Road Trip Day 1 - 2007-07-20

Here's a map of my journey on Day 1:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=18+thissell+st,+prides+crossing,+ma&daddr=30+Tilquist+Rd,+Oxford,+Connecticut+06478+to:11+River+Rd,+Wilton,+CT+06897+to:Reston,+VA&mrcr=1,2&mra=ps&sll=41.422134,-72.053833&sspn=11.16625,19.182129&ie=UTF8&z=6&om=1

Check out pictures of today's trip here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10306971@N03/sets/72157600934445331

It was a bit rainy when I left (7:00AM), but it cleared up after an hour or so. My first stop (9:45AM) was to visit my former co-worker, Joe, and his wife Beth to see thier new baby. It was adorable! I held her for a little while and she stretched and wiggled around in my arms, which was really cute. I haven't seen a baby that young in a while (<2 weeks old) and had forgotten how tiny they are! I talked to Joe a bit about my plans, and he suggested that I check out Zion national park if I am near it in my travels.

Second stop (11:45AM) was to see folks at Cannondale: it was Rob Osher's birthday and I wanted to kill some time before I continued on to Rob Hoxies's apartment near DC, so he'd be off work when I arrived. (Little did I realize how long it was going to take me to get there!) Anyways, it was great seeing everybody again and having one last chicken crust club sandwich from Tom-e-toes.

After Cannondale (1:30PM), I tried to make my way down to visit Rob near Washington, DC. Unfortunately, I hit a ton of traffic approaching the George Washington Bridge. You'd think I would know better than to try to take that route after living in the area for 3 years, but oh well! It was particularly frustrating because I knew that after whatever time I spent in traffic, I had another 4 hour drive in front of me. Luckily I had an audio version of How to Win Friends and Influence People to keep me occupied.

After 3 hours, I finally got through the traffic. I took the NJ Turnpike south, and when I finally got near my destination (about 1 hour away) it was around 9:00. I was in Maryland on Route 895 in the lefthand lane, and noticed that the person in front of me was braking hard, so I did the same. I noticed that there was a cop by the side of the road. After I went by, he pulled out, came up behind me, and put his lights on, Great! I pulled over to the side of the road and waited (10 minutes!) for him to get out of his car and come talk to me. He said he clocked me at 82 in a 65 zone and asked for my license and registration. Very business-like, none of that 'do you know how fast you were going?' stuff, which gave me little opportunity to try to get out of it. After another 10 minutes, he comes back to my car with a $165 ticket. Hopefully that is the last of them for this trip, but we'll see. What bothers me the most is that this will probably scare me into driving slowly, which will be annoying.

I finally arrived at Rob's at 10:00, we went out to an irish pub nearby that was still serving food, had a few drinks, and then we went back to his place and played some Wii. Overall a pretty good day, aside from the traffic and the tickets.