The adventure begins

*posts backdated to when they were actually written*

So today was insane. Worked till 12:30, cleaned the house, packed, and showered - ready just in time for C to get home from work. He had a quick shower while I loaded the car and we were off a little after 3. We breezed through the border at the Rainbow bridge - no line and about 30 seconds at the booth.

Then we were off. Chris drove the first section - we stopped for food at Cracker Barrel in Eerie, then pretty much only stopped for bio breaks or gas.

The restroom in West Virginia was particularly pretty

 
C drove till we hit Virginia - he wanted to get to drive through the tunnel. We had the start of the storm near the border and the first part of the drive, but have seen all sorts of signs warning “do not travel on Saturday; severe winter storm” etc etc. we figure we were a couple hours ahead of it.

So we swapped at midnight. I was expecting to drive only for a couple hours and then pull over, but I was WIRED lol. And omg having SO much fun rocking out to my road trip playlist.

So the first adventure was seeing the “fog warning” signs. A lot of them, with no sign of fog. Thinking ‘hmmm they really take their fog seriously’ lol. Yeah. There’s a reason for that. Went from decent, visibility to super low, and then to non existent. Like legitimately white out conditions without the risk of sliding on ice.

Interestingly the speed limits change along that stretch, and they glow super bright. Plus side, I could see the new and rapidly dropping speed limit, down side - you know what happens to your visibility in fog when you turn on highbeams? Yeah - same effect. I could see the speed limit and nothing else.

Super scary. The road was also winding there; I ended up driving based at least in strong part by seeing on the nav system where the road turns. Scary, but effective.

I eventually made it through and the fog was mostly lifted, at which point C woke up briefly said “oh, it’s really foggy” and went back to sleep ;)

The next adventure I think might’ve been Charlotte? But I’m not actually sure. Some city where the hwy suddenly got very wide - which is usually good (esp when there’s no traffic) but then lanes on both sides and occasionally in the middle started randomly appearing and disappearing. Less fun. The express lanes are toll routes so it had to do with when and how those merge, but it was pouring rain at this point and v hard to see. Eventually I realized I could sit in the second lane and it stayed put. After that it got easier but wasn’t the most fun.

The rest of the drive was comparatively easy. I’m sure Virginia and West Virginia would’ve been stunning but of course it was dark so who knows? There was a ton of light pollution though that made for some great night skies.

The Google lady welcomed us every time we crossed state lines, except going into Georgia for some reason lol. Maybe they don’t like visitors.

Anyways, I was really enjoying the solo concert I was performing and completely spun on sugar and caffeine, so I ended up driving till about 6. All good until I had to get through Saturday with no sleep ;)