what a loooooooooong day...

... as if driving from pittsburgh, pennsylvania to memphis, tennessee all in one shot isn't already long by itself.

but add in:
(1) coming within 5 feet of starting the day in a major carwreck
(i was in rush hour traffic on I-376 in pittsburgh this morning. when i saw all the cars in front of me completely stopped, i started braking so that i had plenty of room to stop... the car coming up incredibly waaaay too fast behind me apparently decided instead of braking to just zip around me, and he did, merging in front of me again just in time to collide into the car in front of me at about 60mph, and then went flying across 2 lanes of traffic in a ball of smoke, seriously all less than 20 feet from my car. made me EXTRA alert for the start of my day...)
(2) lots of rain and fog for 70% of the day... which after a certain event 3 years ago makes me more tense than normal....
(3) inadvertently taking a 30 minute detour completely the wrong way
(seriously, i know interstates on the eastern half of the country insanely well, but when i finally temporarily got out of the rain in southern kentucky, it was at sunset. the sun was glaring so bright in my windshield straight on that i couldn't see a freakin thing in front of me, so i just followed the dotted lines on either side of my lane and crossed my fingers that the cars in front of me didn't suddenly brake because i couldn't see them... unfortunately following the dotted line led me off of I-65, and onto a kentucky state highway that didn't have any exits or chances to turn around for 20 minutes, hence an unintentional detour... doht. at least kentucky hills are really pretty at sunset?)

at any rate, the usual 12.5 hour trek took 14 hours instead this time and i'm TIRED.

on the plus side there are nice people. i pulled over at a rest stop in eastern ohio early this morning and there were two guys in a trailer in the parking lot handing out coffee, hot cocoa, fruit, cookies, and chips for free (with a tip jar on the counter). they were super friendly and totally made my morning after being moderately distressed about witnessing the accident an hour before.

anywho, i'm here.... TN for 4 days of craziness, and then leg 2 of lara's winter break roadtrip 2006 continues on wednesday. stay tuned for more fun!