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November 2, 2004
East Coast Road Trip
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| Susanne poses with our new Camry, aka Boris the Bullet Dodger |
We flew down to Orlando on Friday and were met at the airport by my parents. From there, we drove back to their condo in Indian Harbour Beach, where I got my first first-hand look at the damage caused by three successive hurricanes this autumn. It was very surreal, to say the least. On the surface, everything looked basically normal, but in a rather disheveled state. Most businesses were operating, but few had signs or marquees any more. Most homes had large piles of trash waiting to be picked up -- tree trunks, twisted gutters, shredded aluminum siding, etc. Enormous piles of sand sat along A1A, the remnance of sand floods that covered the road during the storms. Houses had large blue patches where tiled roofs once rested. And every big hotel on the beach was closed indefinitely, some with significant damage to them.
Somehow, our new car managed to survive the three hurricanes without a scratch. First, it outlasted hurricanes Ivan and Frances in Orlando at my grandmother's condo. Then, after my parents moved the car to their condo in Indian Harbor Beach, it survived a direct hit from Hurricane Frances -- on the last day it was insured under my grandmother's old insurance, no less. So much for three strikes you're out. But at least it's allowing us to boast that our car survived the 2004 Florida hurricane season. And we've even started calling the car Boris the Bullet Dodger (see Guy Ritchie's movie Snatch for the reference) in honor of its Darwinistic integrity.
On Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after arriving in Florida, Susanne and I piled into our new car and started the drive up north. Ideally, we wanted to do the drive in two days, but knew this would be pushing it. If we could just get past New York City by the end of the second day, that would allow us to get home Monday morning in time for me to put in a day's work.
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| The one and only South of the Border |
Somehow we were able to push ourselves to drive to southern Virginia that first night, where we crashed at a motel and ate really good Mexican at a little hole-in-the-wall. Technically, we were more than half-way home, having driven over 700 miles in one day, but the second day would be full of traffic delays and construction hazards, not to mention one less hour of daylight due to the end of daylight savings time. As predicted, we were delayed by terrible traffic south of DC and construction nightmares every 100 miles or so. I was amazed that we were able to get to New York before sunset.
We spent the night in Waterbury, Connecticut, before hitting the road again early Monday morning. Traffic on the Massachusetts Turnpike was hellish, but par for the course, so we were home with our new car just after 9am. Now I just need to get it inspected for emissions and insurance purposes.
Lastly, I took a small number of pics with my camera phone during the drive north. You can find them on my camera phone blog if you're interested... -andy
Posted by acarvin at November 2, 2004 9:05 AM
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