Day One - Leaving DC

After a morning and early afternoon of frantic packing, painting, and goodbyes, I hopped in Sark at 3:30. After yet another pit stop in Arlington--to drop off the last of my East Coast belongings with Hoff and Josh--I was on my merry way westward.

I like driving outside the city on this coast. Everything looks basically the same, but it all looks exactly like this early American artwork from the calendar on my grandmother's wall. Rolling hills every way you look, with a kind of frosted, airbrushed look to them. Soft. Right now the trees still have no leaves so the light shines through them playfully during the day, but at night they only show up when illuminated by the lights on billboards. The roads are so dark out in the country. Those billboard lights are the only other sign of man and the stars above are so bright that I can see them clearly even in my peripheral vision.

Since I left so late, I spent my daylight hours chasing the sunset. It was prettiest when it sat on top of the crests of hills in the distance, but the colors were at their most vibrant when there was nothing but big sky in front of me.

When I pulled off the road in Western Maryland to get gas, I realized that I could not have stuck out more if I had tried. I was sporting my bright USC sweatshirt, flip flops (it was about 38 degrees), and pink rimmed aviator sunglasses. And I'm still covered in white paint. In addition to the incredulous looks of the woman working in the gas station, I also saw a funny sign on the side of the road. It was an official looking pair of blue rectangles. The bottom's white arrow clearly pointed to the left. The top had a single large white question mark. As far as I could tell, it was pointing at a BP gas station, but maybe it was a magical BP gas station, or an alien spaceship in disguise.....this is what happens to your brain when you sit in a car with just a sleeping cat for company for 7 hours.

Ah, and speaking of Inara...she's doing well. Although her general "WTF?" face has not gone away, she ended up sleeping most of the day and she did manage to avoid making me crash. She's really very sweet.

I found a little La Quinta Inn near Columbus and am sleeping alone (OK, with the cat, whatever) in a king bed, which feels a little excessive, but that's what they had.

Tomorrow I'm off to St. Louis.