The Trip to Grad School - 22-26 August 2000

Goodbyes, etc.

August 22: Some last shots as I pack up my stuff...

The trip begins...one last shot of home as I hit the road...

The first (expected) stop at Grandma's:

The first unexpected stop at a Shell station in West Roxbury, MA. An alternator belt blew, taking with it most of the alternator causing the radiator to stop working and the engine to overheat. Luckily, there wasn't any permanent damage from overheating, and luckier still this Shell station was just a five minute walk from my other grandmother's house. Here we see the car en route to the nearest Saab dealership:

August 22-23: Since my mom needed a bed to sleep on, we still spent the night in a nearby hotel...a Ramada. For the first time in my life, we were twice awoken to fire alarms (3am and 4am) whice required everyone to go outside and watch the many firetrucks come and go:

Here we are back in the Saab (which got fixed overnight) at 12:05pm on the 23rd, finally heading out to Wisconsin. Some wouldn't have trusted the car anymore at this point, but we decided to try (and borrowed our aunt and grandma's cell phone just in case).

August 23-24: By that evening we'd made it to Erie, PA where we tried out a Best Western. Luckily, there were no fire alarms here, so we were out and on the road by 9:30am.

Here are some road signs we passed along the way:

And what with my mom's penchant for Dairy Queen Blizzards, here's where we had the sense that things might be looking up:

Some of the typical things you see along the road (I90):

These came in handy a bunch of times while on the road:

And around 4pm, we got into the Chicago region where traffic was backed up for miles. I wanted to see the skyline around here, and I had plenty of time to take it in.

The first sign of Wisconsin:

More Chicago:

Finally, we made it to Wisconsin...here's a little travel station that meets you at the border:

Including a Wisconsin state flag:

We got into Madison around 8 or 9pm and stayed in another Best Western...not as nice as the one in Erie, but better than the Ramada!

Go to Part 2