The man's side of it!

Yesterday Cassie and I took Billy to RPI (Renselaer Polytechnical Institute in troy New York) where he'll be attending college. We left at 6:00 AM. Previously when Cassie took Billy up for orientation they went via the Mapquest directions which took over 6 hours and was a 255 mile journey.

Friday night I checked out the route with my Mircrosoft Streets & Strips program. By going a different route I figured out a way to shave off almost 50 miles. Unfortunately I forgot that route 206 from our house went through downtown Trenton. There was no traffic though and except for some traffic lights it wa clear sailing all the way through. My next mistake was in not staying on RT 206. Somehow I missed the turn and wound up on Rt 202 North, a minor setback, it was only a little out of the way and ended up working just fine fo us.

We took Rt 202 all the way to Somerville and we stopped at the "Time To Eat" diner for breakfast. We spent about 45 minutes there and then we got on Rt 287 North. We continued on Rt 87 North after we crossed over the border into New York. It was a nice ride until we encoutered some light and heavy rain soon after we started out on the NY Thruway. It cleared up as we neared Albany and the sun came out. We then got on Rt 787 and pulled in to RPI soon after.

We arrived at RPI just before 11:00 so the whole journey took about 5 hours including the breakfast stop. Cassie and Billy went to the field house and Billy registered. Then we had to find his Dorm in the Quadrangle and unload his stuff. Before we left NJ we told Billy he had to be careful of the amount of stuff he was bringing as he had to share a small dorm room with two other guys. After we went through his things we weeded out about half of what he planned to take. (He originally planned to take everything!) When we walked into his room we were shocked at how small it really was. (it was smaller than his bedroom at home and now he had to share it with two others!)

It took about a hour to unload and when we were finished Cassie wanted to help Billy unpack. We suggested that Billy take the loft bunk, it was the only one with a mattress yet and the setup was better than the other bunks. He said he would rather wait for his roomates to get there and they would decide together. We told him the rule was first come first pick and he should get the best one, he was first. But Billy didn't like it so we got the impression that he wanted us to go and he would finish unpacking himself.

[composed and posted with ecto]

We had arranged to meet with some of Cassie's friends in Troy, Dawn and Jim but we canceled out so I could start on the journey home right away. I didn't want Cassie to have to drive unless I couldn't. We left RPI at 12:15 and headed back the way we came up. We stopped at the first rest area on the Thruway and went inside to eat lunch and make a potty pit stop but it was too crowded.. So we got back in the car and went to the next one. We had lunch there and then continued on our way. We made even better time going home than coming up until while Cassie and I were happily chatting I missed the RT 31 off turn in NJ. I didn't realize my mistake until we came to the New Hope bridge crossing the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. I couldn't turn around so I had to cross over and pay the toll. Fortunately there was no toll going back.

By the way, just before our trip I signed up and received our E-zpass toll tag. What a great way to get through the stinkin' tolls. It really does make life a little easier.

I took Rt 29 home (It follows the canal and the Delaware River) and we had a very pleasant scenic ride home. We got home about 5:30 PM and ordered Chinese for dinner. Gram and the girls still hadn't got back from their outing yet so Cassie and I spent some quality time relaxing from our journey. With two stops and a little mis direction we still made great time and shaved some miles off our trip. I think my average speed was about 80 miles an hour on the Thruway and RT 287 and quite a bit less on the smaller highways and local roads.

I went to bed around 9:30 last night and slept well until 5:am this morning. What a great day we had!

Yes it was a great day, one of the best I can remember in the last couple of years! Thanks for doing all the driving, sweet Teddy Bear! ILU!

I didn't want you to leave, I just couldn't unpack with that many people in the room. Half of my stuff though I may have brought, it still takes up a lot of room.

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