Home Sweet Home

Made it home today. Drove the last 1100 mile section in 25 hours. We were plagued by heavy rain a good half of the trip.

Some random observations.

We traveled about 3400 miles.

Ran out of veggie oil and had to run diesel the last 900 miles or so.

GPS units tend to direct travel through the center of big cites. My cheap unit doesn't update and is often wrong where there is new construction.

My lovely wife with a road atlas is better than a GPS unit. With both of them working for me, travel was much easier.

Listening to podcasts is a great way to stay awake while driving.

CB trucker talk can have huge entertainment value. However, there are some things you just don't want to know about the guys who transport most of our goods.

There's a lot of bad coffee out there.

Friends and family along the way make all the difference.

Route 80 in PA is rough, under construction through huge swaths of it, and heavily traveled by trucks. Not a good time with a fully loaded vehicle with stiff suspension.

90 through NY is silly expensive for what it is. Hugely annoying to pick up a new toll card each time I got on and off the highway. Once paid $0.15 between toll booths. Certainly not worth any body's time, but I had to wait in line to pay it. Best thing to be said about 90 . . . it's not 80.

Farms in the Midwest do not smell like farms. Here's the deal, in New England farms smell like manure. That's fine. It's organic. In the Midwest, it's more big chemical agriculture.

The Ozarks are darn pretty. However, saw more ticks in a day than I see in a year in NH. I hate ticks.

Must get some sleep soon.

-Sixbears