Driving from A to B (or CR to DC)

I'm not sure why I thought I should drive to DC from Iowa. I don't like driving, really. I have a hard time sitting that long. And I really don't mind flying, either. I could have easily flown.

But we kept going back and forth about the car: should we bring a car? Or not?

We're living downtown, and hope to try out the Urban Lifestyle, so it's not like we'll be driving every day to work, etc. The apartment is two blocks from where Bruce will be teaching, and not too far from Metro stops. We can walk to Trader Joe's (OK, it's a bit of a hike), and when we travel to visit people, we hope to use public transit.

Still, I just wanted some flexibility with our transportation; I didn't want to miss out on trips to places it's hard to reach with public transit. And I'm hoping to be teaching at American University, which is about an hour from here via public transit, but about half that by car (at off-peak hours, which is what I'm going to arrange, I hope!) I also thought about grocery shopping: so much easier with a car.

And plus: driving makes it easier to get our stuff out here.

So I drove.

Let me just say right here that it's a long way from Cedar Rapids to Shaker Heights, my first stop on this journey. I left at 8:40 am Iowa time, and arrived at maybe 7:30 pm Cleveland time. By the time I reached Toledo, I was so done with driving, but still had miles to go. Luckily I had an audiobook and some downloaded podcasts to keep me company.

I wish I could have taken photos of the landscape as I drove. If I had, I would have photos on this blog of:

• bald eagles flying over the Mississippi
• flat farm fields of eastern Iowa and western Illinois
• signs for I-71 South (it was strange skipping the west suburbs of Cleveland where I grew up: my brother lives on the east side)

In Cleveland, it was great to visit Bill, Kim, and Sammy--I stayed Sunday and Monday nights. Sammy and I did forms together (he's learning Tae Kwon Do), Kim and I chatted about being BoyMoms and Bill and I book shopped and went to Malley's.

And of course, it being Cleveland in winter, we got some snow!

This photo is from Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning, we had probably 4-6" but no school delays or closings as there would have been in Cedar Rapids: the sound of snowblowers rang out all morning. It was not a problem to drive in at all.

Photos from the drive from Cleveland to DC would include:

• snow-covered trees, like lace against the cloudy sky 
• Pennsylvania mountains and valleys
• my first glimpse of a highway sign that said "Washington DC"

I felt triumphant coming into DC, despite the fact that I missed a couple turns and Siri had to reroute me. I had Hamilton blaring on Spotify to match the excitement of driving in city traffic.

I was so tired of sitting that I talked Bruce into going for a walk with me that cold night. Guess where we went?

No need to drive to that location: it's a 10 minute walk!!

Now the car is parked right outside our apartment. I used it today to go load up on groceries at Giant Foods. I don't know when I'll drive it next, but maybe it'll come in handy at some point.