07/08/05: 2 Days on the road, to the D.C. area
July 7, 2005: We departed at 3:00 p.m. after a day of yard work and packing up. We saw the Poplar Street Bridge traffic backed up for a couple of miles, so we headed up Hall Street & Riveriew to 270 to avoid heavy bridge traffic. It was a relatively pleasant drive, and possibly faster than staying on the Interstate through East Saint Louis even without considering the bridge construction delays.
Our car is comfortably quiet on its new set of tires. This is their maiden voyage.
I jot notes on my vintage Palm™ m105 with a Bamboo stylus I fabricated because I let my nephew play Breakout on the ride back from camping and Holiday World in June.
Uneventful drive eastward on I-70 to Arrive in Springfeld, OH at 10:30 p.m. EDT. We stayed with Margaret Ann, a dear friend who was best "man" at my wedding and has a rambling ranch house surrounded by fields of corn and soy beans.
July 8, 2005: We had a leisurely breakfast and continued eastward on I-70 at 10:30. A long day of driving, often zipping past features that we said, "When we've got more time, we should stop there". Ohio was hazy. Columbus, Ohio appeared as a gray picket of skyscrapers rising from the horizon. Just past Columbus, we stopped in Pickering at a Barnes & Noble to use the internet and charge up with cappuccino. It cost $4 to use the WiFi, plus the scone and coffee. An email I received alluded to something terrible happening in London. So I checked the news, and read about the London re-enactment of the Madrid train bombing.
We crossed West Virginia into Pennsylvania, and then left I-70 for I-79 south back to West Virginia. We gassed up at a truly sub-standard Standard (Amoco, BP) in Morgantown, WV, and then took scenic I-68 through the mountainous panhandle of Maryland.
One of the many nice views in Maryland, as we approach the collision of the American and Atlantic geological plates.
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A cut through the mountain east of the divide, showing a fold in the sedimentary strata.
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Very pretty, frequent downshifting to get up grades at 70mph (well, we managed to keep it up to 60, most hills). The Eastern Continental Divide separates the Atlantic from the gulf watersheds. We crossed it at 2,510'. Not too impressive after our drive through Colorado last November.
We pulled into Ken's drive in Pasadena (no, Maryland northeast of D.C.) at 8:30. This was a longer drive than we expected. Whew!