To Whom It May Concern

Day One - 30Mar05

I found myself wide awake at about 3:15 in the morning, looked at the alarm clock, then laid back down, face down in the pillow, to try and get my last hour and a half or so of sleep before I would embark on my little trip. Alas, my excitement was just too much. After laying there till about 3:45, I said screw it, and got out of bed. I got everything loaded up into the truck, the cooler, the suitcases, the atlas, a bunch of CD's I had picked out for the trip, my class A Army dress uniform, etc, etc. I was out on the road with a full tank of gas at 4:15, taking the short trip on I-80 east into Iowa, then onto I-29 south.

Gas mileage in a 4.7-liter, V8, 235-horsepower engine, pushing a 6600 lb. truck, is not really all that great. 122 miles into the trip, and I'm getting 13.6 miles per gallon. Yes, quite the OUCH heh heh. Traffic on I-29 south was almost non existent. Just a lot of big trucks, mine included, traveling down the road. 243 miles in, going east of Kansas City on I-70, the sun came up over the horizon, blinding as hell, thank goodness for sunglasses!!

First fuel stop: 297 miles at 08:30 a.m. 21.9 gallons of gas for $46.01 at a BP gas station. OMG, close call to a disaster, I got out, started fueling up the truck, and when I went to get back in, somehow the doors were locked!! The keys were inside the truck, I was freaking out. I figured, oh shit, here we go, this is going to be costly, both in time and money!! But I went around the other side of the truck and it was unlocked, I have no real idea how that happened, but I was sure thankful that I had averted what seemed like a pretty sure disaster. Took a quick bathroom break and then out on the road again I went.

Did a really stupid thing in east St. Louis. I completely missed my exit to get onto I-64 east into Illinois, so I had to get off the interstate in a pretty seedy area of St. Louis (ALL of East St. Louis is seedy, that's an understatement). Luckily I found my way back on pretty quick. I imagine that at 10:30 or so in the morning there aren't too many people out waiting to car jack you, that's lucky, because I had no f'ing clue where I was at. Cost of this stupid mistake = 10 minutes.

538 miles into the trip, middle of Illinois. Singing along with the radio "Oooh, moonchild, things are going to get easier" when I realize that all the time I've thought those were the words, when in reality I think it's just "Ohh oooh child..." Yes, my lyrical ignorance knows no boundaries!!

570 miles into the trip. MY HEAD IS OFFICIALLY UP MY ASS!! I completely missed my exit to get off of I-57 South and get onto I-24 East, well, actually I got onto I-24 East, thought I made a wrong turn, crossed back over thru an emergency access road onto the other side, got back onto I-57 South, then realized 20 minutes later that I had actually been going the right way before I turned around, AAARRGGGG!!! (remember my statement bout not looking at the map closely enough?) Anyways, I figured that I could cross over from to I-24 from this little town called Cairo, Kentucky, looked like it wouldn't take more than about 20 minutes on Highway 60, but oh how WRONG I was!!

First off, the BP gas station in Cairo f'ing ripped me off when I went to get gas. Belly's truck only holds like 21 gallons of gas and I still had about an eighth of a tank left in it, and the lady charged me for 24.9 gallons of gas. I was like "Uhm, excuse me, but you just overcharged me for gas, my truck doesn't hold that much gas even when the tank is empty."

The reply? "That's how much you put into your truck, if you have a problem with it, you can talk to the sheriff!!" Yes, well, needless to say I didn't try and argue the situation over about 10 dollars, although I HATE BEING RIPPED OFF!! So I got out on this little highway to quick make it over to I-24 and make up for my mistake!!

Yes, well, there is nothing QUICK about Highway 60 from Cairo to Paducah. It appears that someone threw down a bundle of yarn and then paved it, because it was curvy and nasty and there was nowhere to pass, and I was behind a garbage truck going 35 mph in a 55 mph zone the WHOLE way, with a patrol car behind me the entire way!! I don't know if it was the sheriff, but I sure as hell wasn't going to take any chances.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAANYWAYS, an hour and a half after making my wrong turn, I finally was back on I-24 going south again. Cost of this stupid mistake? One hour.

The rest of the first day I spent traveling through Tennessee. I stopped off in Clarksville and made a quick call to say hello to a friend, who wasn't home, but I left a message about what a pleasant place Clarksville seemed to be (well, as best as I could see from a convenience store by the interstate heh). I hit Nashville just after rush hour, and wow, let me tell you, that was a bit of a mistake. Thankfully it was about 65 degrees and I had the windows down and the radio blaring, and I enjoyed myself even though I went for about 5 miles at about 10 mph. I-24 sped up again and headed into the rolling hills and mountains of Tennessee, a truly beautiful part of the trip.

I do have to ask one question though. Who in their right mind sells tobacco, alcohol, and fireworks at a convenience store? Hell, there was even one that had a work boot store inside. Am I to guess that from time to time you see some guy fueling up his pickup in overalls with his new work boots on, smoking a Marlboro, drunk off his ass from drinking Jack Daniels, all while lighting off a few roman candles, maybe a couple of bottle rockets? To be honest, I would not have been surprised had I seen an explosion behind me after passing one of these places (there are a bunch of them in Tennessee). Luckily that never happened, but why do I have a distinct feeling it probably has before?

Anyways, rolled into my sister's place in Chattanooga at about 9'ish that night. Now, this was a bit of an adventure, my sister lives WAY up on this place called Lookout Mountain. I drove all over that freaking place looking for it before I gave up and called her and her husband. I didn't end up being too far off. I got to see my two little nieces, Elizabeth and Sara, and wow are they getting older. Sara was very shy for oh, about 30 seconds, then LET THE SCREAMING AND CARRYING ON BEGIN, wow, talk about being just like her mommy, that girl is head strong and stubborn.

It was at this point that I realized my cell phone was pretty much completely screwed up, I couldn't get it to charge at all using either the car charger or the house charger. So rather then spend some quality time with my little nieces, I was trying to fix that damn phone. Lost time = one hour, and two destroyed chargers in the process. Talk about being REALLY pissed off. A word to the wise, NEVER EVER BUY A MOTOROLA PHONE, EVER, not if you value the ability to CHARGE your cell phone up.

I ended up getting to sleep in the guest room at about 11 p.m. Plans were to be up at 4 and back out on the road again. As is usually the case, man makes plans, and God laughs.