I Survived Kentucky!

I will gladly admit that I was wrong.

I was anticipating the worst when it came to driving halfway across the country to western Kentucky to attend the wedding of two strangers. As it turns out, it was actually pretty enjoyable!

We started driving at about 6:30 last Thursday night. We had a free upgrade to an SUV instead of an economy car, which also included a GPS navigation device (which we named Clarissa, because she explained it all) and XM Satellite Radio. So right off the bat, things were already better than I had anticipated they would be.

By about 2:00 am, we were starting to go crazy from exhaustion and decided to stop for the night. Everyone at worked had warned me not to stop in West Virginia (apparently not the most gay friendly state?), so we had to keep driving until we crossed the border. Once in Ohio we stopped at what had to have been the first one or two towns we came to, which I realize isn’t that much better than stopping in West Virginia itself, but when it’s 3:00 am and you’ve been driving for eight and a half hourse, you start to care about sleep more than you care about your safety.

So, we shacked up at a Days Inn in St. Clairsville, Ohio and fell asleep virtually the moment we got into the room.

Next morning we were up bright and early and back on the road by 9:00. After making it through Ohio and Kentucky and setting our clocks back an hour to allow for the time zone change, we finally made it to Owensboro by about 3:00.

Off to the wedding rehearsal since Kevin was a groomsman, then to the rehearsal dinner, and then we fought off some sleep long enough to catch the new Narnia movie.

The next morning Kevin showed me around Owensoboro, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s actually a charming little city. Large enough to have some great features, yet small enough to feel homey and comfortable.

The wedding was that evening and it was nice. Though, I have to admit that it’s a little weird going to a wedding where you don’t know the bride or the groom. It’s kind of like watching one on tv or in a movie. It’s hard to relate to the people involved since you don’t know them, so you spend most of the time just reflecting on what a wedding is and celebrating love in general instead of the specific love for the couple getting married.

After the reception I ended up driving the SUV back to the hotel since Kevin had had some wine, and even though he was completely sober enough to drive, I just wanted to err on the side of safety. Though, considering I haven’t really driven a car in about nine years, perhaps me driving wasn’t the safest option we had. Truth be told though, lately I’ve missed being behind the wheel of a car and was looking for an opportunity to try it out again.

A refresher course might have been a good idea though, as we pulled into the parking lot of a Denny’s next door to our hotel (which included me parking at about a 45 degree angle), and I turned off the car without putting it into park. Coupled with the fact that earlier that day I ran down the battery by playing the radio and using the air conditioning without the motor running. Yeah, it’s NOT just like riding a bike. You forget things.

The next morning we were up bright and early again and on the road by 9:30. We stopped in Louisville to have lunch with a friend of Kevin’s and shortly thereafter Kevin asked me to drive for a bit in order to give him a break. Now, I had secretly been kinda excited to drive on the streets of a small city, but going fast on an open freeway was perhaps the most terrifying thing I could think of, especially considering my two debacles the day before.

But, I agreed and hopped back into the driver’s seat. And I am very excited to announce that I drove from Florence, Kentucky to Columbus, Ohio. On the freeways. For 120 miles. Going really really fast. With giant semi trucks. And lanes merging.

And it felt good.

I’ve spent the past few days wishing I had a car again and wishing that I lived somewhere where I could actually drive a car. But here in NYC, it’s just not necessary. But that hasn’t stopped me from deciding that if I were to get a car, it would be a Prius. Because those things are just so damn cool.

We ended up arriving back home at about 1:30am after sixteen hours of driving. And it’s remarkable how you can spend sixteen hours sitting in one spot and still get so incredibly exhausted from it.

I took Bossy Bear with us, but didn’t take any pictures. There just weren’t any real landmarks or anything that inspired me to take one. Unless of course, you count the billboard along the way that said “HELL IS REAL!” But we couldn’t really slam on the brakes and run into the middle of the freeway to take a picture of a plastic bear wearing a cape and crown.

We did film about 50 minutes of footage during the entire weekend, and I’m just waiting (not so patiently) for Kevin to edit this one together. Once he does, I’ll share it here.

And before I could even get fully rested up from this wedding weekend, we already bought plane tickets (yes, we’re flying this time, thank jeebus!) to Columbus, Ohio for another wedding in mid-June.

This time…Cedar Point will also be involved.