Day 1 - MA to VA

Today was the first day of the road trip. We got up early and left about quarter past six. We covered a few states on our journey today: MA, CT, NY, NJ, DE, MD, VA. Traffic was good until everyone from NY and NJ decided that a beautiful Saturday was a good chance to go to the beach. Aside from that there weren’t many holdups. Oh . . . except for when the accelerator decided to not work at all while we were on 95 south in ole Virginny. Luckily the brakes worked and we were able to get to an emergency lane without killing us or anyone else.

AAA was called and, while we waited for a tow truck to deliver the horrible news that the car needed to be incinerated and it would cost us 9 billion dollars to remove the ashes, a VA Safety Patrol came by and troubleshot our issue. Luckily it seems that what I thought was going to be some complex mechanical issue may have just been a loose gas cap. Once this guy tightened the gas cap, the accelerator worked again, but the engine light continued to taunt us. We have to take the car in tomorrow to Pep Boys so they can either verify or negate the Safety Patrolman’s theory. We’re going to sleep with our fingers crossed that the car will be all right and we will be able to continue on our journey tomorrow. NEVER SAY DIE!!!

If all goes well with the car then tomorrow we’re off to Atlanta to get ready to see some whale sharks at the aquarium! If the car taps out then we are walking, I guess.

Today’s points of interest:
-there’s a Giant Shiny Jesus in DE
-if you hold a fast pass upside down the state gives you money
-the rest stop in MD was a bizarro rest stop and everything was counter intuitive
-the sun apparently does not shine within NJ’s borders due to the smog
-Charlie is the dude for letting us stay at his house.
-Fuddruckers
-NJ only allows full service gas stations so they can loosen your gas cap in an attempt to keep you in the state.

UPDATE:

We just got back from Pep Boys and the car is fine, thank goodness. The gas station attendant from New Jersey almost ruined our trip! Now we are off to Atlanta!