Anya and I drove to Hertz to pick up our rental car that we'd use to get to the reunion. I figured that my car would see lots of wear and tear over a 2,500 mile trip across half of the country, so with a little help from my mom, we booked a compact car from Hertz. We initially had a small compact GEO Metro, but I was pleased to see that the people at Hertz upgraded our car to a full sized Taurus for no charge. Not only did the Hertz representative tell us he was upgrading us, he also told us that he was giving us a car with SIRIUS Satelite Radio in it. I figured that it'd be cool to have a satellite radio in the rental car, but as the trip progressed I was completely sold on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

It took Anya and I a little longer to get out of town then I thought it was going to take. We didn't plan all that well, and each time we took care of one errand, another errand jumped up.

We finally hit I-35 at around 1:30 and headed north. The drive through Oklahoma is always a pretty uneventful drive. The freeways are 3 laned, and there is rarely any traffic, so it was pretty smooth sailing. Anya and I had figured that we would stop at a restaurant somewhere in Oklahoma or Missouri. But it dawned on me that we'd be passing through Tulsa right around the same time as dinner. So I called up my sister Katie and told her to be expecting two travellers on her doorstep right around dinner time.

I knew that we were in for a long trip when after only 4 hours in the car, I was ready for an hour off of driving. It felt great getting out of the car in Tulsa and playing with Joey and Jessie, and talking to Katie and Dan for about an hour and half. It was great just hanging out at their house for a while and eating some pizza before jumping back on the road for the rest of the night's trip. It was really tempting to just spend the night at Tulsa and to make the next day, a long long day. But the Amerigo Vespucci in me said that there were some more miles to be conquered before I'd call it a night.

Usually, traffic out of Tulsa is pretty smoothe sailing. Not being one of the most populated cities in the United States, and being a Wednesday, I was really surprised to find myself stuck in bumper to bumper traffic that had us driving about 8 miles in an hour or so. I guess jack knifed trucks and totalled cars will put a kink in anyone's driving time.

I get into a mindset when I drive that I am some kind of superhero whose powers consist of Iron Buttocks, Light Eyelids, and perfect 10 and 2 O'Clock driving hands. So I found it surprising to find my rear getting somewhat soar as we drove through the Missouri night. As we drove on, it got darker and darker, thusly my eyes started getting heavier and heavier. As any superhero will tell you, there is always some kind of device or substance that will act as your downfall. Superman has kryptonite. Wolverine has...books? My kryptonite was greasy Papa John's pizza. No matter how much soda or candy I ate, I found myself getting more and more tired. I struggled to drive on and on. "Just 15 more miles to the next town, I'd tell myself." After I could take it no more, I decided to turn off and find a hotel room so we stopped at a small town in Missouri. There must have been some kind of convention in the town we stopped because 5 consecutive hotels we checked were completely booked up. So I found an inner strength and pushed on to the next town about 20 miles ahead. We tried a few motels before being told that there was a "Drury Inn" up ahead that had a vacancy.

Drury Inn's are basically one step up above a Motel 6. I think the main difference between a thirty-six dollar Motel 6 and a SEVENTY-FIVE dollar Drury Inn is the inclusion of a small coffee maker. My brain was telling me to drive on to the next town. My eyes were telling me to get into a darkened room as soon as possible. So I succumbed.

I won't elaborate, but Drury Inn maids really need to learn the kosherness and benefits of knocking on doors before entering rooms in the morning.

St. Louis was our next goal. I've found that in order to stay sane while driving across country, it's important to play leap frog from one city to the next. Keep the 200-300 miles away goals in mind. Don't look at the 500-1000+ miles when driving across country. You'll go insane.

St. Louis came and went. Illinois came and went. Indiana came and went. It never ceases to blow my mind that you can go through entire states in a matter of hours, whereas in Texas it takes hours and hours and hours just to get from Dallas to Houston. Try imagining driving from Amarillo to Brownsville. It'd be at least a two day drive.

--We now interrupt this post to bring you an advertisement from SIRIUS Satellite Radio--

SIRIUS radio kicks so much ass. Oh my god. If you love hearing good, commercial free radio, then SIRIUS is the way to go. I can't speak for any of the other satellite radio systems, but SIRIUS has every type of music and talk radio that I'd ever want to listen to. And it's all commercial free. So when I want to hear nothing but sixties music, I can listen to hour and hour of great music. If I want to hear hour after hour of Gay-Lesbian-Transgender-Bisexual talk radio, then it's just a click away. If I want old jazz standards, then it's all there. Pretty much anything you can imagine listening to is one there. Right AND Left political stations. Independant artist stations. Pop stations. The one that Anya and I used most frequently was the Comedy station which played all kinds of stand up comedy routines from Jerry Seinfeld to Robin Williams to a bunch of lesser known comedians.

--we now return to our program already in progress--

Anya and I arrived in Columbus Ohio at around 9:00 p.m. It's that pesky hour jump that got us. That night we had dinner with one of my best friends Drew and his wife Rene. It was so good seeing them again. It's weird getting back together with friends that I have not seen in a couple of years; especially as good of friends as Drew and I were while we were in 29 Palms California. In some ways, whenever I get together with friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, it's almost as if we never separated, but there's always that sense that we live separate lives now. ie...We are able to recommence with some inside jokes and say stuff that we used to say about the Marines and it seems really familiar. Yet at the same time, it's pretty obvious that we hadn't seen each other in a few years.

We mostly just hung out that night at their house and chit chatted til the wee hours of the morning. It was great being able to catch up with Drew and Rene if even for just one night.