The drive to Ohio
by Josh Staiger
The drive up to Ohio from Carolina wasn't terribly bad. I was able to leave directly from work at around 3pm and head North. I hit quite a lot of holiday traffic on my way out of North Carolina on into western Virginia, along with some hard rain, but after that cleared up things were pretty smooth all the way through West Virginia to Akron.
Given that this time of year the sun sets at 4:30 in the evening, the majority of my drive was done in the dark (I sometimes wonder if Ecuador wouldn't be the happiest place on Earth if US foreign policy hadn't been working diligently to thwart sane South American governments at every turn, hmmm). This, and the realization, once again, that considering the money that I spent on fuel, tolls, and food, a plane ticket would have only been an additional $100, means that I will likely be booking a flight for Christmas as soon as I get back home, and provides an additional reminder that someday I might like to learn how to fly a plane.
Still, Harry Potter and the Podcasts, shortened the drive considerably. I'm terribly lucky that I remembered to throw the Vector DC/AC converter that my parents had gotten me last Christmas in my car (still sealed in the original packaging no less), or the last four hours of my trip would have been awfully quiet after my iPod battery ran out.
I arrived in Ohio at around 1:30AM. Luckily, my sister had her boyfriend over and I was able to sneak in an unlocked front door and find the empty bed where I formerly slept.