Random Observations on a Road Trip

I traveled to Jersey City, New Jersey yesterday to pick up my new (used) car. I've put a picture at the bottom so you can see my new ride. As some of you know, I have been looking to replace our second car for a few months and finally scored it on eBay, hence the day trip to Jersey City. However, with the new car came a radio that requires a code to make it work. So I had some time to think on the drive home. So I wrote this blog post in my head.

• I have (in my mind) come up with a list of New Years Resolutions but have not yet gotten around to posting them here for public review. One of them is however, getting out of bed when the alarm goes off, which will allow for an earlier arrival at work and a better time management of my work day. So today, I got up when the alarm went off (and one snooze) so the Brave Astronaut family could get downtown and I could make a train northward.
• Walking from the Metro to the bank (to get a bank check for the car) and back to the Metro reminded me how much I liked working downtown. The trip downtown also allowed me the opportunity to help drop off the boys at daycare, which LBA had been remarking to me that I never did.
• As I got on the Metro to go to Union Station, I was standing near the door of the subway train, and a woman looked over at me and said, "Brave?" "Brave Astronaut?" Of the mass of humanity crowded on the Metro on a morning when I wouldn't necessarily be downtown, I had managed to bump into someone I went to high school with, in New York. It was very funny and good to see her.
  
• I haven't ridden Amtrak in some time (I will say, had I bought a car from the Boston area, I could have flown there for less money than the train fare to Jersey City) but it was a very uneventful trip, complete with the requisite travel mall catalog in the seat pocket. VP-elect Joe Biden does know how to travel.
  
• While I should have used the time on the train to sleep, I instead read and found myself looking out the window. There is a wide range of stuff littering the side of the tracks. I would swear that I even saw evidence of where people had been living - another sign of the poor economy.
• I was also struck by the fact that in many places, looking out the window from a train is not the best view. I wonder if the President-elect will have the same thoughts when he travels to DC from New York next weekend?
• I bought the car from a used car dealer in Jersey City. It was everything you would have expected. Trailer, fenced in lot, in the wilds of Jersey City. And I had to put gas in the car and put on new wipers.
• I traveled home via the New Jersey Turnpike and noted with some interest that while there are rest areas up and down the Turnpike, the exits do not indicate what other amenities you might reach if you get off - with the exception of some hotels listed off of exit 5(?), including a Macintosh Inn, where I may have stayed once.
• When I reached the Delaware Memorial Bridge, I noted the overhead sign warning me of a slippery roadway but also offering me a phone number if I was in crisis. Does a slippery roadway make it harder for people in crisis to do what they may have come there to do?
• I made a pit stop at the Delaware rest area. I got some coffee, a snack, and a few dollars of Powerball tickets. I didn't win.

I am sure there are more random tidbits that I might have had last night, but the day overcame me and I had to get in bed. Which is why this post is 24 hours late from planned. But enjoy nonetheless. The car goes to the dealer tomorrow for a checkup. Wish me luck.