Some voodoo doll must have been administered to get me to volunteer to drive the first leg of the journey. I generally need about 12 hours of sleep or else I kill the first person I see and go back to bed. But somehow I felt today that, after only a three-hour snooze, I was competent enough to take the lives of my friends into my own drowsy hands and somehow not fuck up. My parents had been somewhat right: the roads weren�t very slick this morning, though they had been � Jon and I counted ten overturned cars in ditches in the first half-hour alone. It was sort of like that level in Doom where you walk through a bunch of rooms empty except for dozens of horribly disfigured corpses, wondering what could have caused so much carnage, until you open that last door and boom � you�re face-to-face with the Cacodemon of the I-70 off-ramp. But my parents were also mistaken � though we started out behind the storm, we eventually caught up with it, which was fun times for both us and the car. Someday, we will find a car wash strong enough to restore the Oldsmobile to its former glory days.

Jon Akers made us stop for lunch in Greenville, Indiana, which just happened to have a Federal Correction Institution � apparently he wanted to fraternize with his people. I managed to keep him from going inside, though I did take his picture next to the sign (which might possibly be a federal crime, I�m not exactly sure). The afternoon drive was exhilarating in that an accident occurred roughly a hundred feet in front of us � some car back-ended a truck, making both fly all over the place and cause a semi behind them to go off the road and destroy the guard railing on the side. It could�ve been us, I guess� good thing we weren�t driving any faster. Actually, I�d attribute that to the Oldsmobile not being able to go above 85, in all fairness.

One of the absolute best parts about this trip was that we were staying with friends and acquaintances the whole way there and back. Not only does that mean we get to see them, but we also avoided having to pay for hotels, most dinners and things of that sort. On the first night we stayed in Indiana with Becky, one of my mom�s friends from a while back and her husband Chuck. We knew it was going to be a good night one step through the door to see the kitchen table absolutely filled with food. Now, put the four of us together and we can usually pick an entire kitchen clean (Jon Akers himself would eat about half, I have no idea where he puts it) but this was enough to feed the entire city of Indianapolis, so even we had to admit defeat after a few hours. Also, did you know that Finch from American Pie has his own sitcom? It�s called Off Centre and it also has that Asian dude from American Pie in it as well. It�s not that bad, check it out sometime. Another great feature of Chuck and Becky�s house was its ample supply of real, comfortable beds, which was great after trying to sleep in a car full of bags and guys. Vic and Jon had to sleep together, though, which I can�t imagine worked out all that well.