Getting to PPSM2!

I have finally arrived in Salem after almost 1600 miles, three days and innumerable, yet still too few cups of coffee. I left early on Friday the 9th and drove to Chicago. As I left home, the clouds were very pointy and tinged with pink as the sun was rising. I wish I had thought to take a picture, but honestly, it didn't even occur to me. Getting from my house to Chicago means driving across the entire state of Iowa, which for some reason on this particular occasion, only smelt like cow poo for about three minutes instead of the entire state. This was a very good way to begin my journey.

There are several things that I pass in Iowa that I like. There is a building just west of Des Moines that has a dome on top that to me, looks like R2D2. See?

Then there are the corn fields. I like driving past corn fields. From a distance, they just look like a bunch of nothing, but then as you pass them, their order and patterns whiz by you and reveal themselves for just a moment. Like this:

Granted, not a wonderful picture, but you try trying to get the corn to pose when you're driving at highway speeds.

The State of Iowa has also planted all kinds of flowers along the roadside, most notably, some kind of Sunflowerish type thing that is very cute with little yellow petals all the way around, and a black center. I tried to get pictures, but 70 mph is a bit to fast to get a picture of cute flowers by the roadside. So here's another picture of Iowa that I like.

I also enjoy the wind farms. There's something about the giant white windmills that I just love.So after getting all the way through Iowa, (drumroll please!)

I got to Illinois! Friday afternoon I stopped in Chicago. I met up with Fire Lyte at his house and got to have Gino's East pizza again! It's the best pizza ever! (Thanks again, FL!) We then went to Witchy Wearables where I bought this: (how cute is this!!!??!!!)

At 7:00, we went to a class there about geneology which to be honest I thought was going to end with a heated debate about whether the people put to death in Salem were 'real witches' or not. (They were not, just in case you're wondering.) However, it was actually quite interesting, if a little longer than it needed to be. Afterward, the woman who had been sitting across the table from FL and myself looked at us and said, "are you Fire Lyte and Velma Nightshade?" It turns out, she had been listening to our latest episode on her way to the class! Two hours later we finally all departed for our respective good night's sleep, and there was MUCH chatting, laughing, and generally being disruptive of whatever all the other people were there for as we stood around the parking lot and had a wonderful time. From left to right in the picture, Mary Kay Mahoney (who did the class), FL, Me, and Aina (the listener!).

After a relatively good slumber, I got up, jumped in the car, an proceeded to listen to Sweet Home Chicago from the Blues Brothers over and over again until I hit Indiana. Unfortunatly, Indiana's sign didn't want to be photographed, so I'll have to get it on the way home. Once I did get to the state line, I had to sing the song Gary, Indiana from the Music Man, as is family tradition, then I proceeded through the rest of the state without incident.

Got to Ohio and again found a camera shy state line sign. I did make a couple of stops in Cleveland...(Hello, Cleveland!!!!!)

I will be posting seperate blog posts about the shops I went to in Salem, as part of my "48 States of Witchy", but I liked both of the ones I went to.

I stopped in Buffalo overnight on Saturday. I thought about going to Niagara Falls, but I realized it would be dark before I would get there and I was tired anyway. I stayed in a very nice hotel with metropolitan spiders hanging out on their webs on the outside of my 7th story window. They were actually very cool spiders *probably made cooler by the fact that they were on the OUTSIDE of the window and not the inside meaning I could look at them close up and have absolutely no fear that they would jump on me and then have to be killed whilst I screamed. I tried to get a picture, but as it was dark outside, the flash just kept reflecting off the glass, and given my previous statement about screaming and killing them, I didn't feel it behooved me to open the window. Plus, they outnumbered me, so I left it alone and ordered room service. There were some very cool buildings I could see out my other window. I have no idea what they were, but I think at least one of them is a bank:
So on Sunday morning, I woke up with the Sun (which was about 7:30 if you're curious), made myself some coffee and hit the road. There were lots of mixed emotions, since it was the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. I thought about it sometimes and not at others. However, when I stopped to get gas and saw these in a gift shop, I though it seemed appropriate to get them that day of all days:
After hours of toll road in New York, some of which was lovely and some of which had me bored out of my mind..........ta dah!!!!
Then it was only two more hours before I got to Salem!!! I'm here and settling in nicely. I'm at the same hotel I first stayed in, and even in the same room! I love this room. It's tiny and cute and comfortable and I'll post pictures and give details later on. After dinner (which you can see pictures of on my twitter feed if you're curious) I wandered around town for a little while, then headed back for a leisurely evening. I'll be posting again tomorrow night along with lots more pictures I'm sure!

Good night all!