Driving, Driving and more Driving

interstate 17, arizona

Driving, one of our favorite activities because it allows us to visit so many family and friends

We are now in Ocean City, NJ after driving for three out of the last four days. We have had a whirlwind of traveling since we left Mexico last Saturday with many great visits with family and friends and many many hours of driving on the great US interstate system.

The travels began on Saturday when we took a plane from San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico and flew to Tijuana. From there we took a cab to the border. It was only a ten minute drive and the cab dropped us off right at the border where we got in line and proceeded to walk across the border. It was all very easy and our cousins Chris and Debbie were there within five minutes to pick us up and take us back to their home north of San Diego.

We hung out with them on Sunday and then picked up a rental car on Monday in San Diego. We spent Monday night with Julie’s high school friend Teresa and her husband Kevin. We had a good dinner, entertained the neighborhood trick-or-treaters, and heard all about pregnancy (Teresa is 8 months pregnant).

We then headed to Encino, CA in the north part of LA on Tuesday for a dinner with the Rooney’s. We had a great gathering with Rooney representatives from multiple generations including our host, 93 year old Aunt Rosemary. She put together an amazing dinner and we had a fine time sharing stories and ideas. We spent the night there on Tuesday before heading back to San Diego to exchange rental cars and to start our trip back to Ohio.

Our day started at 6 am as we tried to beat the morning LA traffic. We did well there but still caught some of the San Diego traffic. We exchanged our local rental for a car we could leave in Ohio after starting in CA. We packed up our bikes and began the drive at 10:45am on Wednesday morning and arrived at my parents in Findlay, OH 35 hours later at 1 am Friday morning. We stopped for about a half hour on Wednesday night for dinner at Subway and about 45 minutes at Bob Evans for dinner on Thursday. Other than that, we stopped for gas a few times and drove straight through. One of us would sleep and the other would drive; we’d take turns driving our “shifts” cross the country. We saw some beautiful country with the highlight being the sun setting on the colorful Arizona mountains the first night of the drive. Oklahoma and Missouri were pretty, clear, and cold and the only real challenge was the rain around St. Louis that persisted all the way through Dayton, OH. We made it in smoothly though as we would sing any song that came on the radio that we knew; we somehow managed to hear “Jukebox Hero” a few too many times.

Thankfully, our rental car made it to Findlay because the next morning at 9 am, we went out to start the car in order to take it back to the rental place and the car didn’t start. It wasn’t the battery but instead, the mechanic that came out said it was something much more serious. They eventually towed it away and we were simply glad it didn’t crap out somewhere in the middle of the drive.

We had a good day of packing, cleaning, and visiting in Findlay before getting back in the car on Saturday morning for a drive to Ocean City, NJ. It was an uneventful drive that took a total of 11 hours. It was really pretty in PA with all the colors and the rolling hills and farmlands. We made it to NJ by 10 pm and were extra glad for the extra hour of sleep due to daylights savings.

We are now settled in for a week in our little condo. We’re a one minute walk from the boardwalk and the beach which will be great for our running and walking (getting ready for Marathon Madness). Life is good and we’re glad to be finished with the driving, at least until next week when we head down to South Carolina.

Tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.