I went for a little drive...

:) Thursday was the day. I packed up into my tiny car whatever I did not mail to my friends already and headed out west.




I'm just happy it all fit.

The first leg of the trip took me from my house in NJ through Pittsburgh...I absolutely had to swing by this place

The famous Primanti Brothers.

To get one of these

it was good. i got a corned beef with provolone (the only cheese available) and they put this awesome cole slaw on and fries. the bread was just thick slices of white bread. however...a grease truck sandwich is still way better, IMO.

...my stay in Pittsburgh was as brief as the life of that sandwich, and then I headed out towards Urbana, IL to visit my sister who is going to grad school there.

I didn't even realize that I would be passing through West Virginia.

...but i did.

What I was looking for was this sign...



...which came next

I left my house at 10pm and drove through the night. I watched the sunrise in Ohio and tried to take what I thought would be a cool photo.

it didn't quite work with my phone camera. the colors didn't come through that well.

By 9 or 10am it was starting to get tough to focus. I had to pull over for a coffee and a little stretch. I am VERY glad that I did because not only did it help, but I saw this at the gas station that I pulled into.

drooooooooool




The welcome signs for Indiana nd Illinois were pretty boring. Plus I was going at a fairly good clip and there was more traffic now, so I could not pull over to take a picture. Not to mention that I was really working on staying focused on the road, so taking pictures kind of took a backseat to driving...no pun intended. ;)

It got rediculously hot by 11am. When I was driving through IL, the last half hour or so, it reached 100ºF...so fucking hot!

I will confirm the actual milage travelled, but it took me 14.5 hours...minus ~2 hours for stops. This was supposed to be the hardest leg of the trip. Sunday morning I head out to St. Louis and then Kansas City. Will update then.

now i'm in U of IL visiting my sister.


shes in grad school for theater production. i'm actually sitting in on one of their rehersals right now. lol