archive.tylerdave.com All the stuff from when Dave was actually called Tylerdave.

Though I’m not feeling much more motivated than I was last night, here’s the recap I promised:

On Saturday Megan had her interview at Xavier. During the interview I drove around Cincinnati. They have purple “Queen City Tour” signs that you can follow around the city past a lof of historical buildings and landmarks. It was pretty foggy for most of the morning and then by early afternoon it was raining pretty hard. I did get a chance to take a couple pictures before it was raining too hard.

The Ohio River and Kentucky viewed from Eden Park
The I-471 Bridge Over the Ohio River

That evening we looked around for a good used book store or thrift shop but couldn’t find anything good (we probably should have checked the phone book first).

On Sunday morning we ate at a Waffle House and then left for Indiana, PA. On our way there we decided to drive through Pittsburgh since neither of us had been there since we were very young. We arrived in Indiana, PA in the evening and checked in at the motel. We then drove to the campus and the surrounding area so we know were I could pick Megan up from in the morning.

I was surprised at how large Indiana actually was. It was obvious that most of the businesses in the area grew up to support the university, but it was still much more city-like than I had imagined. One thing I did notice was the wealth of Christian-oriented radio stations.

On Monday, I picked Megan up from her interview around two and we immediately headed toward Norfolk. On the way we got slowed down by some snow and high winds in the hills of PA. The drive around DC sucked because we got there right a rush hour but after we got south of the city we stopped for dinner at IHOP. By the time we were done, much of the traffic had dissipated and the rest of the drive was pretty smooth. The motel we stayed in seemed more like a place to have a cheap party rather than a place to sleep, but it was only for one night.

Tuesday morning I dropped Megan off at the Old Dominion campus. I drove around the city looking for things to do but a lot of stuff was closed and I didin’t really feel like leaving my computer in the car in a city garage while I went into a museum. The one thing I did was to do, a tour of the Navy base, was closed temporarily (possible due to our orange terror alert status?). Norfolk had tour signs similar to Cincinnati’s so I followed them until it was time to pick Megan up at three.

From there we left, this time avoiding DC by taking I-64 West to I-81 North. We got stuck in some accident traffic in Richmond, VA putting us about an hour behind schedule. On our way through the hills we saw some neat side-marker lights in the highway in a couple areas that have heavy fog. They’re these bright orangish-yellow lights that are in the roadway where there’s usually reflectors. The lights emit a beam of light directly upward. It was really neat driving between the beams of light in all the fog and snow.

Just south of the Maryland border we stopped at another Waffle House. There’s something magically satisfying about their food. Megan and I are going to make sure we stop at a Waffle House location whenever we travel south of Cleveland. From there I got back on the road and continued, getting more tired yet more determined to make it home every minute. A couple coffee stops and a few hours later we made it home around 4:45.

Because I wasn’t really thinking ahead while I was driving around Norfolk all day, I ended up spending about eighteen hours behind the wheel. I’m proud of being able to do it but I have to say I’d never want to drive that much again.