right on cue, as I sat down, the familiar whistling of the Andy Griffith Show came across the big TV in the lounge.  Time for a shower and an early bedtime, Nashville bound in the morning. ~ Rev Kane