Tuesday, December 14, 2004

posted by: copernicus on 12/14/2004 05:44:00 PM
Hello all. It's about 3 weeks later and this is my first opportunity for internet access. Todd and I packed the car the night before we were supposed to leave and settled in for the night. The plan was to get up at 5 a.m. and hit the road at 6, that way we'd be out of Kansas City before rush hour started and pass thru St. Louis after rush hour had ended. Todd came up from the tropics of Miami Beach, and before bed stated: "Too bad I won't get to see any snow before we leave."

5 a.m. - Alarm clock goes off. I go downstairs to make coffee. I grab the pot, go to the sink and look out the window to find 5 INCHES OF FUCKING SNOW, and it's still coming down. The car is covered, none of the streets have been plowed yet and we're supposed to take off for a cross-country road trip in less than an hour. The snowstorm caught the whole city off guard. Local news people had expected rain, but the temperature unexpectedly plummeted overnight and turned the rain to snow. Being the first snow of the year and a surprise to the Public Works department, the plows, salt and sand trucks weren't prepared and the city was crippled.

Our only route east was I-70 across Missouri because it's not until St. Louis that all the Interstates branch off to other regions of the eastern half of the country. Unfortunately for our road trip, 2 18-wheelers had jacknifed on the ice 30 miles east of K.C. and I-70 was shut down until it could be cleared.

Todd and I decided to go back to sleep and wait till 10 or 11 a.m. to take off, thereby giving the traffic time to die down and the road crews time to plow and salt the highways.

11 a.m. rolled around and we headed off. The highways had been plowed but traffic east was gridlocked. After 2 hours in the car, and only traveling 25 miles, we came across the 2 18-wheelers which were still being dealt with. they had been puched into the median, but the 3 lanes on each side had been cut down to 1 lane each to allow room for the rescue vehicles and tow trucks trying to get these damn things out. That combined with rubber-necking had us extremely fucking frustrated.

We got past all that and headed across Missouri. Since we were leaving the day before Thanksgiving, there were an extra 5 million people on the U.S. Interstate system, all drving in mix of ice, snow and rain. St. Louis is just 250 miles from K.C., and usually takes just 3 hours to drive. AFTER 7 HOURS of driving we were fucking exhausted and still 20 miles from St. Louis. When we saw a Drury Inn right next to a Joe's Crab Shack, we took that as a sign and decided to call it a night. We got $100 worth of Killian's Red, clam chowder and crab legs, and 2 hours later stumbled back to our hotel room.

The next morning we got up, raided the continental breakfast did the next 1000 miles in 15 hours straight through, rolling into Brooklyn strung out and tired, but happy to be off the road. We dropped off our shit and went straight to the closest bar & got hammered. The next 48 hours are kind of blurry, but we eventually loaded up the car again and drove the last 150 miles to my free apartment in Springfield, Massachusetts which is just across the Connecticut border and 25 miles north of Hartford.

THE APARTMENT IS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL! 1 bedroom, over 1000 square feet, black leather furniture, TV, VCR, DVD, Digital Cable, and every appliance I could want. Todd and I moved my shit in and headed into Boston the next day for steamers at Legals Seafood in Downtown Boston and beers at the Cask & Flagon across the street from Fenway Park.

Todd went home a couple of days later and I've been working my ass off since. Every weekend I make the 150 mile drive down to New York City where I have friends, family and a girl who's a pain in my ass. It's been really nice, and I'm having a great time.

No computer access at home yet, and the memory card in my new digital camera got damaged, so I don't know if I'll be able to retrieve those pics taken since leaving K.C. and won't be able to take new ones till a spend the $40 on a new card.

Happy Holidays and all that foolishness, I'll try to write again soon. Right now I have 264 unread emails to filter through. Bye.