the oregon trail, day one: albert lea, MN

We made it to tonight's hotel after over 12.5 hours and 730 miles of driving. Bleh. I'm a little worn down, and I think my dad is really beat. Here's a brief summary of the day.

Michigan: Detroit is a little bad because of Superbowl construction, but otherwise driving as usual.

Indiana: Only in the state briefly, it was short and sweet.

Illinois: Driving sucked here. We managed to skirt around Chicago OK, but we then got caught in stop-and-go traffic for over an hour just because of a stupid toll booth catching everyone trying to get the hell out of Illinois. We then got the privilege of paying $0.80 for the holdup, to add insult to injury. Traffic just evaporated after that toll booth. The toll roads in general slowed things down - especially when the lanes coming out of the toll booths either disappeared or crossed each other. Thanks, Illinois.

Wisconsin: Not too bad, especially after Illinois. Lots of billboards for cheese. I missed the end of this state because I was dozing and only caught a glimpse of the MIssissippi River.

Minnesota: Hilly and pretty at first, but that gave way to seas of corn. All of the rest areas in the state are closed because of some silly budget mishap. Overall not terribly exciting and we'll put it behind us tomorrow morning.

the oregon trail, day one: clarkston, MI

I'm outta here. We're aiming to get past Chicago by lunchtime, which will probably be the most difficult part of the whole trip. I think we're going to end up somewhere in Wisconsin tonight.

hitting the trail

Somehow, everything managed to fit in the car. I leave in about 7 hours. I guess I should get some sleep.

packing

I leave tomorrow morning. I'm frantically trying to get everything packed. This drive out to Oregon seems a bit like the Mars rovers - launch first and send instructions later. Hopefully everything will end up OK.

i guess i'm doing this old-school for a while

Wireless network is still not working. Jim is having the same problem so at least it's probably the neighbor's fault. Until wireless network returns, I'm back on dialup. Fun. Our own DSL is maybe a week away. So don't expect any more photo albums to go up until I get somebody's broadband.

I didn't get the Malibu into the shop today because the part I need didn't show up yet. At least I got a bit of sorting done today.

A little over a week until I leave for Oregon, so my days are naturally getting filled with things that at least peripherally relate to that. And yet technically my summer isn't even half over. I got out the first week of May and I don't really start being a grad student until the end of September (One reason I wanted to get a job - that's a long time to be idle.) Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the Malibu's A/C fixed and I'm going to look at luggage. We're also having another garage sale on Saturday to get rid of the crap we didn't sell the first time. Exciting stuff.

The last Pistons game has started, so I guess I should get some token watching in.

two weeks notice

Less than two weeks to go before I leave for Oregon. I went to some stores today to look at luggage but I didn't really see anything I liked, so I have to do some research online. I'm also compiling a list of apartment places in Corvallis to call tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about the battery in my iPod, but I don't really have time to deal with it before I leave and there's an Apple store in Corvallis anyway.

We got my dad a hammock for Father's Day, and he's quite happy with it.