Road Trip JournalMeJustin Villaverde302007-07-17T01:58:00Z2007-07-17T02:02:00Z115308723I72201023311.8134Foreword (written 7-16-07): This little essay was written not only to fill in friends and family about the details of my most recent journey across the country, but also for me to look back on if I ever consider this type of trip again. All in all the drive was easier then I thought it would be. Luckily enough the back pain built up from the trip subsided only days after I arrived.I am now quite settled in Oregon. I remember most of the roads around my house, but draw a blank when I get too far away from home. My GPS has and will continue to come in handy. We will see how long I can tolerate the rainy winters before I start thinking about moving again.I hope you enjoy my little narrative about my 4 day drive.Cross Country Move JournalDay 1Columbia, MD to South Bend, INMiles: 0 to 613 (obviously 613 total miles)Time: 6/22 12:30pm to 11:55pm (11hrs 25mins)States Visited: Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, IndianaMajor Interstates: I-70, I-76, I-80, I-90Weather: Perfectly SunnyBack pain level: ModerateTolls: $23Song of the Day: Run D.M.C. “Walk This Way”Odd event: Indiana has “Animal in Area” warning lights on parts of I-80. I only witnessed 1 actively blinking and 5 seconds after passing it saw the reflective eyes of a deer standing on the side of the road. I guess the system works.Summary: Day one started later then I wanted due to sleeping in a little and some left over packing of the truck and cleaning of my old room. I knew it was going to be a tough day even before I hit the road. I overestimated the available space in my truck, so I was forced to leave some not so necessary items behind and also added a fair amount of weight to my Ford Escape. Packing the Escape caused my back to complain a little which left me stiff and uncomfortable for the whole drive.My bad luck continued when I ran into a massive traffic jam after only covering 30 miles. I was stuck between exits on I-70 between Frederick and Hagerstown for 2 hours due to a rollover accident that was already cleaned up before I passed its location. This little problem ruined my time table, not that I had anything to do, but I didn’t want to spend half the day in the car on my first day and the accident assured that it would happen. I also hit heavy traffic throughout Pennsylvania, but Ohio and Indiana went smoothly.I truly spent most of the day in the truck only stopping for gas and food twice and for no more then 20 minutes each.Anyone near South Bend, IN and looking for a place to stay avoid the Motel 6. There is a reason it’s cheap. They had one of the most uncomfortable mattresses I’ve ever experienced and the size of the shower would have been a perfect fit on a submarine.Day 2South Bend, IN to Lincoln, NEMiles: 614 to 1220 (606 total miles)Time: 6/23 12:30pm EST to 10:15pm CST (10hrs 45mins)States Visited: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, NebraskaMajor Interstates: I-35, I-80, I-94, I-280Weather: Rain for the first half, cloudy most of the second half, sunny for the last hourBack pain level: LowTolls: $3Song of the Day: Snow “Informer” I forgot how much I hated that song in high school.Odd event: Normally when I’m out and about carrying my photo gear I am commonly asked to take photos of other people with their camera. Normally I oblige and carry on with my business unless I am currently busy taking photos myself. It can be annoying, but as a photographer I know how important capturing a personal moment is for people. This happened again at the University of Notre Dame. A family of about 15 was taking pictures of each other around a tree in front of The Main Building (The Golden Dome). They asked me to take one of the entire family. Now that may not sound interesting, but what was interesting was an 8 to 10 year old boy that was apparently part of the group, but was sitting in a golf cart on the side not participating in the pictures. So when it came to the group picture they wanted me to take, they asked the kid to come over and get in the picture also. He quickly said “no” and folded his arms. His mother then walked over, grabbed him out of the cart kicking and screaming, and plopped him down on the ground in front of the group. I proceeded to take a shot of 15 or so smiling people and 1 crying brat. This is not a personal moment I would have chosen to preserve.Summary: I woke up to rain and dark clouds in South Bend. Not exactly what I had hoped for. I left the crappy Motel 6 at 9am and had a quick, average quality breakfast at a local spot. After breakfast, I headed to the College Football Hall of Fame. It was interesting, but there wasn’t much there. The entire exhibit could barely fill the lobby of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. After that, I decided to attempt a photo shoot at the University of Notre Dame even though it was raining lightly figuring that it would be a one time opportunity to see my favorite college football team’s home campus. I spent 2 hours wandering the amazing campus. I tried to convince some construction workers