Day One - May 19, 2009

Bright and early, we woke up and finished cleaning out our apartment and packing up last minute stuff. We got Dot all packed up and we were almost ready to begin our trip. The first thing we had noticed when we got into the Dot (that's the name of our truck, for the slow folks out there), was that there was NO cd player, NO tape player, JUSTTT a radio. Sooo, first we had to go to Radioshack and get an ipod FM tuner thing to be able to play music... otherwise it was going to be a VERY long drive to Michigan. As if it wasn't already... So once we were all set...

At 9:30, we officially began our departure from Boston. Marissa was forced to drive, since Stacy didn't want to navigate the city... Getting out of the city wasn't too bad, but we did have to make a little loop because we really just didn't want to leave (or because of a left turn only lane that could not be escaped, either one). Marissa only tried to run over one car on our way to the highway, and we only got honked at once! haha. By 9:45 though, we finally made it to I-90 and headed out of town... but not before we stopped to pay the first of many lovely tolls.

We made it about 2 hours before Marissa needed a bathroom break, so we stopped at Blandford plaza at about 11:30 am. At this point we were about 30 miles from the New York State line! We also purchased some snacks to hold us over on our long journey....Doritos! mmmm.

okay here goes the play-by-play of the day:
-11:45 am: passed the highest turnpike elevation, which was 1724. (these are the little things that become signifigant when you're driving, or passengering, for hours on end).
- 12:15 pm: GOODBYE MASSACHUSETTS, HELLOOOOOO NEW YORK! (oh, and this means another toll... awesome)
- 12:48 pm: entered NY's capital (that's Albany, for all those who were wondering)
- 1:18 pm: stretch break! returned to the highway at about 1:24 pm. Marissa's still driving.

okay so at about 2:30 we're thinking we're getting kind of hungry... thank goodness we made that savvy doritos purchase eh? haha. Only problem being we're on the turnpike.... this means we have the option of stopping at MickeyDs, or holding out for the next rest area, which is probably Roy Rogers. Those are about the only two places you can stop on the turnpike. lame.

So Stacy got this brilliant idea that we can just go to a city along the pike.... okay let's just clarify that she's from California, so she just gets on and off the freeway whenever she wants, and when you get off there's usually gas stations and food right there. This is so not true when you're on a toll road. We figured that out the hard way. We stopped for gas at about 3 pm, and decided to wait till Syracuse to stop for lunch. Great idea Stace.... hahaha

Once we get to the Syracuse area there's of course like 6 exits that are labeled Syracuse, but every exit sign has a highway that it leads to... where are the surface street exits? Oh, those apparently don't exist. So we pick the Binghamton exit... and get off on the first exit of whatever highway that took us to. This was Marissa's poor decision... we ended up in the industrial area of Syracuse (see photo at left)... these people must not go to restaurants on their lunch break cuz we didn't see anywhere to eat. We took this picture of a billboard to represent our frustration:
There was this ONE place which had been right by the exit... the decision was made for us.

We ended up eating at that place, Tullys. Stacy dubbed it an "old people eatery" hahaha. It turned out not to be at all, it was actually really great, like the sign advertised - "Great Food, Good Times." They had like 6172 tvs, all playing different sports channels (yeahh!).... and arcade games... Our server was super nice, and the food (buffalo chicken, shocking!) was delish!

- 4:35 pm: back on the road.
- 6:15 pm: We stopped to switch drivers and stretch a little bit.
-6:22 pm: Re-begin our journey!

Stacy drove the rest of the way through New York without much excitement but it was a beautiful drive with scenes like this:
and before we knew it...

-8:15 pm: AU REVOIR NEW YORK, BUENOS DIAS PENNSYLVANIA!
We got to see a beautiful sunset through the trees along the highway but our stay in Pennsylvania was short lived.
-8:55 pm: TCHAO PENNSYLVANIA, Welcome to O-HI-O!
-9:20pm: Final pit stop of the day for fuel, drinks & candy. Lakers were losing at this point but not for long!
-9:40 pm: Back to the journey with Marissa behind the wheel.
Note: Apparently through the entire state of Ohio, I-90 is being re-paved so at a few points we were driving on the shoulder and eventually had to go on a detour. The detour was pretty though because it took us right through downtown Cleveland around 10:30 pm. Driving through Cleveland was also marked by Marissa singing along to a song in Spanish :)
-12:33 am: WELCOME TO MICHIGAN!!!!!! Great lakes, Great times!

Night sky was beautiful at this point because we were the only ones driving on the freeway. We could see so many stars in the sky. We were also starting to get super tired at this point, but we were in the home stretch!

-1:08 am: Exit in Ann Arbor. We drove by Marissa's middle school and THE BIG HOUSE (Michigan Stadium for those not up to speed)!!!!!
-1:20 am: Reach Agustina & Chris' house to finally crash for the evening.


Observations and counts for the day:

States visited = 5
Approx. mileage = 815.9 miles
Total travel time = 15 hours, 15 minutes
Toll total = $31.04
Number of fuel stops = 2
Buckle up signs in NY = 38
Buckle up signs in PA = 0
Buckle up signs in OH = 4
Animals seen = Horses, cows, geese, suicidal pigeon, sheep
Semis with three trailers! = 1
License plates counted = 19 (plus two Canadian)
European cities visited (not really) = Rome, Geneva, Manchester, Hamburg
Funny quote: "Pretty sure I've had to pee since like somewhere in Ohio!" --Marissa
Funny moment: Marissa plugged the tuner into her iPod only to ask after 5 minutes of searching where it had gone. fail.
Favorite person of the day: Server at Tully's & Mama Geiss for the regular Laker updates & Madre Fountain for navigation tips through Ohio

Next few days not as eventful but still more to come!