Leg 1: Albany to Norfolk

We got an early start the first day, packed the minor things like glasses, pillows and such and Halley and got on the road. For the first song of the trip I chose a Phish tape from 1990 specifically to play 'Destiny Unbound', with the lyrics 'We gotta get on the road, destiny unbound.....she's the one for me, we gotta get out of town', perfect for the trip the three of us were about to undertake.

The drive was un-momentousness for the first few hours. There was no traffic to speak of until southern Jersey but it was smooth sailing until Baltimore. Then we hit a lot of traffic. We sat in stop and go traffic for well over an hour, never finding out what the holdup was. In the midst of this, the air conditioning didnt seem to be working as well as it was earlier and more importantly, the temperature gauge was slowly creeping up into the 'H' region. I have no experience with cars or car repair and was a bit nervous but noticed that the arrow went down as we were able to travel a bit. So when we traveled it was OK but not sitting in traffic. We made it out of Baltimore alive and found comfort in the HOV lanes around Washington, DC. It wasn't too much longer before we were sailing into southern Virginia and arriving at Ken's place.

Leg 1 - 700 miles

Ken was one of my fraternity brothers from Syracuse. Although the chapter closed in the fall of 1997, he and I remained tight and I visited him a few times during the years I spent up in Syracuse. Likewise, he came up for Homecoming and other events because he's a good alumnus and a good friend. Additionally, Ken had a dog named Molson, a Dalmatian that lived with him in the fraternity house and later South Carolina and Virginia. Ken and Molson were tight and he trained his dog well, enough so that I followed his lead with Halley. Although Molson passed away shortly after I got Halley, a little bit of Molson lives on through her. 

When we finally got to Ken’s place, he had another dog I didn't know about named Onyx, a Border Collie who was very nervous around Halley but she didn't mind as she was more concerned with the rest of the house and the backyard. We all needed to stretch our legs after a 10 hour drive in the backseat and only a couple of stops.

We stayed at Ken’s for only a night, but it was a weird night. We had the car fully packed with all our stuff, and only room for Halley but Ken rode with us so Halley was left at the house in the garage (comfortably mind you) She didn’t like this idea one bit, so she barked and barked and barked loud enough just as I was getting to the car so I had no choice but to get her and bring her with us to the bars. In retrospect, an unfamiliar place wasn't the best spot to leave her in to start the trip. So all 4 of us, Hillary, Ken and Halley piled into the car with all the stuff for the trip.  We stopped at Atlanta Beer Garden and a few other small places before heading back to the house where we hung out for a little bit to end the night. It was a good night with Ken and a solid start to the trip - familiar confines before venturing into the unknown of the South. Hill and I slept in while Halley got up early to play with Onyx. They had a blast in the backyard which led to a nice nap for Halley for much of the ride that day down to South Carolina.