Today was the beginning of our big trip to Columbus with a 6 month old baby. The trip is to be split into 2 parts which will hopefully make it easier for her. Part one consists of driving from New Jersey to New Stanton, PA. Usually this trip takes about 6 hours start to finish with one stop for gas. This time - who knows as we’d be stopping to change and feed Lillian. There was no way she would sleep for the whole trip so we hoped she wouldn’t get too bored or cranky or both.

Scott has asked the night before if I could take some photos of Jersey for the movie. Before that I had to stop at the office to send a fax. We also had to pack up the car. I was on a slight deadline because I had to do all of that before 8:15am so we could get to Lillian’s DOC Band appointment on time. Not a problem though as Debbie thoughtfully packed most of the car last night and the fax and photos didn’t take too long.

We set out at about 8:17am with a quick stop at McDonalds because I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. The traffic up to Paramus was pretty bad. What is usually a 1 hour trip at most took almost 2, but Debbie was well prepared for it and that’s why we left so early. We made it with plenty of time to spare. The person at Cranial Technologies said that the progress was great and that it would be another 3-4weeks. She also mentioned that if we really wanted her head to be perfect that getting another band after this one would be an option. I think the progress has been so great that there is no need or desire.

After the DOC band appointment we headed to grandma’s thinking she would want to head out for lunch or something. She mentioned that her cleaning lady would be coming soon and that she wouldn’t be able to leave the house so we just hung out with her for an hour and met both her cleaning woman and the Meals on Wheels lady, who actually did stop to talk to her and play with the baby. All those silly Meals on Wheels commercials were right.

We hit the road for New Stanton at 1:00pm. Since we hadn’t stopped for lunch we were getting hungry. We mapped out a trip to Yocco’s in Bethlehem as our lunchtime destination. As we drove through New Jersey and started heading for the PA border I remembered that there was this hot dog joint called Toby’s Cup that I always wanted to try. As we got closer I asked Debbie to look for it on the right and then it appeared. Before pulling into the lot I remembered that I only had $5 in cash on me and that we had a budget to work with.

Luckily having only $5 was no problem. the dogs were only 90 cents each (up from 75 as stated on the menu at Hollyeats.com) so I was able to get 4 of them plus a can of soda. We sat outside and ate our dogs. The dogs were delicious by the way - deep fried and topped with mustard, onions and a pickle slice.

Now that I wad down to $.45 cents I decided we had to find a bank and get some money. We pulled into the shopping plaza where the Yocco’s was and I went off to find a phone book so I could find a Wachovia branch. Oddly enough the Verizon store did not have a phone book handy so I went into the Kaplan next door and they had one. I used that to find a nearby branch and on the return trip to the highway we decided to stop back at Yocco’s. I got a dog and Debbie got some pierogies. On the way out I noticed that Yocco’s offered free wireless access.

We stopped again once in the parking lot of a Target and fed and changed the kid. I picked up some fruit snacks and mini cookies from Target. The best ting about road trips is all the junk food.

At about 5pm or so we hit a rest area to get a break and to feed Lillian. I stupidly left the car out of accessory position and when I went to start up the car the battery was just dead enough to hinder the starter. Crap! We walked over to the Sunoco station to see if we could get a jump to no avail. No what? Debbie noticed a highway truck had just pulled in to get gas so she went over and asked them for a jump. Luckily they had cables and got us up and running 10 minutes later. Thank you God. I was just feeling some relief as we left the rest area and started going again. Then another issue arose.

I went to turn the radio on and noticed that it said ‘CODE’. Crap - I had heard of this before - apparently if the car battery is disconnected it activates the anti-theft code on the radio and makes it inoperable. 5 more hours on this trip, 2 today and 3 tomorrow with no music or XM? This was really bad. I sore I had the anti-theft code in my glove compartment binder but it wasn’t in there. All the Acura service departments were closed and the 24 hour hotline wouldn’t give me the code without the radio serial number. I didn’t have that either. They informed me that I would have to take it to a dealer and have them pull the radio out to get the serial number. Only them would I be granted the code. This really sucked and with the silence of the trip occasionally broken by the screams of a crying baby, the next 2 hours to New Stanton seemed like 100.

Before hitting New Stanton we stopped in Somerset and ate dinner at the King Family Restaurant. I got some chicken fried steak with sausage gravy with a side of fries and sausage gravy. The calories and fat made me feel a bit better I think. Debbie and I kind of taught Lillian to drink from a straw and we shared a dessert called a ‘Frownie’ which was pretty good - and cheap.

We hit New Stanton and the famous Days Inn an hour later and made the big move into room 230. The sign out front has boasted ‘FREE HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS’ which did not work very well if at all. I ended up using the cell phone as a modem and found an Acura dealership 8 miles away that I decided I would take the car to in the morning.