Going to Comic-Con after all

I’m posting this from a motel in central Pennsylvania, the first chance I’ve had to go online since I left home this morning.  Yes, I decided I was well enough to make the trip after all, but I forgot to update the blog before I left.  I should arrive in New York tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully will be able to get to the convention for a few hours at least.  If not, I’ll be there Saturday and Sunday.

It took me longer to get going than I’d hoped, so I only got about 8 hours of travel in before I had to stop for the night (I’m not comfortable driving in the dark).  However, I seem to have made it nearly 2/3 of the way, which means, allowing for NYC traffic, it might take me another 6 hours or so tomorrow.

And the trip is costing me more than I’d hoped.  Gas prices seem to have gone up in the past few days since I last checked, and this motel, the only convenient one I could find, is a lot more pricey than I’d hoped for.  I decided to undertake this trip because I figured it’d be only slightly more expensive than a Greyhound ticket, but it’s looking as if the overage is substantially more than I’d thought.  Well, at least I don’t have to pay for a hotel, since I’m staying with a friend (although he’ll be at the con all day tomorrow, so that’s a bit trickier to work out than if I’d arrived today as I’d planned).  That would’ve been really expensive.

Well, at least I’m getting a new experience, even if it’s mostly an experience of the freeway.  But the interstate isn’t quite as homogeneous as people say.  At least there’s a lot of variety in the landscape.  Lotsa pretty mountains in Pennsylvania, though I’m not crazy about the windy roads around them, especially when trucks are barrelling downhill toward me.

And I’m developing a serious resentment for tailgaters.  It’s rather alarming when I’m driving along at a reasonable speed and some speed freak just comes up closer and closer behind me as if they intend to drive right through me without slowing down.   It’s damned rude, as well as dangerous.  Generally I pull into another lane to let the jerks go by, but once I was so spooked by this big car crowding me from behind that I neglected to check my side mirror and almost veered into another car before I noticed them there.

In general, I’m amazed how many freeway drivers seem to be dangerously irresponsible.  Every time I come across a construction zone or a bridge festooned with signs warning of a reduced speed limit, I slow down appropriately but everyone else just keeps tearing along at 65 MPH or faster, even when the signs say 45.  Doesn’t anyone read the signs?  They’re there for a reason.

Even when I was stuck behind and between a couple of “Oversize Load” trucks towing prefab house segments, their drivers were tearing along at 65 or better even when the signs emphatically said they needed to slow down.  You’d think they of all people would be aware of the need to limit their forward momentum.  I tell you, I was very relieved when they finally veered off onto another route.