Thursday, 28 March: Leaving for JFK

The day started out like any ordinary Thursday. I woke up at my normal time of 7:00 am and went to work. But the rest of the day was far from normal. I went home at 1:00 pm and started packing. At 2:30 pm, my dad and I drove to Harrisburg International Airport to pick up the rental car from Enterprise (It was a Chevy Cruze, which wasn't a bad car. I felt that it sat a little low and the side view mirrors weren't the greatest, but I managed.). After getting the rental, I picked up a few last minute items I needed and returned home to finish packing.

By 6:30 pm, I was ready to hit the road, destination the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison, New Jersey. This hotel turned out to be a very classy place, but not too expensive. For about $10 cheaper, I had a choice of staying at the Days Inn with 1-star reviews or the Red Roof Inn with bed bugs. The only other choice of lodging was at the Beauty Rest Motel, which was your typical local, sketchy motel, for half the price. It was an easy choice, but in the future I’ll probably look for lodging in a different location.

The route to the Crowne Plaza was fairly simple: US-15N to PA-583E to I-83N to I-81N to I-78E to I-270E. Google Maps estimated the driving time to be 2 hours 45 minutes. Things went well until I got to the Union Deposit exit on I-83N. I was in the passing lane beside a semi. When I was directly at the middle of the semi, the driver decided that he/she wanted to pass the slow car in front of them. Next thing I knew, the truck was a quarter of the way into my lane when the driver realized I was there and swerved back into the right lane. It was only by the grace of God that the trucker saw me at the last second and avoided crushing my car into the cement barrier. Many thanks to everyone who was praying for my trip. Reality check #2 that the Lord wants me in Africa.

The rest of the drive was rather uneventful (thankfully) besides hitting one bad stretch of construction just before the Jersey border (I’m not sure how far it was backed up on my side, but it was backed up at least 3½ miles on the New Jersey side.). Because of the delay from the construction, I didn't arrive at the hotel until shortly after 10:00 pm.

I was thankful for the nice amenities at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. After the stress of driving from the day and the uncertainty of what was to come, I welcomed the comfort it provided me. I caught a bit of the Indiana-Syracuse basketball game and was in bed by 11:00 pm.

View of my room.