Manifest Destiny & AAA

The trip to Detroit from Central Jersey is long. That's the only way to describe it. It's also pretty barren. I only hit three major cities on the way there: Youngstown, Cleveland and Toledo. (All three are in Ohio.) Yes, that's right... there is about a 400 mile stretch on I-80 through central Pennsylvania where you do not hit a single major city. The closest thing is that at Exit 161, you are about 10 miles away from State College, the home of the infamous Penn State. The drive, although long, was easy, and the further I drove, the more I wanted to drive. The overwhelming desire to reach my destination with the fewest possible number of stops over came me, and I used the rush to help me drive. It took some willpower to pull onto 280 North when the time came, as I wouldn't have minded continuing on to Chicago. The pull of "sea to shining sea" was fairly strong, and I now understand the sentiments of our country's first settlers.

Heading out there was fairly uneventful. I was left without music for about 200 miles in central PA, as I couldn't find a radio station and had grown sick of my CD's. Since the winter weather in these areas is pretty greusome, the summer months are prime construction times, and there were a few delays. I finally got onto I-80 at Stroudsburg around 3:00pm and didn't arrive in Dearborn, MI until about 12:00am on Friday night.

The return trip was exactly the opposite. I set out from Dearborn around 9:30 am and headed towards Toledo. At about 11:15am, I'm in between Toledo and Cleveland and I hear this strange sound. It sounded like a very loud tractor. I figured, since I was in farm country, that must be exactly what it is, and just kept going on my merry way. Then my steering wheel started shaking uncontrollably. Not sure whether it was my car or the road, I began to slow down. Then, I hear a loud *BAM*, my car is suddenly lurching to the right. Something was very, very wrong. I immediately pulled off to the shoulder, get out and take a look to find out what happened. My rear right tire is in PIECES. It's completely shredded. Nothing remains of it except a small ring of rubber that manged to stay around the rim. My mud flap is mangled in rubber. CRAP.

I had absolutely no clue where I was (other than that I was in Sandusky County about 20 to 30 miles east of Toledo). I called AAA and they said it would take a while for them to find me. An Ohio Turpike cop found me and called AAA to let them know I was, get this, 4 miles away from FREMONT, Ohio (oh so ironic that I burst a tire in a town called Fremont). AAA showed up, changed my tire and sent me on my way to the Fremont, Ohio Walmart Tire Center, where they changed my tire. While I was waiting, I headed across the street to this tiny strip mall and was poking around the shops there.

Once my car was fixed, I high-tailed it out of there. I made it across PA in 4 and 1/2 hours. I have no idea how, but I just kept driving and driving, and finally, I was back in NJ. Forty-five minutes later, I was back in my freaky rented room. Just two and a half more weeks and counting.