Windshield Time

Tuesday -Thursday last week were long days on the road for work. I put 1,050 miles on the Expedition… without ever leaving Colorado.

I got home around 4:00 AM Thursday and pretty much crashed. After some sleep and a little more work, we hit the road for Michigan. Another approximately 1,233 miles (per MapQuest… I didn’t check the odometer) and I was switching cars again. I have no idea how far it is from Ann Arbor to Grand Blanc to Flint, which was our route, but I will guess it was a good hour or so of more road time, though thankfully I was no longer driving (or sleeping with intent to drive).

I was more than ready to be off the road by that time… though I’m finding that I road-trip better now than I ever did in college. Actually, I enjoy it now.

The trip up to MI was rather uneventful. After the first 4-5 hours, we started trading off driving every 2-3 hours. One of us would drive while the other slept. Though MapQuest seemed to think the trip would take us 17.5 hours to Marshall, reality is that construction and traffic congestion south of Chicago made the trip actually closer to 23 hours.

At some point on the last stretch of the trip, while Jeni was driving and I was in a dead-to-the-world sleep, a bee entered the truck. The driver’s side and rear windows were the only ones open but Jeni never saw it fly in. It is possible that the bug came in dead, though somehow it seems unlikely in my head. When I woke up, I asked Jeni how she was doing and the sat up. I looked down for some reason and saw the bee on my belly, positioned somewhat between 2 rolls of fat. After I finished panicking and realized that the bee was actually dead, Jeni directed me to some tissue for use in disposing of the bug. And then it was all very funny.

I certainly didn’t get enough sleep while in Michigan but I did get rest. And I was able to visit with a number of good friends. And, as often seems to be the case, I got to meet a few more very enjoyable people.

Yesterday morning came all too quickly and I was suddenly on an airplane headed home. Sad day!

But, after lunch with Mom & Grandma and a three hour nap, I was again on the road. Another 245 miles (I tracked it this time for purposes of calculating gas mileage – 53.8 MPG) to my destination. The rest of my vacation will be taken up hanging out with my niece, nephew, and brother. I’ll back track the 245 miles sometime this weekend.

The first King and Queen of Sunday's Scum game

One of the very few times I will appear tall in a photo.