Chicken Interstate Crossing and the Fog of Doom

August 2005 was a strange, exciting, and terrifying time of life. Yes, I'm going back that far. Really, this was the turning point that started all the events that would change who I was and how I viewed life. Before then I had never left home for more than a week without my family and grew up in the same town and same church for almost 20 years. So really, August 2005 was the beginning of the real adventure.

It was time to experience life and figure out who I was on my own. It was time for college.

Now, this was quite a few firsts for me at that point. Let's see:

- First time living away from family for an extended period
- First time moving somewhere I didn't know a soul on earth
- First time in a relationship (for some other post)
- First time driving long distance all on my own
- First time driving through the night
- First time living with people I'd never met

I was very excited about going to college (especially since two of my best friends had already been in college for at least two years) and if anybody has ever had that anxious feeling before going on a trip and can't seem to fall asleep, they know how I felt. Except, there was one difference, I wasn't planning on sleeping.

From what I understood, move-in started at 10am on the day of orientation. I'm pretty sure at that time to me this meant orientation was in the morning (but of course it was actually in the afternoon/early evening). So I decided I would drive through the night and get there early in the morning. I attempted to get a few hours sleep before heading out at midnight for what was calculated to be a 9 1/2 hour drive. With my '88 Honda Accord packed to the ceiling with my mother's help (I'm always still surprised all that stuff fit in my little car every semester) I said a final goodbye to my family and drove out of the city, frightened and excited at the same time.

There were of course a few issues to this whole crazy plan of mine. One, I had never driven more than an hour and a half on my own before. Second, at that time of my life I was notorious for being terrible at navigating. When I went to visit friends at K-State a year before somehow I couldn't find the super obvious exit to the highway. This was before GPS, cell phones (especially smart phones), and anything else you could think of to circumvent horrible navigating skills. All I had was my car, excessive amount of stuff, and an atlas. And of course, one can only look at an atlas so much in the wee hours of the morning.

Somewhere around 3 or 4 in the morning, I was coasting along just fine when I saw something on the side of the interstate (at this point I think I was in Iowa). To the right I saw, of all things, I chicken start to run across the interstate. I don't remember having to avoid it and I'm pretty sure it got across safe. But I couldn't help but wonder why that chicken was by an interstate in the middle of nowhere.

A couple hours later (I think I had filled up with gas once at this point) and a dense fog rolled in. To this day I still haven't finished a thicker fog. I could barely see two car lengths in front of me (not fun when going over 60mph). At first I thought I could tough it out but other cars passed me and it felt like they came out of nowhere. I seriously felt like I could die. Fortunately there was a rest stop not too far off and I pulled off. No more cars speeding by me blindly at 80mph in blinding fog. I still remember the yellow lights shining through it, that strange and eery feeling.

So I slept for an hour (which I needed) to wait out the fog. It had cleared by the time I was awake.

Everything else was pretty easy going, until I got close to Chicago. At this point I was tired and still terrible with navigation. I ended up taking the wrong exit and going the opposite direction of the school. It took half an hour before I turned around. Got to admit, I was kind of freaking out. At some point I finally managed to take the right exit and find the school.

In the end, my 9 1/2 hour drive turned into an almost 11 1/2 hour drive. I'm definitely not as bad at navigating these days. Of course, getting to the school was like setting one foot out the door (I was still very shy back then) and I had all kinds of other worries. But people were welcoming, I settled in, and continued on my way. Met people, did things, learned things, but those are other stories for another time.