From NY to CO
It’s been a while since I posted online. I was going to do it on January 1st, but I had too much distraction going on that night. There has been a lot that had happened in the past few weeks. Starting on the 26th of December.
The morning after Christmas, I got up at around 5:00 AM EST, and left my Grandma’s house at 6:30 AM from Columbia Crossroads, PA. Quite a lot of interesting things happened on my way to Denver, Colorado, and overall, the trip was quite a blast! I have driven in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado in 30 hours of total driving. I arrived to my Aunt and Uncle’s place at around 9:30 PM MST.
Pennsylvania turned out to be quite interesting for me. When I first came out to New York in May 2004, a month later, my cousin, Matt Allen, had a wedding in Clearfield, PA. So my Dad, Kathy and I went there to see him get married. It was a nice small town. Well, on this trip, I ended up stopping there for gas, and it was kinda funny to see that 2.5 years ago, I started my chapter around that place, and now…the same town, I ended my chapter there. Officially, I think I ended my chapter of life in New York when I hugged my Dad good bye at Grandma’s. But stopping in Clearfield was quite ironic.
One of the funny things that happened on I-80 in PA was that there was this squirrel. As I was going about 65 MPH, he jumped right to the middle of the freeway, and it started to freak me out. Then he started to jump into my lane! With my car being full of stuff, it’s not easy to serve out of the way and get back into the lane because of the weight that I’m carrying and the limited view that I had to deal with. So it was either he dies or I go off the road. So I thought that it might not hurt just to go the far end of the right lane without endangering myself and the squirrel. Then as I passed him, I quickly looked at my driver’s mirror to see if I hit him or not. I have to say that this squirrel has quite a lot of balls to be so close up to my car, because all he did was go in circles, saying, “WOO! WOO!” then he got off the freeway.
The drive in Ohio wasn’t too bad. By the time I was in the middle of the state, it stopped raining. Since I got on I-80 in Pennsylvania, it had just rained and I thought it would last until I leave Chicago, but from that point in Ohio, it stopped, and it was clear for the rest of the way to Denver. However, let me tell you what was so bizarre that I saw 20 miles away from the Ohio/Indiana border…
It was an accident that blew my mind. It might have happened before, but I have never seen something like this in my life. There was a semi-truck that was on the eastbound lane, and it went into the median, and hit the column of the bridge. What had awed me was the fact that on the driver’s side of the truck was what took the impact the most, and with so much power, it destroyed the engine and killed the driver instantly. And the bridge still stood without collapsing. I don’t know how to describe it very well, but with a picture taken, words could not be described. And the worst part is that, it took my mind off of the exit I needed to take to get some gas. I was fortunate enough to get some gas in Indiana, which was only 25 miles away.
There wasn’t a whole lot in Indiana, except for a strange coincidence. While driving, I was thinking to myself, I must be the only driver on I-80 with a bike rack on the back of the car carrying a bike. Shortly, a car passed me carrying 2 bikes on the back of the car, and it was from New York. What sheer luck was that?!? Now, keep in mind of this car, because I’ll mention it later in the story.
In Chicago, if you plan on making a trip on I-80, within the next year or so, do all you can do avoid it. It appears that they’re doing a major construction that is similar to what had been done in Salt Lake City during the time before the Winter Olympics 2002. Traffic is so congested there, that it’s pretty obvious that they might be doing an expansion of the lanes. I could be wrong, but from the looks of it, it may take years to complete it. Also, in the long stretch of I-80 in Illinois, there are a lot of constructions going on. From the looks of it, it may be a pain to deal with it now, but in the future, I’m sure it’ll be quite smooth driving on that.
So after 16 hours of driving, I stopped at Davenport, Iowa to rest at the first rest area in Iowa. Since I had left 6:30 of that morning, I didn’t arrive until 10:30 that night. It was a great drive, and I had a lot to think about that had happened over the past two and half years in New York. So I pulled over and stopped and slept in my car. I had a lot of blankets and just insulated the windows and it was quite cozy. I slept pretty well until 6:00 the next morning.
That morning I kept driving to Omaha, Nebraska, and visited the Winter Headquarters. I’ll admit that I was glad that I did make the effort to go. I was very interested in learning a lot of things that happened during the time in Nebraska. It made me appreciate the people who brought the church with strong faith to Utah, and had faced hardship that we now can’t imagine, but only to try to picture ourselves in their shoes.
Nebraska is the LONGEST state I ever driven in. Five Hundred Forty One miles, of nothing. Well, there are things out there…but by golly; I would never want to live there! Remember that car I was talking about with the car rack? Well, after hours of driving, that same car passed me! But then another New York car was with us. SO there were three cars in a group from New York on I-80 in Nebraska. That was interesting.
Everybody in Colorado drives fast! Over the speed limit, that is. When I got there, I was very happy to see, “Welcome to the Colorful Colorado!” But I was quite a bit nervous on how everybody was just passing me, it wouldn’t bother me if my car wasn’t full of stuff!
