Long Road to Columbus, OH

Well, I drove the boy from Seattle to Columbus so he could start his Junior year at OSU in Columbus...I guess I should say it right; THE Ohio State University. The wife and I decided that he would need a vehicle this year in case he lands a sweet internship at one of the big accounting firms. Plus it's hard to be a "baller" without wheels, and we don't want to be "salting his game."

We started the drive from lovely, chilly Seattle; hoping to make Bozeman, MT by the end of day one. We got a late start, so we thought 650 miles on day one would be okay. Plus driving east means losing one hour every day as we passed through time zones. Our adventure started out badly...we barely got out of Seattle when we saw flashing red lights in the rear view mirror. Unfortunately Jeff was behind the wheel, and the woman officer cut him a

lmost no slack. He was only obeying my orders to "follow that Jackrabbit Dodge Nitro" through Ellensburg, WA. Seems "Smokey" had radar up in the sky in a little Cessna plane and pulled both of us over. The officer just dinged us for 10 mph over...that was nice of her.

Day two our goal was to make it to Mt. Rushmore, SD for a quick stop at the National Monument, then boogie all the way to Sioux Falls, SD for the night. That was

a big day, 900 miles and a hemorrhoid for me. Mt. Rushmore is very cool...much more impressive than I was expecting. It was also a lot further off the highway than we thought, and we burned a couple hours sightseeing. I had to make up some time. I was behind the wheel this time when a young highway patrol officer pulled me over for exceeding the speed limit. I truly believed the limit was 75, and I was right at 75 when I passed him. He corrected me and said that the speed limit through that lovely stretch of South Dakota is 65 mph. He then asked where we were headed, and I told him that I was taking young son back to college. He asked where Jeff went to school, and after we answered, I knew he would let us off when he asked about the football team losing to USC. We made small talk, and the nice officer let me off with a warning and then the locations of other similar reductions in speed limit to be careful of. How helpful that information was! 

I thought day two was the long one, but day three turned out to be the longest spent behind the wheel. We drove non-stop from Sioux Falls, SD to just east of Indianapolis, IN...5 states in one day. I was tired of driving past corn fields, soybean fields, cleaning bugs off the windshield, and eating fast food, so we decided to stop for a nice sitdown dinner at a big truck stop...aren't they supposed to be known for having good food? Well this one didn't live up to those expectations. The value was there, but so was the heartburn and queasiness. 

We slept in on Day 4, and rolled into Columbus right around lunch. We spent the afternoon moving his stuff into his frat house room, going to his storage facility to get the rest of his stuff, and then arranging, rearranging, and re-rearranging his room to his satisfaction. It was hotter than blazes, and after climbing up 4 flights of stairs who knows how many times, I was done.

Saturday was a fun day. We met up with my friends (who have a cute daughter at OSU) and went to the OSU-Troy game (Buckeyes win big). My buddy Bartman was honored at halftime along with his '73 team and the '68 team for their National Championship seasons. After the game, Jeff and I hung out with our respective friends. I am sure his evening involved rounds of Beer Pong and young ladies, while mine was spent talking with friends about the "good old days." After getting back to my hotel room I started missing my son. We spent 4.5 days in a vehicle talking about our lives, our worries, our hopes and dreams (barely, but it sounds good), and like I have said before, we are starting to become better friends than father-son. Plus this was the end of the summer where he and I lived together, worked together and socialized together. I miss him a ton.

As he dropped me at the airport for my flight to LA, he told me he had a lot of fun with me. That meant a lot to me. He is an awesome kid with loads of potential.

Chow!