ten billion butterfly sneezes

The Search for America Tour finds us in Fremont IN, safe, but tired. This particular SfAT is powered by Cadillac STS, a firehouse red, Northstar V8 powered Capitalistic Car if there ever was one. Man, I can’t believe the instrumentation on this rig. A variably heavy rain fell as we navigated the Pennsylvania Turnpike; the wipers were smart enough to adjust their speed, based on the amount and density of the rain that was falling. Impressive. XM radio and On-Star are in the package, along with several buttons I haven’t pushed yet. Gotta save some fun for later.

We left from Virginia, through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, on into Eastern Indiana. I never realized that the majority of the miles would be travelled on toll roads. From the Dulles Greenway to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, to the Ohio Turnpike, to the Indiana Toll Road, we’ve been on them all. To the tune of 25 bucks or so thus far. I never have much nice to say about Maryland, but it was the only state where a toll collector’s hand wasn’t out. I don’t mind toll roads on principle; I don’t like the Jersey walls, and the lack of predictable eateries in the “service plazas” resulted in a degradation in the quality of our migratory foraging. So much so, that I’m contemplating missing the toll roads altogether on the return trip; this at a cost of 70 miles, and an hour of drive time.

Ohio was beautiful; there was some amazing rural scenery I’d love to have photographed, but no place to get off the road to take any pictures.Hopefully the southern route will render some photo ops that we can seize.

On to Chicago tomorrow; we’re 150 miles out, and trying to time the trip to miss the worst of the congestion on the Dan Ryan. If that’s possible.

-k-