Monday, October 30th, 2006
Distance Covered: 400 miles
Stops: 4
We had a lot to do Monday before we could leave. We got up early to get to the post office to send 21 cases of books media rate (cheap, but slow). This took two trips.
Inori dropped me off at the post office with 12 cases, that we had loaded into the car the night before, and headed home to get the remaining cases. She returned awful quickly, turned out I forgot to give her the apartment key. So after Inori make three trips to an from the post office we went to Time Warner to return the DVR and cable modem. This time I forgot the remote control. Damn!
We returned home to finish clean-up/packing before the landlord arrived for check-out. The appointment was originally scheduled for 10:30, but we re-scheduled that morning for 12:30. We also called earlier in the morning to schedule pick-up of the U-Pack.com ReloCube. They said they would arrive 3-3:30. As we took another 15 minutes to finish when the landlord arrived. Immediately after check-out was complete we drove away from our apartment for the last time, passing the irritated crew cleaning out the over-full dumpsters we helped fill with all the stuff we threw out. We returned the remote to Time Warner and stopped at Walgreen’s to get ice, batteries (for camera), and sunglasses. As we entered the highway U-Pack called to say there where on their way to pick up the ReloCube. We drove out of Buffalo, for the last time ever at 2pm. Inori was driving. As we passed the Galleria Mall for the last time I was hit with a minor shock that we were really leaving, quite possibly never to return to Buffalo ever again. We are now homeless. At Blasdell we made our first stop to eat. We avoided Sliders (McDonald’s – it slides right through you). I had a chicken wrap and a Mountain Dew, while Inori enjoyed a Chicken Quesadilla. Shortly after we were back on the road Inori had the first lemon bar. 26 miles from the PA line we were listening to the travel CD from our friends, MikeO and Laura. The CD ended with Star Wars, and we dubbed it the official song of the trip.
3:39pm last NYS toll, $2.60 (paid them $1.60 of that in change)
As soon as we crossed into PA we saw an Adult superstore. Nice.
5-6pm hit rush hour in Cleveland; stopped to get fuel, bathroom, and directions; saw really large guy (300+ lbs) crammed into Mustang; Chu-Chu, having slept the entire trip firmly awoke when we started moving to attack his hedgehog
6:27pm Amherst, OH (we are not real creative across the country are we)
7:15pm stopped to pee and get Starbucks at Lake Erie Island, OH; Chu-Chu ate his pill like it was hard candy
8:50pm entered Indiana; Inori hates the “stop soon” bumps on the road
9-9:30pm stopped near Fremont, IN; Chu-Chu feeds, then shits and pees on Inori’s foot in the dark (“hmm, something is warm”); call to make hotel reservation
10:30pm stopped for the night at Red Roof Inn