“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

I have never experienced 16 hours of rain before. 16 hours of nonstop rain from Boston all the way to Asheville, North Carolina. Overall, however, it was a fun road trip. At least the parts I was awake and coherent for.

I awoke early on Tuesday morning to catch a train to Providence, Rhode Island, where I was to meet Julia. I packed my bag, kissed my girlfriend goodbye and walked out the door. South Station was incredibly busy two days before Thanksgiving, but the train to Providence was surprisingly empty. I arrived in Providence an hour later and started to make my way down the east coast.

The terrifying 16 hour drive

We left at 3pm (or was it 4?) and the clouds were just starting to form. I figured that the storm was moving up the coast and that we would be only driving through it for a few hours at most (if you can recall the first sentence of this post, you will know that I was very, very wrong). We made it out of Boston and ran into traffic about 15 miles outside of New York. This traffic would last for hours, but with fancy new GPS technology, we were able to detour on back roads.

Once we made it past New York, the final 12 hours were a breeze. Although it was late at night (early in the morning) we made it through Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee without any trouble. We finally arrived in Asheville around 8am, Wednesday morning. I wish I could have seen more of the trip, but it was dark and I was falling in and out of sleep. I miss Virginia, and most of the mid-eastern seaboard.

Thanksgiving wasn't all that and a bag of chips. It's a short amount of time to spend on vacation, especially when you only have 5 days and you spend 2 of them driving. Overall, it wasn't bad. I saw the movie Hugo, and I won't be giving away any spoilers, but it was a fantastic film. I opted out of the 3-d version and I did not notice anything that would make it a particularly spectacular 3-d film. The color and cinematography were fantastic, and the commercials do not do the movie any justice. If you haven't seen it (and if it is still playing) it's worth the 10 dollars or so you would need to see it.

One of my favorite movies of the year

The road trip back was uneventful, but tiring. It took 10 hours to get from Columbia to Washington D.C. It should never, ever take 10 hours to travel that distance. Geographically, it should not take more than 8 hours travelling at a decent pace. In fact, David and I have made that trip in a little under 6 hours (not recommended for the faint of heart).

I made it back to Boston safely where I have almost finished my final 3 weeks of this semester. It hasn't been a rough semester in the least, and I look forward to finally beginning the end to my sophomore year.