This weekend we moved from Chicago – our home for the last six weeks – to Washington – our home for the next four months. Sue and I usually love a good, long summer drive. Play suitcase tetras with our stuff to get everything in the less than spacious Saab trunk, slather on the sunscreen, grab our respective baseball caps, put the top down and hit the gorgeous road. Our trip was scheduled for about 11 ½ hours, so we decided to do it over two days, with a stop in Pittsburgh.

Saturday morning was overcast with rain forecast at various points during the drive so we were not able to put the top down, but other than that all was fine as we headed out at 10 a.m. for a planned 7 hour drive to Pittsburgh. For anyone who has not done this drive, it is the definition of boring. The land is absolutely flat, there are no interesting landmarks (unless you count the RV and Motor Home Hall of Fame)  along the way and we were reduced to making bad jokes (one of my specialties) about the names of the places and roads that we passed. The drive went pretty smoothly, no issues with the car, we had packed a lunch so we stopped just inside of Ohio and ate at a rest stop. We arrived in Pittsburgh roughly on time, checked into the hotel relaxed for a little while.  We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant that was a short walk from the hotel. It wasn’t terrible, but that is the best I can say about it.

The plan for Sunday was to get up, hit the road between 9 and 10, which should put us at our AirBnB in Washington at about between 1 and 2 (for those of you who are math challenged that means the trip would be about four hours. We woke up late, in part due to the change in time zones, had what seemed like an interminable wait for a cup of coffee at Starbucks and then hit the road. The weather got steadily worse over the first hour or so and by the time we stopped for gas two hours in, it was pouring. Sue took over driving for the second half of the trip and boy did she get the worse end of that bargain. The rain went from steady to heavy to pouring for the rest of the trip. The traffic was heavy and moved, most of the time, but it mostly moved slowly, and we ended up averaging about 40 miles an hour for the next 4 hours. It was awful, but Sue was brilliant. There was only a minute or so when I couldn’t see the car ahead of me.

The photos below are some random shots from the road. Notice how flat the road is in the first photo – the first 7 hours of the drive are pretty much like that. But the clouds are pretty.

It was pouring when we left the highway, but the gods decided to give us a break and by the time we reached the AirBnB the rain had stopped. We quickly found parking on our street and unloaded the car. The AirBnB is great. It is a traditional Washington, D.C. row house that is beautiful inside and out. We unpacked and headed to the grocery store for supplies. We are in the same neighborhood as last year and so we already feel comfortable with our surroundings. It is a nice feeling and we look forward to exploring the area and of course, seeing Josh, Liz & Hannah.