Day 1 of my longest solo drive ever

First things first - I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to be driving across the country. The sun was shining, there were little wispy clouds, the sky was so blue, and best of all, the trees were all showing gorgeous hints of green. Add to that the typical Pennsylvania scenery (which I love more than almost anything), and it was a wonderful drive.

I took a couple of photos while I was driving (I know, bad Kirsten...), but unfortunately a lot of the beauty my eyes could see was lost due to the combination of crappy cell phone camera and moving car. Still, I think you get the picture... (see what I did there?... my mum would be proud of me)

So for those of you who like numbers and lists and stuff like that, here's the numbers and lists for this trip (I'm basing this off the directions I got from Google Maps).

• 3 days
• 1453 miles total
• 514 today, 374 tomorrow, 565 on Tuesday
• 8 states
• New Jersey, PA, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma

And here's the fun part - I'm trying to snap a picture of the welcome signs for each state (not NJ, obviously, since there isn't a "Welcome to NJ, state of terrible drivers" sign in my apartment complex). I did manage to get all three today, even though the ones for WV and Ohio were very back-lit and blurry and not particularly readable. But still, I consider this a success...

Pennsylvania

West Virginia

Ohio

The drive was really very uneventful, which is really what you always hope a long car trip will be, so I'm thinking there were some people out there praying for a safe trip for me - much appreciated, and don't stop 'til I make it all the way! (For anyone reading this who doesn't already know, I have terrible luck with attracting bad drivers to come hit my car and push me into someone else's car...)

Oh, funny story! I listen to a lot of music while I drive, and today was all about country music. So I'm listening to a Kenny Chesney song (okay, okay, not just listening, singing along at the top of my lungs 'cause that's how I roll...), and this is how it came out (italics is the actual lyrics)

          Hands on the wheel, cruisin' down the interstate

          Gas pedal sticks, carries my car away

          "Hey car, please don't do that..."

And then I just kept singing... Apparently the car listened, since nothing bad happened. But I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't listen to songs that might give my car any ideas (I've decided that if my car had a name, it would be Crash-Bang-Boom...). Anyway.

To top off what was actually a pretty awesome day, the sunset as I was coming into Columbus was absolutely stunning. At one point, the sun was directly behind the city, creating a beautiful silhouette of the downtown skyline. It was a really nice way to end the drive.

Plus I'm staying with some old friends of my parents and grandparents, so I got offered a hot cup of tea as soon as I got in. And there's no better way to end a day (or an entry) than with a good cup of tea!