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The title of the post is the total mileage we drove Wed Evening through Sunday on the trip to take our daughter to college. These are a collection of random thoughts that might have been tweets or Facebook updates had I not otherwise been busy driving. A couple of them may have actually made it online.

• Driving I-64 from Lexington VA to Saint Louis is a nice reminder that the soul crushing congestion in the DC area is not normal. It also makes me question why the hell I put up with it.

• There is no T-Mobile service in the state of WV.

• Driving through the Midwest is a reminder that not everybody enjoys ample 4G service like we do on the east coast.

• My daughter's dorm room is larger and better furnished than our first apartment.

• The food on college campuses has really improved. She essentially has her choice (all-you-can-eat) from a food court every day.

• It was great to meet up with Mark and part of his family in St Louis.

• I-70 through Illinois and Indiana is a mess. Lots of construction and where it's not under repair, it needs it. However, since it is IL and IN long stretches of one lane interstate really didn't slow us down.

• My decision Saturday morning to take US 50 E all the way from Ohio to Winchester VA was mixed. The first 1/3 of the trip - until you get to Clarksburg WV is great. It's 4 lanes and fast all the way. From there to the VA line it's nothing but switchbacks and hairpin curves. It might be a fun drive in a Corvette, but not so much in a Durango, especially for 4 hours. However using the 4 lane part of the route to avoid I-70 in PA seems like a good idea that will save time. Just make sure you hop on I-79 to I-68 to avoid the single lane stretch.

• The route did take us through Parkersburg WV, where we were able to meet up with Daryl. We managed to visit 2 friends and Michelle's sisters on the way home, so that was good.

• Twice in areas where to road shared a couple of names Google Maps picked the wrong one as the primary identifier. If you are one of those who blindly follow the GPS directions types you would end up off track when you followed the directions. Presumably, the disembodied voice from your phone would get you back on track quickly.

• Depending on Google for GPS service on the road is dicey. It needs 4G service to start up, although once you have navigation enabled it seems to be able to maintain service. Does it pre-fetch the maps for the route? However, if you lose service or the Maps app crashes, you can't get navigation back until you have 4G service.

• The entire trip was totally worth it just because we got this opportunity to embarrass our daughter.

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