Would You Rather?

It's 2 am Friday, we just got to our hotel in Colombus, OH and are ready to sleep 5 hours before getting up to drive another 10-12 hours tomorrow and 3 or 4 on Saturday. The drive was entertaining actually, and really pretty for a while. Alberta (my car) was weighed down, with Ben in the backseat of course, and we pulled a lot of "I think I can"s up the mountains of northwest Maryland. For the first time in my life I have literally "put the pedal to the metal". Joyce and I learned about Ben's many entrepreneurial ideas, including mixed bags of m&ms and new music sharing websites. Ben and I learned from Joyce how de-salination plants work and how they are highly energy inefficient and not a real sollution to the world's water crises. Joyce and Ben learned from me the expression balls to the wall and we all decided that it makes no sense. Did I make it up? We stopped at an ecclectic gas station cafeteria jig in Morgantown, WV where I bought an entire pizza from Little Ceasar's for $5. God bless america with her fast, cheap, eat in the car food. We also ate an entire box of cheez-itz between the three of us. We attempted to take pictures of every state welcoming sign but ended up with two pictures of West Virginia, one of Friendville, and none of Pennsylvania or Ohio. We had a long and successful series of "Would you rather?" challenges. Some of my favorites were:

1. Would you rather run 26 miles in broad daylight in a safe place surrounded by many people or walk 5 miles through a dangerously deserted and sketchy area in the middle of the night?
Ben would walk, Joyce and I would run

2. Would you rather be homeless or be a truck driver?
Ben would be homeless, Joyce and I would be truck drivers

3. Would you rather ride your bike across the state of Iowa or be buried alive in a pit of fire ants?
Joyce and I would bike, Ben would do both


We got to our motel, America's Best Value Inn, around 1 am. The five of us are sharing one room, which was reserved for my parents and their "two kids". We have two beds and an air mattress. We got to our room and, low and behold, there was an ant infestation which was a problem for Ben's plan to sleep on the floor. We switched rooms and my classy parents poured themselves a glass of wine each at 1:30 in the morning, wine that they transported across 4 states in a bike water bottle. I need to get up in 5 hours, not drink coffee, and get back on the road. I look forward to many more hours of interesting conversation, and hopefully some nap time as well. But for now I'm looking forward to sleeping.

Did I mention we're in Colombus, Joyce's birth city where she hasn't been since she moved away at age six?