Day 7: Friday 24 Dec 1999
Wytheville, VA to Reston, VA - 300 Miles
(Posted 12:00 PM EST on 25 Dec 1999)

It's over, Johnny! Well, we made it. Our home state of Virginia turned out to be the toughest state yet. When we woke up this morning we were greeted by snow flurries outside our motel door, and the snow got steadily worse as the morning wore on. But, in addition to reduced visibility from the snowstorm and slick roads, we found ourselves engaged in a desperate game of cat and mouse with Virginia's law enforcement officers, who are, by far, the most devious of the radar trappers we have encountered on our journey. They've been camouflaging themselves in some really, really clever hiding places, and it was only the fact of my genetically-engineered intellect that allowed us to survive! Our final day was dominated by snow and snow-related traffic snarls. We were in five significant backups, all with emergency vehicles, and all of which put a serious dent in our E.T.A. Even when there wasn't any traffic, there were many times when the weather prevented us from going faster than 35 or 40 MPH. Nevertheless, we made it, with a modicum of excitement. Here are some pictures to show you how bad it got. In this picture, we've either come to a complete stop… or are about to have a tremendous crash. (The fact that you're reading this should tell you which it was.) Around lunchtime we discovered yet another feature of Ed and Katy's car, one which turned out to be quite useful. Sitting in traffic for a few hours created quite an urgent need in the both of us to use the bathroom. So we pulled over at a Wendy's for lunch and a bathroom break. As Lars got out of the car, he heard a curious binging sound. He was about to close the door and walk into the restaurant when he said to Mike, "Hey, I think that's the first time I've heard that beeping sound." Mike made a face that told Lars he was hearing it for the first time, too, and was puzzled. He thought about it for a second and said, "Uh, well why don't you turn your lights off." So, from Lars and Mike to the engineers at Honda: nice work with the your-lights-are-on-alarm. After we got back on the interstate the sun came out, as if to welcome its returning heroes to Northern Virginia with a glorious day of sunshine! We rolled into Reston at 2:15 PM, tired, and with less than four dollars cash between us, but happy we made the trip. Here are some interesting statistics: Cross Country '99: Ten states, 3305 miles, 6 and a half days, 116 gallons of gas, 6 Interstates, 24 bottles of water, 8 bottles of Gatorade, one bag of jerky, 2 border checks (though, strangely, no borders), 1 traffic stop (and several near misses), 48 bathroom breaks, 987 cows, 37 dead deer, 14 individual pieces of roadside kitsch, 1 angry pen, not enough hours of sleep, and two exhausted travelers. Thanks for reading. We hope you had as much fun as we did. And we only have one more thing to say: Hey Ed, any chance you could get reassigned to the west coast sometime this summer? Seattle, maybe?