Eat Here, Get Gas

I'm getting too old for road trips or at least that's what I was cursing under my breath as I hit a blizzard last Thursday night 100 miles west of Boston on the MassPike. It was like jumping to light speed in the Millenium Falcon for 600 miles only I was cruising much slower than light speed pace, 30MPH. The very large and heavy Sparc in my back seat was good for ballast in the near blinding snow. If you ever drive along I-90 in New York you'll notice the 4-6' high orange and white reflectors all along the road which are there just for this kind of weather since I wouldn't have made it without them. It's always a bad sign when the truckers disappear from the road and you find yourself creeping by a giant plow at 5mph and only realise this after you pass it on the right.

I made it through Cleveland but if the guy in the SUV who was riding my bumper in near whiteout conditions without headlights and talking on his cellphone is reading this I'd like to revoke your license without hope for renewal. And to most of the State of Ohio who haven't ever learned that the right lane is the travel lane and the left lane if for passing; passing on the right is dangerous and one of these days cops will be able to give out tickets for driving while stupid that may lead to revocation of your operators license. Really bad passenger car drivers are why I generally like to drive between the hours of 7pm and 7am as the truckers are usually polite and don't hog the passing lane.

Once you reach I-70 you can sleep since it's straight and flat all the way to St. Louis through Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Effingham and East St. Louis. I've done this drive so many times I know all the exits and which ones have the better places to eat at and get gas.

As soon as I got to St. Louis, I drove over to Webster University since this is where the search engine would call home. Ben Hockenhull valiantly wheeled the system through the door to its home in the machine room. [ note the solstice shirt wasn't planned :) ] We plugged it in, it came up and since it was Friday night went to find Sarah, minus 6 wisdom teeth, at Coffee Cartel in the Central West End. I spent the night over at Sarah's in her cool apartment with Dolemite, Circus Flora and intimate images of body parts adorning her walls and windows :). It's an odd feeling to leave somewhere one night and wake up in another the next day, especially when that other place happens to be the city you grew up in. It is said that familiarity breeds contempt and I have a love-hate relationship with St. Louis in the sense that I miss it when I'm away and when I'm back I'm ready to leave again. Someone please tell Sarah and Ben that they need to move to Boston so I don't have to drive to St. Louis every time I want to see them :)

We wandered around for the day in the CWE mostly and drove over to the Galleria so I could pick out some new eyewear. I'm the Imelda Marcos of glasses and love to buy new frames when I feel like pampering myself. Sarah bought a monkey t-shirt and I bought a dental floss fishie at Dry Ice, a goofy store that caters to the teenage girl set.

I stuck around for the afternoon on Saturday but had to leave for fear of losing momentum, not wanting to go back to work and dreading the drive back. I took a last picture of Sarah on Euclid and drove off into the sunset.

On the way to St. Louis I nearly drove off the road when I saw a giant looming crucifix 200 feet tall and 113 feet wide looking like a cruciform grain elevator. When I drove back, I stopped in Effingham, Illinois to get a photo of it and see what the story was. While I was taking pictures a trucker and his schnauzer puppy named slick came up behind me and said;

"They're building them all over the country".
"Oh, who?", I replied.
"Christians, of course."
"Well, gee, that's a relief as I thought it might have been the secret christian faction of Islam trying to subvert our highway faithful."

Apparently, this is the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere that was built last Summer and displaces the Groom, Texas Cross as the largest.

I managed to miss the snow on the way back and arrived home in time to watch the Oscars on Sunday and get some sleep before facing the joy that is my Dilbertian job at HP on Monday. Next time I go on a road trip it will be one way to the Caribbean and I'll leave the Sparcs at home. Thanks again Sun :)