RoadTrip: Off to Maryland

Mom, (harpnfiddle), Nate, (necr03), and I are off this morning to head to Maryland to see my brother Jon, (jdbryce), off to, *sigh*, war in Iraq. His leave starts tonight and he heads out Thursday. God I hate how that sounds.

Anyway, I've decided to do some experimenting on this trip and on our way down 84W in CT, the Garden State Pkwy, and the NJ Turnpike, I've plotted strategic "break points" to get food or coffee as well as have access to wireless. Easy pull-offs where my brother and I can pop email, write any responses, check traffic for the remainder of the route, and continue on.

Cheesy, I know but we're all tech geeks in the family - even Mom - so I thought it would be fun. I'm going to try to make a post at each location.

Going down, first stop is Starbucks Danbury off I-84. Then lunch at the Brookdale Rest Stop on the Garden State Pkwy, (McDonalds wireless), and finally another Starbucks in Cherry Hill, NJ. Then off to Jon's.

I'd love this thread to be a deposit for words of advice for him, pointers to rules of what he can and cannot have, information about soldier Internet connectivity in Iraq and the various Net cafes the contractors have setup over there, connections to other people in LJ over-there who he can connect with and maybe even Iraq-specific family support groups on LJ as well.

Roadtrip: Starbucks Danbury

We're here in Danbury, me with my Pumpkin Spice Latte, Nate with his heavily cream & sugared coffee, and Mom with her Cold Chai Latte. I got car sick in the back of the CRV with Mom driving so I took over. Feeling much better - onto McDonalds at the Brookdale Plaza.

RoadTrip: Lunch

We're here at the Brookdale Plaza eating some lunch. McDonalds - not the healthiest but then I didn't buy as much as I usually do. I'm being pressed to shut down so it's off to Starbucks Cherry Hill. We're downloading the Narnia trailer since we're listening to "Book 1". Ta