Back in Ohio

This was our fourth day of driving (which was yesterday). It was a shorter day than some of the others, getting us into my apartment at about 5:30 Eastern time.

Being back in Columbus is quite the experience so far. It doesn't really feel like I've been gone for two months, and it's an interesting re-adjustment for Adrienne as well, who's had the apartment to herself for those two months. At any rate, she left early for work this morning (most of my classmates are on a rotation right now; I only have a vacation because I started last month early), and Mom and I wasted some time around Columbus before I took her to the airport at about three. Just our luck, though, it was raining today, which somewhat impeded our plans (going to the park and going for a walk; there's not much to do around Columbus), but it did let up enough for us to do that later in the morning.

Anyway, Mom is somewhere between here and Portland now, and I'm getting all sorts of stuff ready for the next few days and for my rotation at Walter Reed next month (I'm flying on Monday, assuming the government's travel agency gets me my travel documents). Tomorrow I have a meeting about a letter of recommendation in the morning and a Med 4 lecture about reducing infection through hand-washing (as if we didn't know that already) in the evening, followed by the first Military Medicine Interest Group meeting of the year, which I'm in charge of getting food for (guess it'll be pizza yet again). In other words, there's a lot going on in the next few days. I'm almost looking forward to my next rotation starting because it'll give me some more time to relax.

Heading back to Ohio: Days 2 and 3

Last night there was no free internet at the hotel, and tonight I'm tired from A LOT of driving, so this is a short post.

Day 2: Salt Lake City to Colorado Springs. This was originally supposed to be Salt Lake City to Denver, but the Democratic National Convention was in Denver, so that ruined that plan. Instead, we made it an even longer day of driving and headed down to Colorado Springs. We did some hiking in the Rockies on the way, which was nice.

Day 3: Colorado Springs to Fulton, MO. LONG DAY! It was probably 12 hours of driving, plus a time zone change, which makes for a long, boring, and very tiring day. Between the ever-exciting landscape of Kansas (that was a bit of sarcasm) and just being really tired of being in the car, it was not that thrilling of a day. However, we didn't have any scares with the gas, so it's all good.

Tomorrow: back to Columbus!

Heading back to Ohio: Day 1

This morning at around 7:30, Mom and I headed out for Day 1 of our return trip to Ohio. In the course of about 12 hours, we drove from Camas, WA to Sandy, UT (just outside Salt Lake City). It was a lot of driving, complete with worry about running out of gas. Near the border between Idaho and Utah, we passed a sign saying "Next gas 26 miles". Well, we figured we would have no problems going 26 miles with what we had, so we continued. Twenty-six miles later, about five miles or so after the gas light came on, we pulled into the station, grimacing about the price ($4.35) and the fact that we had to pre-pay inside. So, figuring we would get about seven gallons of gas, which would get us to our hotel, we tried to get into the convenience store, to discover that they were closed. To make it even more fun, right before the exit to this gas station, we passed a sign saying "Next gas 38 miles". Without any other options, we hopped back into the car, turned off the AC, and drove at about 60 mph (speed limit is 75) across the Utah border and to the next gas station, where fortunately gas was much cheaper. It was incredibly close; the gas tank holds 14.5 gallons, and we put 14.2 in. All sorts of fun.

Home

Okay, I am home now, and have been since Tuesday afternoon (the day, not the Moody Blues song), I've just been too busy/lazy to post anything.

After all our big plans of going hiking while on our cross-country drive, the first time we actually found somewhere to hike was Beacon Rock, which was about twenty minutes from the house. Oh, well. It was a good idea in theory.

