I left Missouri at 7:00 AM this morning. I got to Charleston, West Virginia at 4:00 PM this afternoon. I drove through Missouri, Illinios, Indiana, Kentucky, and finally West Virginia. I couldn't find a Marriott affiliated hotel so I couldn't get my family discount. I did find a AAA.com, the trip should have taken 8.5 hours. I made it in 9 hours. I guess the stopping to pee and get gas made up that 30 minutes.

I've had plenty of time to think about many things today. I re-hashed the Shawn story and decided to begin to put that out of my mind. Thanks for all the kind comments! My good friend David has called me each day to make sure I'm okay and surviving. He's such a great friend. So, instead I thought a lot about taking this trip by myself and what it's like to travel alone.

There are many benefits to traveling alone. Especially when it's a road trip. When you drive alone you can stop and go when you want. You don't have to stop when someone else needs to go to the bathroom. You can stop when you need to go. You can listen to any type of music you like and at any volume. You don't have to worry about someone complaining about the music. I was speeding down the highway today with Bette Midler blasting on the CD player. I didn't care if anyone knew it. I was singing at the top of my lungs. It's a good thing I was traveling alone. I'm a smoker but generally I don't smoke in my car but on long trips like this I let that rule go out the window with the smoke. Again, being alone, you don't have to worry about the smoke bothering the other person. I could fire a cig up anytime I wanted. You can also stop for the evening whenever you want. I drove between 8 and 9 hours each day and whenever I got too tired, I just decided to look for a hotel. I didn't have any reservations or anything. I just looked for one on the road. And I was the one who got to pick the hotel. No one else needed to persuade me to either get a cheaper hotel or a more expensive hotel. I got to make that decision. I also get to make the decision as to when to leave the next day. Traveling alone is great. No one to change my mind on any decisions.

The sad part about traveling alone is that you are traveling alone. 🙁