My vacation
Okay, so here we go.
It all started out okay. In West Virginia it started to get hot, so I tried turning on my A/C. It should be noted here that for as long as I have ridden in this car, the A/C makes water blow out of the vents. Sometimes it blows into the stereo. It killed the last one slowly, but as time goes on this problem gets worse and worse, so this stereo is less than six months old and is already having shorts. I have not used my A/C all summer. It's been cool enough that I haven't needed to. When I DID try, it shorted out my radio and, despite me taking the faceplate off and everything, the speakers would occaisionally, randomly, and very loudly make huge pops and whistles like landing UFOs. It was a bit of a jumy ride for a while. And I had no stereo for three hours while it dried.
Well. I entered the midwest to a heat index of 110.
So I was using Jen's directions which had no distances and had no idea when I was supposed to turn off 64. I figured it out when I was two hours past the exit on the Illinois/Indiana border. So I had to drive an extra 4 1/2 hours while I went the long way through the great state of Illinois. The heat does not get any better at night. The bugs just come out. So I'm battling moths and locust the size of my head flying straight out of the cornfields (because that's all there IS in southern Illinois) and into my fucking car. Then I hit dead stop traffic in Chicago. at Midnight. On a Saturday.
Total drive from Radford to Chicago: 17 hours.
Jen was SO cranky all weekend because her car got towed, the airconditioner didn't work in her apartment and just poured water on me all night, Abbey was cranky because of the heat and Jen has cats. Which make me sneeze. I got to see my Aunt Becky, Uncle Steve and cousin Carol. They TOTALLY ROCK!! I left for St. Louis Monday morning. The Heat index was 114, I still had no A/C and it was early morning sun beating down on my exposed left side. Result? SUPER TRUCKER TAN.
Total drive from Chicago to St. Louis: 5 hours.
My Grammy, love her heart, is a very picky lady. She was squite ornery the whole time I was there, but that's okay. She's old, she family, and she's wonderful. My mother called her and begged her to take me to a mechanic to get the A/C fixed.
Remember how it blew water out? Well, the two people I have PAID to look at it could not figure it out. The dude in St. Charles did. Someone YEARS ago plugged the A/C drain hole with a bolt. You know how your car drips water after your A/C runs? Well, imagine years of that building in my car...molding...sloshing around...apparently, when he pulled the bolt, three gallons of water poured out. This does not include the gallon and a half that ended up in my floorboards. Now I have a cooled down, moldy, funny smelling car.
But what do I care when I have A/C???
Saw Nana and had a BALL with her. We are so alike. She's just crazier than I am. Grandpa Wetzel didn't give me any of his Moral majority lectures and Grandma Dee was too busy planning a pro-second amendment rally at a gun shop for the organization she heads, C.L.A.S.S. That's Conservative Ladies Association of Sharp Shooters for you unrepublican Godless folk.
Total drive within Missouri to see relatives (now WITH A/C): 3 hours
Then I drove home early on Thursday so I could get the car detailed to de-moldify it. WITH A/C. It was a MUCH better drive...but tedious after so much driving. I made SUPER time despite being in Kentucky for fucking EVER. In West Virginia I dropped my last Redbull upside-down in my lap. I stopped in Charleston to get another one and walked by a window where I noticed that it REALLY looked like I had peed my pants. For some reason, this sounded like a country somg to me and I went up to the counter singing, "I peed my pants in West Virginia."
Total drive from St. Louis to home: 10 hours.
Total drive time between Saturday and Thursday: 36 hours
1/3 was in Illinois.
3/5 with no A/C
3/4 in temperatures over 100
In the end, though, I HAD to see family. Abbey is named after my Nana and they had never met! I wish I would have skipped Chicago, but it was fun at my aunt's. Abbey was super for all but the last six hours of the drive to Chicago. She was so hot she threw up on herself. You can't blame a kid for screaming. She's a trooper. A great road trip buddy.
What a shitty road trip, though. No more driving for a while.