During the drive, the fuel door on my car was getting progressively more and more difficult to open and shut, until it finally reached a point where it wouldn't close all the way. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to put some money into fixing this, and made plans to go to a Nissan dealer after arriving back in Washington. Well, after our hike and about fifteen minutes from the house, my brakes started squealing, which just made me laugh, and I added it to the list of things that they had to look at when I took it in. So Wednesday morning, Mom and I took the car into the dealer, told them the situation, and then walked over to the mall to shop for things we didn't really need. A couple of hours later, we call the dealer and find out what the deal is. It was quite the list. 1) Some of the paneling/hinges on the fuel door were warped, and the whole assembly would have to be replaced. This is a custom job. Price: $390. 2) Leak in the oil pipe/tank (I was only half paying attention). Price: $140. 3) Leak in the power steering. Price: $160. 4) Front and rear brake pads are worn and would have to be replaced. Price: $440. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked and not all that happy about hearing that my car had over $1000 worth of necessary repairs, so I told him I needed some time to think about it, and we went back in to pick up the car and go home. Well, when we got there, he explained that most of the damage (brakes, leaky pipes, etc) were due to the excessive amounts of rust in the undercarriage due to 12 Ohio winters, where they salt the roads. So the car didn't have $1000 worth of repairs; it was actually much higher. So now I'm shopping for a new car. I'm going for a compact sedan, if anyone has any suggestions for which one I should get.

Other than the whole car debacle, not much has been going on around here. I'm actively (in theory) studying for the boards, step 2 of the USMLE (there are three steps; step 2 has two parts). I'm taking the clinical skills portion in LA on the 15th, and the clinical knowledge (multiple choice written exam) in Portland on the 21st, so most of my time these days is spent reading my cardiology textbook, my case books, and doing practice problems online. It's quite intimidating, and I don't feel ready for it at all.

Cross-country drive, day 3

Ugh. I am tired of the car and the constant sitting in it. We started before 8 again this morning and finished up Wyoming, a little bit of Utah, and into Idaho. Mom was in the passenger seat for both state crossings, and managed to get the signs in the picture, but from a distance, so they're pretty small, but she's making progress with the camera. I was laughing at her because the pictures Shane and Dayna posted from Danelle playing with their point and shoot camera turned out better than the ones Mom was taking. I'm too lazy to pull my camera out of my backpack and download the pictures, so they're not getting posted.

The nice thing about the states we crossed (and are still crossing) is that the speed limits were all 75, so we were moving, which makes the drive seem slightly less long and monotonous, even with the scenery never changing (with the exception of random construction zones, complete with signs and cones and closed lanes, but no construction workers). We did have a dust storm in Idaho while I was driving, which Mom also attempted to take pictures of, and that was pretty much the extent of our excitement.

Tomorrow we'll be home (finally!).

Cross-country drive, day 2

Today was another long day in the car--rather, an even longer day. We left our hotel a little before 8 this morning, and just got into our hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming around 9:15, after changing time zones in the middle somewhere. So it was the rest of Iowa, Nebraska, into Colorado, and into Wyoming.

Unfortunately, this is the only "Entering (fill in the blank state)" sign that I got. I was driving when we crossed into Colorado, and Mom still hasn't figured out my camera. She did manage to take a picture this time, just not of the sign.

I told her she gets partial credit for trying. Unfortunately, even though Mom was driving when we crossed into Wyoming, we didn't manage to get a shot of the sign, due to the sun setting and the construction on the freeway. Oh, well.

During our brief detour into Colorado (well, we spent more time in Colorado than Wyoming so far, but it was still a detour) we met up with my aunt Christy and her family for dinner. Mealtime with four often hyper boys aged between 3 and 14 was quite the experience, and I'll just leave it at that.

Another long day of driving tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have more luck with the camera.

Cross-country drive, day 1

Mom and I left Columbus at about 9:30 this morning, headed out toward Washington for the first of our four day journey. We passed through the rest of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and into Iowa, and stopped outside Iowa City for the night, to end about eight hours of driving.

Unfortunately, I was driving when we entered Indiana, and Mom hasn't quite figured out the "point and click" interface of my camera, so we don't have photographic evidence that we actually entered the state of Indiana, but whatever. There wasn't much to see on the drive today, just random rainshowers, acres and acres of corn and soybeans, and rivers running a bit more briskly than usual thanks to all the storming in the Midwest.

Three and a half states and one time zone down... many more to go.