So, as promised, here is the beginning of the multi-day journal I'm going to be keeping over the next week chronicling my trip to South Carolina to install a new theater system at the Congaree National Forest Visitor Center:
Today started brusquely; the Ravens - Steelers Sunday Night Football matchup from the night before proved to be just interesting enough to keep me up until past 11:30 PM. Typically I'm in bed by 10:30 at the latest to be up at 6 AM - today I had to be out of bed by 3:30 AM. I knew I wasn't going to be the happiest of campers going into the whole ordeal. However, the whole situation was made worse by the fact that the game was a battle down to about the last :30 seconds, when Joe Flacco couldn't complete on 4th and 2 and the game went to the Steelers. I had to go to bed with my heart pounding and my nerves, well, all a-flutter.
Needless to say, with the combination of the game, my nervousness over the impending trip, and our fat cat Layla who insisted on laying in between my legs at the most uncomfortable position possible (as usual), I believe I got about 45 minutes of quality sleep.
Not the best scenario before embarking on a 9-hour drive.
Nonetheless, I got up at the right time, put in my contacts without too much pain or effort, and thanks to my work the previous evening packing and preparing, was able to push off from home base on time and in a decent mental state.
One of the most difficult things I've found when dealing with a long travel day is the timing of your food and drink intake. All of us have standard schedules for eating and drinking when we are at home and operating in 'standard' life mode. However, things tend to get altered a bit when you wake up three and a half hours earlier than usual, expend a ton of effort getting your vehicle loaded, and then proceed to sit on your ass for the next 9 hours. My diet today has been thus:
4:00 AM - a glass of water
4:30 AM - a 'lungo' espresso from the work espresso machine
5:30 AM - a FiberOne chocolate chip bar
8:00 AM - a McDonald's sausage burrito & small orange juice
10:50 AM - a Burger King Whopper value meal, small, with a Diet Coke
11:30 AM - a 20oz bottle of water
1:00 PM - an orange 5-hour energy drink
4:30 PM - a 16oz bottle of water from the hotel
5:30 PM - a Bombay Sapphire martini, dry, with two olives and a batch of homemade chips
Okay, so perhaps not the most healthy travel day of my life, but what are my options? Even if I get rid of the martini and the 5-hour energy, my options for food on the run are not spectacular. Subway, I suppose - but Subway always leaves my stomach gurgling in a 'deli meats shouldn't be quite that cheap' kind of way. Why doesn't America have healthier fast food options?
ANYway...
Today we unloaded all of our gear at the site and locked away the trailer behind the maintenance yard. Tomorrow we'll get started removing all of the theater's old gear and running our new lines throughout the building. I'll take some pictures tomorrow so you can get a feel for it, if you're so inclined.
As far as pictures of the area go......well, let's just say this section of South Carolina isn't exactly coffee table book material. As far as I can tell, this area is primarily churches, fire halls, extremely well-placed cops in Dodge Chargers, flat plains, cotton, and not much else. I'll try to grab the essence tomorrow, but you know how it goes trying to catch lightning in a bottle.....
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