Driving North!

I decided a little over a month ago that I was going to take the leap and just head up here and see what I can accomplish. Thankfully, I have amazing relatives with a guest bedroom and they like me enough to let me stay for a month and see what kinds of networking I can get done!

First off: I Hate Road trips! The only exceptions to this rule have been because of the company... and even those were only shorter jaunts in the past few years.

According to my parents, when we went on long trips when I was little, I would get so fed up that I would start throwing my toys at my parents from the backseat. This trip, the toy throwing was replaced with "I'm bored!"

On Saturday morning my wonderful father and I headed out around 7am. That was, of course, after only 3 hours of sleep on my part.

Side note: I’m an insomniac. Seriously – I can attribute it to my current stress and anxiety levels because I’m unemployed and my fondness of naps (when it’s the only time one feels rested, its hard to resist a snuggly bed!)

Highlights of the trip included:

• Hot air balloons over 275 – SO pretty!!
  
• Vampire Weekend playing at the MacDonalds in Gainesville (I found this totally random since they aren’t exactly popular mainstream music.)
• In GA, I saw this KFC. The beak moves! Wow. Just wow.
• Then the rain moved in – not just any rain, the “red” radar type that causes flash floods, which followed us through GA and TN. Super fun I tell you.
• We detoured to Danville, KY to stay with my Grandparents for the night and on the little winding two-lane road we ended up behind a trailer filled with baby cows. This wouldn’t be interesting if it weren’t for the fact that we saw that same trailer on 75 outside of Ocala, FL.
• Day two consisted of creepy cornfields as far as the eye can see with windmills in Indiana – which is the most boring state to drive through ever. I can totally understand John Dillenger when he said “There is absolutely nothing I want to do in Indiana” from just driving through it.
  
• Dropped off the father at his brother’s house in Valparasio, IN and had dinner with the family around there.
• Finally drove into the city and to my current place of residence, Skokie!
  

Just after I arrived, a huge cold-front, complete with tornadoes and hail blew through the Midwest. I like to think of it as my initiation into the North.

PS – Sorry for the photo quality – I have an old Palm phone and that’s the camera that I used. Also - still figuring out how to get the damn thing to display photos in the blog instead of linking!