{the neverending drive from nyc to va}

june 1, 2012

 thanks to too much fun had the night before, my morning may have started a little bit later than originally anticipated...however, that extra time in bed was probably the best idea i had all day.  

somehow my roommate and i still managed to have everything out of the apartment, and i had my rental car packed, by 10:15 am.  

 

 sweet, empty, 229 e. 13th street

  the schedule for the day was set - cleaning service would arrive at 10 am (with 2 people and all necessary supplies) and be done by noon, and the super had the painters starting at 12:30.  i was planning to leave town at 11, drive the 6.5 hours home to va, meet my dad at the richmond airport to drop off the rental car, and then drive to my sister's house in lexington, va. 

      naturally, because it is nyc, nothing went as planned.  rather than freaking out when only one person showed up to clean the apartment over an hour late with no cleaning supplies, i tracked some down and decided to spend an hour perusing the union square farmers market one last time. 

after an hour, i made sure the super was ok with the ghetto cleaning service, realized the painters had already started to paint a still dirty apartment, and decided that was my cue to hit the road.  one last stop to drop a few more boxes in the storage unit and i'd be on my way.  

i left long island city at 1 pm.  thanks to lane closures, road construction, road construction on the detour alternate routes, and ridiculous traffic, by 4pm, i hadn't even gone 50 miles.  

and then, close to baltimore, i hit this:

i really timed my drive home perfectly - tornadoes had touched down in virginia and maryland, the baltimore, national, and dulles airports were grounded, and i was still on the road (with no phone battery for the last 3 hours of the trip).   

needless to say, it was a long day, and the longest 9.5 hour drive i've ever had from nyc to richmond. i made it safely though, and was rewarded for my efforts with a hug from my dad and a cozy night's sleep in my old room at my parent's house.