to let into to the football stadium, but it wasn’t to be.I hit the road at 12:30pm, another late day. This drive was far less eventful them Day 1. There was a bit of congestion around the Chicago area that slowed me down, but other then that traffic was quite smooth. The rain during the first half of the drive resulted in nothing more the reduced visibility.Today was also a good meal day. I stopped at a place called the Trapper’s Grill in western Illinois just before I crossed into Iowa. I had an excellent cup of chipotle chicken soup and a mushroom swiss burger. For dinner, I order some delivery pizza from Nero’s in Lincoln, NE. Their crust was decent, sauce was flavorful, and topping seemed to be good quality. It was certainly well above the Dominos/Pizza Hut garbage.The other good news is that my back is feeling pretty good even after carrying my 25 lbs photo backpack for 2 hours to go along with the 11 hours in the car. I did stop 5 times which let me stretch and walk around for a bit. I will continue to take some extra rest breaks as the drive goes on. Day 3 will likely be the longest of the bunch.Day 3Lincoln, NE to Ogden, UTMiles: 1221 to 2095 (874 total miles)Time: 6/24 9:45am CST to 11pm MST (15hrs 15mins)States Visited: Nebraska, Wyoming, UtahMajor Interstates: I-80, I-84Weather: Partly Cloudy for most of the trip. Just missed a big thunderstorm near Cheyenne, WY Back pain level: HighTolls: $0Songs of the Day: Bush “Alien” and No Doubt “Don’t Speak” Gwen and Gavin; it’s a husband and wife thing.Odd event: 2 things: 1. At least 5% of all interstates lanes are setup to be worked on and only 10% of the lanes coned off actually are being worked on. 2. Pain killers that say they “may cause drowsiness” will only cause drowsiness at the worst possible times.Summary: I had to make up some miles after two late starts and Day 3 was the day to do it. I planned to be on the road for thirteen hours, but road construction added two hours to the day. Day 3 also was the worst back pain day as well.I left Lincoln and was making great time barely hitting any real traffic and keeping the cruise control set at 80+ mph. However once I hit Cheyenne, WY the traffic back up thanks to road construction took its toll. 30 minutes were quickly history as I was stuck moving about 5 mph. Also at that time my back was really starting to bother me, so I made the bad decision of taking a Naprosyn, my back pain killer of choice, which I’ve never experienced any side effects taking. Of course today was the day. Not more then 1 hour later I was feeling quite tired. The bad news is I still had what I thought was 6 hours of driving left. I had to make a few additional rest stops and drank multiple Mt. Dews to keep my driving from getting dangerous.It was again smooth sailing from Cheyenne to just across the Utah border, but that’s when I hit the real traffic jam. About 8 miles of road construction took an hour and a half to get through and this was at 10pm, so no crews where even at work. I never passed anything that could have caused the slow down other then merging issues when I-80 went from 2 to 1 lane. I finally ended the drive after descending a steep canyon on I-84. I expect it would have been a beautiful drive, but the sun had already gone down and the road was pitch black.Night 2 and 3 have both been spent in Days Inns. Both have been positive experiences and have been quite inexpensive as well. I hope the rest of the chain is of equal quality.Day 4Ogden, UT to Tigard, ORMiles: 2095 to 2842 (747 total miles)Time: 6/25 9:45am MST to 8:15pm PST (11hrs 30mins)States Visited: Utah, Idaho, OregonMajor Interstates: I-5, I-84Weather: SunnyBack pain level: MediumTolls: $0Song of the Day: Ice Cube “It Was a Good Day”Odd event: Day 4 reminded me how much I enjoy being near real mountains. The closest thing Maryland had to mountains is hills not more then a little over 3000 ft. Mt. Hood in Oregon is over 11,000 ft. Not to mention that mountains make great backdrops to landscape photos.Summary: I got an early start thanks to going to bed early the night before (with a little painkiller assistance). I left Utah at 9:45am, but that was after a nice blueberry pancake breakfast. Of course my day also started with some lovely traffic thanks to road construction. Road construction seems to be a main theme of this drive. However, once I got by that construction it was smooth sailing for hours until the next bout of construction just outside of Boise, ID.Another interesting occurrence on Day 4 was a dust storm. Apparently parts of Idaho and eastern Oregon have a problem with dust storms. The one I drove through in Idaho was minor, but as one would imagine was simply a big cloud of brown floating across the highway.A magical moment of the Day for came as I rounded a bend on I-84 and Mt. Hood came into view. I know the peak well having photographed it many times. I had a big boost of energy which was well needed. About two and a half hours later I was home in Tigard.I never want to make this long drive again. I said this when I drove out to Maryland 4 years prior, but look what happened.The End.Justin 6-26-07