Gentlemen ... start your engines!

I drove up to Boston with Leon today, and it was the first leg of what would be a very long drive across the continental United States. This jaunt up to Massacheusetts had been necessitated by some recent bad luck, Leon's poor old Subaru (affectionately termed "The Dude") had finally been pinged by the authorities as a death-trap. Too expensive to bring up to code, the Dude was sold for scrap and Leon spent the last couple of months in New Haven carless. So without the Dude we were in a bit of a quandary, we needed a car! Renting was an option right up until we saw how much it would cost. In an effort to save some cash we hit upon the idea of using an auto transport company to supply us with a vehicle for at least part of the way. The internet supplied us with the necessary information and we had been in contact with the Auto Driveaway company for a couple of weeks.

Yesterday we got the nod. Somebody had a car in Boston which needed to be driven to Fort Collins in Colorado. This suited us and we decided to rent a car in Denver for the remainder of our adventure. On the way up we could only think of one last problematic detail, I had neglected to ask the company exactly what sort of model this vehicle was. I was of the opinion that it didn't matter … even if we scored a Geo Metro we could make it work. However, as Leon told me halfway up to Boston, he had a lot of gear that needed to make the trip with us. A lot.

Well, we got up there and met the owners of the company. A very nice couple really. The husband explained to us with the utmost gravity the seriousness of the contract we were making with him and his client. He would sick the FBI onto us if we were so much as ten seconds late with the delivery. Heavy. He gave us until Thursday 29 and 2300 miles to play with. There were a bunch of other rules too, but they all seemed reasonable enough.

He showed us the car. It was, to Leon's relief, pretty big. Actually it was huge. A hulking great Grand Cherokee Jeep was parked in a corner of the back lot waiting for us. We checked it out as carefully as possible, marking all of the scratches and nicks and dents and stains and whatever else we could think of on the condition sheet. We were told that we could spend up to $100 on repairs if need be. That seemed a bit skint if you ask me, I mean how often have you come away from a mechanic with a freshly repaired auto and spent under a hundred bucks? Not in this bloody universe mate!

We got back to New Haven a couple of hours later on. The Jeep seemed to handle very well, and it was appointed up to its roof racks with all the mod cons. However, it was sucking gas down like there was no tomorrow. This is in comparison to my little Subaru of course, which is to that Jeep what a camel is to a very thirsty elephant.

That evening we went out to dinner. The Outback Steakhouse with Leila, Christina and Tim. Being an Australian I hated that place, full of Aussie shtick and (ugh) Fosters and the staff are glaringly ignorant of the wide brown land from which I hale, but I decided to make an allowance just one final time.

New Haven (Connecticut), Thursday March 22 (233.4 miles)

I stayed in bed with Leila that morning, not wanting to get up. Eventually I did get up, had a shower and started to finish packing for the trip. Leon called around 9 am, sounding a little stressed, as he still had a lot of things to do. I walked around to his place not long afterwards and helped him finish packing the Jeep. We drove it back to my place and picked up my gear before heading downtown for some further dithering at the Medical School, he had suddenly been asked to fax some minutiae to Seattle. We also bumped into Bill Joiner who said he had just ten minutes earlier left an envelope of cash on Leon's doorstep (as payment for Leon's fish and fish tank), so I went back to get that while Leon wrestled with fax and FedEx requirements.

Finally got out of town around 10.30 am and it was raining like hell. The traffic on the I-95 was heavy and things got really slow around the George Washington Bridge in New York, but given the weather this was not totally unexpected. Looking for gas in New Jersey was tough, but finding somewhere to eat was even tougher. We eventually grabbed sandwiches from a little place in Lebanon. Leon was starving as he hadn't found time for breakfast. The rain faded away by the time we reached Pennsylvania and the traffic wasn't too bad either. By the time we were swinging through Maryland it was even sort of warm, well warmish.

We arrived in Seneca Rocks (WV) around 8 pm. We paid at the central store for two nights camping at the Princess Snowbird campground and then asked if there was anywhere nearby that was open and serving food. We were directed south about 3 miles to a combination gas/quickie-mart deal where two nice old ladies served us pizza and beer. While we were eating there was a little excitement outside in the darkness as someone had lost control of their car. I wandered out to inspect the situation with this old local geezer and we saw that someone had somehow managed to get their truck jammed backwards into a ditch by the road. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Back in Seneca we set up the tent under the Jeep's headlights and then wandered over to a car park nearby the approach trails to the cliffs. With the stars shining brilliantly overhead we admired the not too distant and ghost-like walls that give this place its name. Walking by the store I rang home and left a message for Leila. We finally packed it in and went to sleep around 11 pm.