The American leg of the journey

The trip has begun. Yesterday, or maybe three days ago…. Or maybe two weeks ago. I left New York at the beginning of the month and spent the next two weeks in “the two Virginias.” Caroline and I drove down to Maryland and stayed with Laura G. for a night (thanks Laura, and sorry to all my other friends in DC who I didn’t call, I was only there to spend the night). Then we drove on down to Lexington for Caroline’s brother Tommy’s graduation from Washington & Lee. Congrats Tommy et al. And thanks for letting me pretend to be 22 again for a couple of nights. I left Caroline with her family for her drive back to NYC and then set off for beautiful Athens, WV. My sister and brother-in-law (Irene & Gabe) were expecting their first child (and my first niece). After more than a week of baby-proofing the house, hanging pictures, putting together shelves, several trips to Walmart (and K-Mart and Target and Michael’s and Lowes…), a day trip to Blacksburg (go Hokies!) , and more getting stared at by inbred-looking and obese West Virginians, we were a week past the due date with no baby. I had to go pick up Janet from the Charlotte Airport on Monday (the 15th) and so I decided to just leave and get the trip started. I packed up the car and started the 3 hour journey to Charlotte. Halfway to Charlotte, Irene called to say they were inducing labor that night. So I picked up Janet and we headed back 3 hours to Athens. We spent a few surreal hours sitting around waiting for Irene & Gabe to go to the hospital and then we went to bed. At 10:45 the next morning, my mom called and said, “She’s starting to push.” Janet and I hurried got ready, put Pico in the basement, and headed down the mountain to the hospital. Margaret Irene was born at 11:26 with the vital stats of: 7 lb 13 oz, 22 inches, and cutest newborn ever. That afternoon we packed up the car once again and headed down the road to Michael & Rachel’s in SC. We stayed two nights there and bought more stuff at Target & Walmart and repacked the car once again and then headed off yesterday down I-85, I-65, and I-10 to Baton Rouge. Natalie and Steve put us up here and took us out for crawfish and beers and sometime this morning we’re hitting the road again for Texas. If all goes as planned, we’ll be crossing the border into Mexico tomorrow morning. So maybe the roadtrip officially begins then. Either way, there are 2200 new miles on the car since leaving NYC and I’m starting to get really excited to break out my rusty Spanish. Hasta pronto!
-Matt