Eighty Hours, 13 States, 2950 miles

In the past 3 months, I've had 3 road trips of 1500 miles or more.  The biggest by far was to Connecticut to retrieve the club's 'new to us' trailer for hauling kayaks.  After the last trip to Georgia with the wheels almost falling off, I swore I'd never do another road trip without a real trailer. So a little shopping and it was ours.  Now to get it back from Connecticut...

Rather than wait for a 'committee decision' about who could take time away, when to go, etc. I took advantage of a quiet weekend coming up at work, and planned to hit the road for CT.  To cut the expenses, I arranged a couple of boat deliveries, threw a sleeping bag and pillow in the truck, loaded up the ipod with tunes, audiobooks, and hit the road.  To paraphrase the great Jake Blues "It's 1300 miles to Connecticut, I've got a full tank of gas, half a box of Cheese-its, it's dark and I'm wearing bifocals."

Making a drive like this solo requires recognizing that you have to rely on something other than conversation to keep you awake.  For me that means coffee.  And Pandora. And frequent breaks.  

Leaving Minnesota just before rush hour means getting through Chicago without hassles.  On the other hand, that means it's dark out.  I pulled out my pillow and blanket to catch a few hours sleep at a turnpike oasis in Indiana, and hit the road a few hours later bound for Connecticut.

A few words about rest areas - Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania all get high marks for their stops.  Pretty standardized, fairly clean, and mostly OK.  Coffee - well, let's just say it's not a religion across the I 90/80 corridors. New Jersey?  Don't these people get 'clean bathroom'?  The trucker's side was cleaner.  But in general, it had the feeling of a hard used public restroom in Grand Central Station.
I made it to Connecticut and picked up my trailer, dropped one boat, picked up another, and found a hotel for the night.  A quick stop for a burger and beer, and I was down for the night.  The following morning, I dropped by WinTech to pick up the trailer and head west for St Louis.  I learned a couple of lessons about Garmin on this trip - the biggest one is always carry a copy of the Rand McNally Atlas!  The second is that unless you buy the truck edition of Garmin's devices, don't pay attention to Garmin when going through places like NY City.  I spent enough time on Google to make some alterations, but they didn't prepare me for winding up on the 'cars only' deck on the GW bridge.  Fortunately, no tickets, but darn...
The trailer towed really well.  27' at the base, 35' on top, double axle, well over 1000lb of solid steel and rotting wood.  No issues with losing parts - at least not after I pulled off a couple of rails that were hanging on by a prayer, and duct taped them into the oar holders.
A long day in the rain and mist through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky brought me to Madison, Indiana and the end to a long day.  The only real excitement was a running board on the trailer that decided to rot out and drop one end in the middle of a construction zone in Kentucky.  I pulled off as soon as the zone ended, pulled the board off, and left it with other debris on the back side of the K-rail. Must have been a favored spot - a bumper, bit of broken furniture and a pallet. It was the spot.
Another early start and a long drive to St Louis Rowing Club to drop off a 'Section 8' King rowing shell.
St Louis RC boathouse is another nice building, located in a park out in the NW burbs.  Another few hours on the road, a detour through Chatfield Minnesota (and some rather obscure country trails following Garmin's instructions) and I was home.
Finished with engines around 80 hours and 2950 miles after leaving.
Listening list for the trip:
Pandora - Guy Clark; Emmylou Harris as seeds
Robert Earl Keen
Bob Marley
Albannach
lots of others in the mix

Podcasts - the NPR mix - TED, Car Talk, Wait Wait,

Books - Carl Hiaasen - Bad Monkey