All Roads Lead to Middletown

One last family photo before the trip begins.

Even as I backed out of my driveway, seeing my home one last time in the glimmer of the headlights, I couldn't believe this was happening. Deep down, I knew this day would come, but it all happened so fast.

Me? No, can't be. How could it be that the person inhabiting the body of 'Fred Ayres' is heading to college already? Must be a mistake.

A deep breath. I had to put aside the internal dialogue for the time being. I had a job to do.

We sped away into the darkness, dodging nocturnal creatures of all sorts, on our way out of town. Our destination: Scranton, Pennsylvania. Home to gorgeous views of clear-cut forests, Vice President Joe Biden, and famed paper company Dunder Mifflin. Estimated drive time: 8 hours, 6 minutes. Estimated time until Fred gets annoyed, tired, or drowsy: 3 hours, 26 minutes.

Besides my mother prompting me to either drive slower, brake faster, or pull over so she could get out of the car, the trip went great! That is, after I finally forked over my digital camera to her. She began to pay less attention to my driving and more to the scenery around us. Now that I think about it, she might be able to moonlight as a naturalist photographer.

In the midst of the torrential rainfall

After nine hours of driving-- we got caught in a terrible monsoon while passing through Ohio (which I suggested we drive around, no matter the eleven hours it would add to our trip) and lost both valuable time and (nearly) our lives-- we finally pulled up to the Days Inn in Dixie City, a northern suburb of Scranton.

Definitely worth seventeen hours

My aunt's a real estate agent; she's passed on a lot of advice to me over the years. If I've learned one thing from her: it's location, location, location. And man! You just can't beat the location of this hotel. Right by the highway!

I've always envied people who live right by the freeway or next to a glaring billboard, but not anymore! Tonight, when I have child-going-to-Disney-World-tomorrow-like insomnia, I'll hear the roar of the cars outside and feel at peace.

Who cares that I can't go on my early morning run?! I'll use the rickety old treadmill that starts to shake uncontrollably whenever I try to run faster than a ten minute mile instead.

And who cares that the people in the room next to ours drop an f-bomb every five minutes? And that there are screaming children running up and down the hallway right now? That just adds flavor to the experience here!

Purrfect local!

But in all seriousness, this is a big deal for me. I have no idea what tomorrow holds; if I'll be wowed around every corner or begin researching universities I can transfer to as soon as possible.

Wish me luck!

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If you have even more time to waste, I highly suggest doing so while browsing the photos I (and my mother/photographer extraordinaire) took during our trip.