# 10: Total miles driven so far - almost 3400. Total states visited - 14 (including California) + Washington D.C.
# 9: I now have accumulated a thin layer of paint on my van in the form of bug guts. They were so thick on the windshield that I could hardly see anymore. I tried washing the windows at gas stations and even drove through a car wash in Ohio, but they are proving to be very resilient.
# 8: Sorry to my sensitive readers, but I am pretty sure that I have seen more deer lying on the side of the road in the last 5 days than I have seen walking around in the last 5 years back home.
# 7: Someone needs to teach Pennsylvanians how to merge onto the freeway. I'm sure they're not all bad at it, but nearly every time I get on the on-ramp I had to slam on the brakes to avoid the car sitting at a dead stop at the end of the merge lane. Although somehow they do manage to drive without lane markers around the tollway booths. The two-lane road opens up to at least 6 different booth passages and while this is happening, all of the lines disappear. After the booths there is a long way without lines while the road narrows and then suddenly they appear again and you try to make your way into one of the lanes without bumping the cars around you. It's nerve-wracking.
# 6: Someone decided that the police officers in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania (and maybe others) need Mustangs as patrol cars. Even the Sheriffs had Mustangs.
# 5: Some questions remain unanswered. Like what in the world are these fence structures in Wyoming for? They are slightly angled (so they lean back) with horizontal slats and they are supported by straight vertical beams in the back. There was no rhyme or reason to their direction or placement as sometimes there would be perfectly spaced rows of 5 or 6 perpendicular to the freeway in the ditch on the side of the road and sometimes there would be a single row of dozens of them all together up on the hill parallel to the freeway. Many of them had huge piles of snow in their 'shadow' even if there was no other snow around. But we have no idea what they are or what they do.
Fence structures in the distance with piled snow
# 4: And sometimes I can find the answer out after all, like why there are street signs in every state that say "Bridges become icy before roads" or "Bridge may be icy even when road is dry". Why would a bridge be icy when the road is dry? Well, according to the internet, the bridge loses heat from the top, bottom, and sides while the road only loses heat from the top. It also has to do with what they are made of. Bridges are often made with steel and concrete which are good heat conductors, meaning that the heat moves through the bridge quickly and is lost quickly, whereas asphalt is a very poor conductor and loses heat much more slowly. And now you know, too. :)
# 3: Apparently everyone wants to fight over Lincoln. While the capitol of Nebraska is Lincoln, Illinois' state license plates say "Land of Lincoln" on the bottom of them, and the sign as we drove into Indiana said "Birthplace of Lincoln". Washington D.C. has plenty of Lincoln stuff of their own, too. I think he's pretty worthy of being fought over, though, right?
# 2: Thankfully the girls have been taking turns having meltdowns. There has been many late nights and long days so far and we have all had our turns falling apart during the trip. I am just very thankful that they are taking turns and only melting down one at a time. It has been an amazing lesson in compromise and compassion for all of us.
# 1: We have had fabulous weather so far! There's been lots of wind but absolutely not a drop of rain. Two days after we left Wyoming, it was cold and snowy. Two days after we went to the Omaha Zoo in 80 degree weather on a sunny day, it looked like this
It rained two days before we got to Chicago and the flood warnings ran out the morning we got into town. Notice the temperature of the day we left and the next few days after we were gone.
I know the perfect weather won't last, but it's been wonderful to have!!
From Eric:
ReplyDelete#5 - The fence structures in Wyoming are there to control blowing snow so it doesn't come across the freeways. The snow blows easily across really flat areas, and then can pile up in drifts on the roadway. So those fences are there to keep the snow off the road. The piles of snow you saw near the fences just show that they're doing their job. :)