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0 degrees. That's Zero
Degrees. That is what the temperature was as were were loading up the
Mini Cooper in Salem, Massachusetts. The plan that my brother,
Neal, and I made was to leave at precisely 6:00am to beat the
rush hour traffic. Unfortunately, because I was trying to tie up
some loose ends at work until 10pm the previous night, I complete
forgot about picking up my laundry. So, the day instead started at
7am, when the laundromat opened, and I could rescue my underwear (
I'll be dammed if I'll buy any more). |
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The first stop was to fill up the tank.
Little did I realize that Neal's car only takes supreme (read that
expensive, overpriced) gasoline. So we filled it up and we were on
our way - at 8am. |
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Connecticut - Still pretty
frigin' cold. With the heat (I use that word loosely) of the sun, we
were finally out of the single digits. We passed a sign advertising
Mini's - nowhere did it say how loud the exhaust system was. These
cars should come equipped with ear protection. After screaming at my
brother that I was feeling a little hungry, we agreed to split
a cheeseburger value meal from Micky D's at the next rest stop. |
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Here we are on the Henry Hudson Parkway
in NYC. The left photo is New Jersey as seen from the parkway. The
temperature is a little better, just getting into the 20's.
It's now around noon so we decide that we will go to this
Vietnamese restaurant that Neal has been to in the city. We didn't
find it, but stumbled across another restaurant that had dead ducks
hanging in the window so we figured it must be good. That's Neal on
the right enjoying his meal. We haven't actually figured out what
kind of food we were eating. Neal says Chinese of some variety, I
say Korean. If anyone can interpret the writing on the banners in
back of Neal, please email
me |
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<<<<< Here is the Lincoln
Center in NYC with the fountains in the background. They must have
some heavy duty antifreeze in this thing to keep it from freezing.
Even though it may be in the 20's, the wind is somewhere around
243mph. If you look close, you can see little chunks of my flesh
being ripped from my face.
Here we go over the GWB (never say the full name, George
Washington Bridge, while in NYC. People will know you are from out
of town and you will be instantly mugged) |
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We are now in New Jersey. The temperature
has just broken the 30 degree mark. We make a proclamation that we
will not stop until the outside temperature is 55 degrees. Inside,
there is a constant battle between Neal and I for the temperature
control on the heater. Neal had taken off his coat to be more
comfortable, and therefore was getting chilled whenever the
temperature inside the car dropped below 80. Me, on the other hand,
was still dress for life on the artic tundra, and have an additional
layer of insulating sweat that had accumulated in the last 30
minutes. Unfortunately, there is not enough room in the Mini to take
a deep breath, never mind take off a coat (not that you would want
to take a deep breath if you are familiar with Neal's gastro-intestinal
activity.)
As we drove down the NJ Turnpike we passed a Mini with a couple
of ladies in it. We pulled up right next to their car (I could have
shaken her hand had she not retracted in fear) and I took their
picture. I think I may had startled her a little. Because we were
pressed for time, we could not stop to see if they were all right, but
when I looked in the rear view mirror several people had stopped
next to the wreckage and were pulling them out. I was relieved. |
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The temperature is above freezing!!! (You
have to click on the thumbnail photo on the left to see the outside
temperature gauge reading 34)
To celebrate this milestone, we decided to pull over to the next
rest and get a gooey Cinnabon. For those of you unfamiliar with
Cinnabon, it is a large cinnamon bun that is covered with frosting.
It is a contradiction of the laws of physics because it looks solid,
but when you have it in your hands it becomes liquid and instantly
you are a sticky mess without a wet nap in sight.
Wisely, I took off my coat and wrung out my sweater and t-shirt
before squeezing back into the car.
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This is a picture
of New Jersey,
or maybe Maryland, or Delaware... |
OK. I have to apologize right now. It is
now Monday, 2/17 as I am trying to remember what a good portion of
the following pictures are. I was writing everything down in a
notebook so I could refer to it when I had time to update this
site. Unfortunately, the notebook is probably resting comfortably in
some landfill outside of Atlanta, GA. So bear with me until I get to
the part about New Orleans. After that, I just blame it on
self-induced brain damage cause by a New Orleans Hurricane (more on that later). |
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<<<<<<< Here is Neal
looking rather happy that we are heading toward warmer climates.
Little does he know...
Here is a picture of a sign referring to Wilmington (Delaware?)
I'm sure there must have been a point of taking this picture.
>>>>>>> |
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Somewhere in Delaware we passed an entire
truck of Mini Coopers. They can fit 314 Mini's onto one truck.
A River somewhere in the United States
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> |
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A huge salt pile in Maryland. What are
they thinking? They don't get that much snow in Maryland!
A building near the river above it
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Alright, my memory is coming back. As we
approached Washington, DC. we decided we were getting hungry (after
sitting in rush hour traffic for what seemed like eternity). A quick
call to directory assistance confirmed that, yes, there is a Hooters
in DC.
We manage to find it without getting too misplaced (I never get
lost). And what luck! We found a parking space almost immediately
after circling the block only 17 times. |
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Our waitress was very personable after
she discovered that, yes, we are sitting at a table that she was
suppose to be waiting on. We told her that it took just barely
longer to get here from Massachusetts than it did to get her to wait
on us. She gave us a valentine, so we gave some consideration to
forgiving her. Somehow we forgot all about that incident when she bent over to take
our order.
We ordered up some of their famous beer buffalo
wings. Here's Neal enjoying one right now.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> |
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We invited some of her friends over for a
sing-a-long. The other guys that were eating there were very
jealous, but with virtuoso voices like ours, we didn't any want any
off-key singing bringing us down. Besides, as you can see by the
photo, we couldn't have squeezed anyone else in the photo without someone popping
out of her shirt. On second thought....
Well, we heard the weather report for Washington, DC, and it
wasn't good. They were expecting 10-18" of snow that night. So,
despite invitations by every waitress at Hooters to stay overnight ,
we decided to continue our way south where we could avoid the foul
weather. This is Neal after I told him the news. >>>>>>>>>
It was going to be
a miserable trip... |
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We arrive in Richmond, Virginia at our
luxury hotel at just past 10pm. The Fairfield Inn was our choice of accommodations
for the night, deciding against staying at the Sticky Foot Inn at
$19.99 per night.
Neal was still sulking about leaving Washington so early, so I
let him search the internet to find another Hooters. Lo and behold,
by absolutely pure coincidence, by some amazing stroke of luck,
completely by surprise, totally unbeknownst to these two brothers,
there was a Hooters less than 1/4 mile down the street. We thought
that was really strange, so we went just to see if it was true. |
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And there it is! We weren't really that
hungry, but wanted to see if the buffalo wings were the same as
DC's Hooters. It wasn't very busy that night, so we were
assigned our very own personal Hooter's girl, Shelby. Evidently, her
father is a big fan of automobiles, and she was named after a type
of Mustang. Her sister's names are Morgan and Opel. (Really!) We're
looking forward to seeing some warm and sunny weather
tomorrow. |
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