The Move and Other Items

Obviously my plans to update this blog each night of my drive down to Texas didn't pan out. The first night there was no Internet connection...at a Holiday Inn. Go figure. The second night the hotel had wireless (but no free breakfast) but we had been on the road 14 hours so I could have cared less to update my handful of readers.

The drive itself was really fine. My father-in-law and I trekked through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia on our first day. All that was done in about 9 hours which included gas and food stops. The second day included the rest of Virginia, Tennessee, the smallest amount of Georgia (with the absolute worst Taco Bell establishment on the face of the Earth), Alabama and finally Mississippi. The final day was a short hop through the rest of Mississippi, Louisiana and finally Texas. It's hard to say just how long we drove (actual driving) since some of our stops were extended. Google Maps made the trip out to be 27 hours. Of course that is only if you drive 60 mph. I won't name names, but a member of the driving party enjoyed the 80 mph mark. I can't make assumptions as to why, but said member spent the prior days playing Need for Speed. a racing game, on my XBOX 360. So actual driving time was under 27 hours.

We ran into bad weather only once. I felt like I was driving through a tropical storm. Most people pulled over and found cover, we plowed on through. "I can't see out my windshield" and "I'm not sure I'm still on the road" be darned! You will get two different stories on the traffic. I say we only ran into one bad traffic jam caused by an overturned truck. My father-in-law says we ran into a lot more. Of course when one takes our definitions of "traffic" into consideration, our difference of opinion makes more sense. Boston traffic versus Palestine, TX traffic is quite different. Since Boston is the bigger city with actual traffic, I win the argument so we ran into one traffic situation on the second day.

At one time I had a list of funny city names, gas prices, and things I saw...but much like the travel coffee mug I had when we left, it has vanished. I remember going near Scranton and Gettysburg, PA. I saw the University of Alabama and a few other big name schools which is cool. New Jersey, Virginia and Alabama were the best looking states. New Jersey also won the Rude Person Award (please notice that is singular). You'd think an employee for AAA would be more helpful than giving you a finger point. I really enjoyed the entire drive. I would love to drive all around the U.S. someday.

The most noticeable change while driving was the music. I was enjoying what I call "normal" stations on the radio (stations that play just your normal hits ranging from the 70's to today) all the way till Virginia. All of a sudden the normal station to country station percentage was 20 to 80 (before this it was 95 to 5). The further we went south, the more this percent went up. We were around 2/98 until we hit Mississippi. At this point I had to throw in another number for rap stations. Normal 5%, Country 30%, Rap 65%. The rap kept rising till Texas then things settled around 20%, 70% and 10%. Fuzzy math.

Gas wasn't too bad. For reference I looked at the gas price on my old blog when we arrived in MA. It was $2.60. The station I filled up at upon leaving was $4.08. I saw a high near $4.15 however at another MA station. The highest I spied was 4.60 or 70 something, but that was one of those interstate gas station where you have no choice but to pay out the bum. The lowest I saw was $3.70 something. I paid $3.86 here in Lewisville yesterday.

Off of the move, I have been able to knock a few more movies off my Summer Movie Wish List. Those that are italicized are those in bold are no longer playing whole those in bold are the ones I have seen.

1. Prince Caspian
2. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull
3. The Dark Knight (pending Saturday night)
4. Iron Man
5. The Incredible Hulk (v)
6. The Happening
7. Get Smart
8. Hancock
9. Step Brothers
10. Tropic Thunder (v)
11. The Pineapple Express
(v) = I can wait for it on video

The best so far are Get Smart and Indiana Jones. Hancock was good. Language was a bit much. Everyone says the movie wasn't good anymore after Hancock (Will Smith) turns good, but I say that is when it finally took off. Could this be a sign of the world today? Do we really enjoy evil and wickedness so much that we dislike watching goodness being portrayed? People hate Superman because he is good, but dig Batman and Wolverine because they are dark and mean. Then again, girls in high school acted to same to me. "I think you are such a great, sweet and wonderful guy Robert, but we are just so compatible and too good of friends for this to ever work. I'd rather date the guy with tattoos who goes through girlfriends like a bag of Skittles."

Anyone keeping up with King Obama's World Tour? I was watching an interview with him on the evening news last night. Every time he is asked a question he side steps it or is vague. He was being asked about Iran and Israel and how he would handle situations there. He gave fluff answers like 'I don't feel I have the right at this time to accurately portray the situation of the scenario of the fiscal year but if you'll look deep into my eyes you will see puppy dogs, babies and the souls of the damned....yes Charlie....look into my eyes...follow me everywhere.' The whole time, the veteran news anchor sat and nodded. He did ask Obama if he had a plan after he danced around another question. Obama said yes, but he didn't feel it should be shared at this time. Ummm okay. So when? When you're president and its too late? His plan could be to supply Iran with whatever it needs to wipe Israel off the map. No worries though. The public think he is awesome. Who cares that we know nothing of what he is wanting to do. Dude looks great in suits.

Meanwhile John McCain (he's the other guy running for president) was being interviewed by some rookie anchor. McCain was trying to give an actual answer to a question and the anchor continuously interrupted him. Just think, it's only July!