It all started out okay. In West Virginia it started to get hot, so I tried turning on my A/C. It should be noted here that for as long as I have ridden in this car, the A/C makes water blow out of the vents. Sometimes it blows into the stereo. It killed the last one slowly, but as time goes on this problem gets worse and worse, so this stereo is less than six months old and is already having shorts. I have not used my A/C all summer. It's been cool enough that I haven't needed to. When I DID try, it shorted out my radio and, despite me taking the faceplate off and everything, the speakers would occaisionally, randomly, and very loudly make huge pops and whistles like landing UFOs. It was a bit of a jumy ride for a while. And I had no stereo for three hours while it dried.
Well. I entered the midwest to a heat index of 110.
So I was using Jen's directions which had no distances and had no idea when I was supposed to turn off 64. I figured it out when I was two hours past the exit on the Illinois/Indiana border. So I had to drive an extra 4 1/2 hours while I went the long way through the great state of Illinois. The heat does not get any better at night. The bugs just come out. So I'm battling moths and locust the size of my head flying straight out of the cornfields (because that's all there IS in southern Illinois) and into my fucking car. Then I hit dead stop traffic in Chicago. at Midnight. On a Saturday.
Total drive from Radford to Chicago: 17 hours.
Jen was SO cranky all weekend because her car got towed, the airconditioner didn't work in her apartment and just poured water on me all night, Abbey was cranky because of the heat and Jen has cats. Which make me sneeze. I got to see my Aunt Becky, Uncle Steve and cousin Carol. They TOTALLY ROCK!! I left for St. Louis Monday morning. The Heat index was 114, I still had no A/C and it was early morning sun beating down on my exposed left side. Result? SUPER TRUCKER TAN.
Total drive from Chicago to St. Louis: 5 hours.
My Grammy, love her heart, is a very picky lady. She was squite ornery the whole time I was there, but that's okay. She's old, she family, and she's wonderful. My mother called her and begged her to take me to a mechanic to get the A/C fixed.
Remember how it blew water out? Well, the two people I have PAID to look at it could not figure it out. The dude in St. Charles did. Someone YEARS ago plugged the A/C drain hole with a bolt. You know how your car drips water after your A/C runs? Well, imagine years of that building in my car...molding...sloshing around...apparently, when he pulled the bolt, three gallons of water poured out. This does not include the gallon and a half that ended up in my floorboards. Now I have a cooled down, moldy, funny smelling car.
But what do I care when I have A/C???
Saw Nana and had a BALL with her. We are so alike. She's just crazier than I am. Grandpa Wetzel didn't give me any of his Moral majority lectures and Grandma Dee was too busy planning a pro-second amendment rally at a gun shop for the organization she heads, C.L.A.S.S. That's Conservative Ladies Association of Sharp Shooters for you unrepublican Godless folk.
Total drive within Missouri to see relatives (now WITH A/C): 3 hours
Then I drove home early on Thursday so I could get the car detailed to de-moldify it. WITH A/C. It was a MUCH better drive...but tedious after so much driving. I made SUPER time despite being in Kentucky for fucking EVER. In West Virginia I dropped my last Redbull upside-down in my lap. I stopped in Charleston to get another one and walked by a window where I noticed that it REALLY looked like I had peed my pants. For some reason, this sounded like a country somg to me and I went up to the counter singing, "I peed my pants in West Virginia."
Total drive from St. Louis to home: 10 hours.
Total drive time between Saturday and Thursday: 36 hours
1/3 was in Illinois.
3/5 with no A/C
3/4 in temperatures over 100
In the end, though, I HAD to see family. Abbey is named after my Nana and they had never met! I wish I would have skipped Chicago, but it was fun at my aunt's. Abbey was super for all but the last six hours of the drive to Chicago. She was so hot she threw up on herself. You can't blame a kid for screaming. She's a trooper. A great road trip buddy.
What a shitty road trip, though. No more driving for a while.