So I arrived to Colorado, and I had begun a new chapter of my life. And the truth about this new chapter…for the first time, I’m scared. And to write about that…that’s another post.
The morning after Christmas, I got up at around 5:00 AM EST, and left my Grandma’s house at 6:30 AM from Columbia Crossroads, PA. Quite a lot of interesting things happened on my way to Denver, Colorado, and overall, the trip was quite a blast! I have driven in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado in 30 hours of total driving. I arrived to my Aunt and Uncle’s place at around 9:30 PM MST.
Pennsylvania turned out to be quite interesting for me. When I first came out to New York in May 2004, a month later, my cousin, Matt Allen, had a wedding in Clearfield, PA. So my Dad, Kathy and I went there to see him get married. It was a nice small town. Well, on this trip, I ended up stopping there for gas, and it was kinda funny to see that 2.5 years ago, I started my chapter around that place, and now…the same town, I ended my chapter there. Officially, I think I ended my chapter of life in New York when I hugged my Dad good bye at Grandma’s. But stopping in Clearfield was quite ironic.
One of the funny things that happened on I-80 in PA was that there was this squirrel. As I was going about 65 MPH, he jumped right to the middle of the freeway, and it started to freak me out. Then he started to jump into my lane! With my car being full of stuff, it’s not easy to serve out of the way and get back into the lane because of the weight that I’m carrying and the limited view that I had to deal with. So it was either he dies or I go off the road. So I thought that it might not hurt just to go the far end of the right lane without endangering myself and the squirrel. Then as I passed him, I quickly looked at my driver’s mirror to see if I hit him or not. I have to say that this squirrel has quite a lot of balls to be so close up to my car, because all he did was go in circles, saying, “WOO! WOO!” then he got off the freeway.
The drive in Ohio wasn’t too bad. By the time I was in the middle of the state, it stopped raining. Since I got on I-80 in Pennsylvania, it had just rained and I thought it would last until I leave Chicago, but from that point in Ohio, it stopped, and it was clear for the rest of the way to Denver. However, let me tell you what was so bizarre that I saw 20 miles away from the Ohio/Indiana border…
It was an accident that blew my mind. It might have happened before, but I have never seen something like this in my life. There was a semi-truck that was on the eastbound lane, and it went into the median, and hit the column of the bridge. What had awed me was the fact that on the driver’s side of the truck was what took the impact the most, and with so much power, it destroyed the engine and killed the driver instantly. And the bridge still stood without collapsing. I don’t know how to describe it very well, but with a picture taken, words could not be described. And the worst part is that, it took my mind off of the exit I needed to take to get some gas. I was fortunate enough to get some gas in Indiana, which was only 25 miles away.
There wasn’t a whole lot in Indiana, except for a strange coincidence. While driving, I was thinking to myself, I must be the only driver on I-80 with a bike rack on the back of the car carrying a bike. Shortly, a car passed me carrying 2 bikes on the back of the car, and it was from New York. What sheer luck was that?!? Now, keep in mind of this car, because I’ll mention it later in the story.
In Chicago, if you plan on making a trip on I-80, within the next year or so, do all you can do avoid it. It appears that they’re doing a major construction that is similar to what had been done in Salt Lake City during the time before the Winter Olympics 2002. Traffic is so congested there, that it’s pretty obvious that they might be doing an expansion of the lanes. I could be wrong, but from the looks of it, it may take years to complete it. Also, in the long stretch of I-80 in Illinois, there are a lot of constructions going on. From the looks of it, it may be a pain to deal with it now, but in the future, I’m sure it’ll be quite smooth driving on that.
So after 16 hours of driving, I stopped at Davenport, Iowa to rest at the first rest area in Iowa. Since I had left 6:30 of that morning, I didn’t arrive until 10:30 that night. It was a great drive, and I had a lot to think about that had happened over the past two and half years in New York. So I pulled over and stopped and slept in my car. I had a lot of blankets and just insulated the windows and it was quite cozy. I slept pretty well until 6:00 the next morning.
That morning I kept driving to Omaha, Nebraska, and visited the Winter Headquarters. I’ll admit that I was glad that I did make the effort to go. I was very interested in learning a lot of things that happened during the time in Nebraska. It made me appreciate the people who brought the church with strong faith to Utah, and had faced hardship that we now can’t imagine, but only to try to picture ourselves in their shoes.
Nebraska is the LONGEST state I ever driven in. Five Hundred Forty One miles, of nothing. Well, there are things out there…but by golly; I would never want to live there! Remember that car I was talking about with the car rack? Well, after hours of driving, that same car passed me! But then another New York car was with us. SO there were three cars in a group from New York on I-80 in Nebraska. That was interesting.
Everybody in Colorado drives fast! Over the speed limit, that is. When I got there, I was very happy to see, “Welcome to the Colorful Colorado!” But I was quite a bit nervous on how everybody was just passing me, it wouldn’t bother me if my car wasn’t full of stuff!
So I arrived to Colorado, and I had begun a new chapter of my life. And the truth about this new chapter…for the first time, I’m scared. And to write about that…that’s another post.