Counting the Cars on the NJ Turnpike

We're on the second leg of our East Coast tour. The visit with my parents is done with. I'd summarize the situation as things are better with my mom, and uncertain with my dad. Thanks for all the helpful comments. Fathers are truly a great mystery in life. My dad's dad died when my father was 15 so he never had an adult relationship with his father -- so maybe part of this is not really having a role model.

However, for now I'm glad to have the visit in my rear-view mirror. The kids have been amazingly well-behaved on this, their first really long road-trip. They have rolled with sleeping in strange places -- crib one night, pack-n-play the next. The only real hiccup has been that Boy Twin had a run of about three nights in-a-row when he was waking up at 4:30am and refused to go back down for about an hour and a half. At almost thirteen months he has yet to actually cut a tooth, so we assume he must be getting close. We gave him baby orajel, baby tylenol, a sippy cup of water and finally a small bottle with formula before he went back to sleep. Thank god the bottle worked because after that the only thing left in my bag of tricks was to reach for the whiskey and swap shots with my son until one of us passed out. But last night he made it through without our early-morning rendezvous so hopefully we're past that now.

I really love road trips. Back when I was in college I cherished making the trip back and forth from New Jersey to Iowa by myself. I may have been one of the few people who would regularly turn down offers to share driving and split gas money because I loved clearing my mind with hours and hours of solitary driving. The drive between Iowa and Jersey was great because I would basically get on I-80 and just go -- no thinking required, just keep the car pointed toward the horizon. I used to call it my mental enema.

Of course, music was a vital part of the experience and I would prepare special mix tapes for my drives. I've reconstructed below one that might have been made in the spring of 1994. Wish I had the technical savvy to podcast it, but maybe in the future.

Yo La Tengo - Detouring America With Horns (the perfect song when you set out over the rolling hills of Central Iowa early in the morning)
Michelle Shocked - Come A Long Way (another great travelling song)
Mighty Mighty Boss Tones -- Illegal Left (now we're moving)
Uncle Tupelo - Gun (don't tell me which way I oughta run)
Bruce Springsteen - Open All Night (hey ho rock n roll deliver me from nowhere)
Superchunk - Precision Auto (sorry, I can't hear you)
Sugar - A Good Idea (no anger issues here)
Liz Phair - 6'1" (really, all of Exile in Guyville was rocking my world then)
Soul Asylum - Spinnin' (from before they sucked)
David Baerwald - A Secret Silken World (for when it's getting late)
Uncle Tupelo - Still Be Around (damn, do I miss this band. Wilco is too arty)
Yo La Tengo - Speeding Motorcycle (going fast was never so slow)