Ugh. S19 left today for school (which doesn’t start for a while, but he moved up today). Much easier to say goodbye than last year. But the plan was that his car would stay at school. Since everything was so unknown, and he had to leave on short notice in March, he drove home. So instead of flying back to school he has to drive his car. Right now he is in the middle of a 20 hour drive. He should get there late Sunday morning. Driving straight through.
It is what I would have done at his age. But I really wish he would get a hotel and do it in 2 bites. Instead I will wake up every 30 minutes in a panic tonight and check my phone to make sure he is still moving.
That’s a long drive- I would feel the same as you! I still drive down with D18 and it’s about 9 hours. Big hugs to you and safe travels to your son! Try to get some sleep.
It’s not easy being a parent. Now we know how our parents felt. But they trusted us and now it’s our turn. I love driving and at that age I wouldn’t have thought twice about the drive. It’s easy to forget how much energy we had then. Let us know when he arrives. Is he living in a dorm or is he off campus?
I did something similar back in the day during a blizzard snow storm… Stop… That’s crazy talk. I found a trucker and stayed behind him most of the way. I had a CB and we talked and BTW. Truckers have some funny stories and jokes!! I also talked to my girlfriend at every stop I made. (she’s now my wife of 33 years).
Let us know how things went. Might as well find a good movie.
He hit decently hard rain off and on from about an hour west of Chicago until Toledo. I kind of debated on replacing his tires before he left, and decided that it wasn’t necessary. That was a mistake, he felt like he was floating a bit a couple of times. Fortunately this is my most cautious driver. He drove between 50-60 through the rain. I slid off of the road with him driving through a snowstorm coming home from an out of state tournament when he was in 8th grade (scary but really the only harm was we sat in a ditch for 90 minutes until a local pulled us out). Since then, he has always been pretty concerned about bad roads even as a passenger, and as a driver he probably drives 5-10 mph slower than necessary if there is any issue. So in hindsight I’m glad we both got a big scare when he was 14.
Back to the present time, he is probably 15 minutes from his apartment, and his landlord is planning on being there when he arrives to hand over keys and collect August rent.
There are a few reasons that he went up early. The biggest in my mind is the quarantine situation (he has to quarantine 14 days in his apartment when he arrives). I just want him to get up there and get that over with so he is solidly in the bubble before classes start. I don’t know how that will end up really looking, but at least he will not have to deal with whatever extra hoops are set up for the kids who are still in their 14 days when classes start.
At least we can watch a dot move on the screen, and talk to them pretty much anytime. When I moved across the country 25 years ago, I probably called my parents 24 hours after we left and let them know I made it and was still alive, with no feedback in-between.
Good to hear he arrived safely ?
I hitchhiked from Portland to Indiana during a school break in 1970 to visit a high school girlfriend. Yes – a mistake, but I was 17. My best ride was across Wyoming in a snow storm with an Air Force NCO who drove VERY slowly and pointed out all the idiots on the side of the road in their wrecked cars as we went by [none were in need of medical aid or he would have stopped]. My parents were not happy. Glad your son arrived safely. I also made many car trips between Portland and Chicago in the later college years without a motel stop – except for the time that the 1962 MGA Mark II broke down in Wyoming, but I won’t bother you with that story.
@dadof4kids, glad he made it safely there. Rain can be a tricky thing to drive in, and many new drivers don’t necessarily understand this. The summer before my senior year of college, a bunch of my male college friends had a house in Cape Cod. Their lease didn’t expire until Labor Day. Since we were already back on campus in late August, they decided to have one last hurrah at their summer house. I had driven myself back to school that year with plans to drive home a few weeks later to return the family car and take the train back to school. Since I had a car, we were able to join our friends at the Cape, a four hour drive from campus. The party was a blast but we decided to head back a day early due to predicted rain. Sure enough, torrential rain. With the guys ahead of us in a separate car, we headed back. I could barely see so kept my speed around 50. Unfortunately I was behind a tractor trailer whose road spray made it worse so I decided to pass him. Long story short, I hydroplaned, did a 360 and was hit by the tractor trailer as I was rotating. Car was totaled but miraculously all five of us were unharmed, even tho I was the only one wearing a seatbelt (back before seatbelt laws). The police told me there had been several accidents in the same spot that day. I have a healthy respect now for driving in the rain.
Last summer, I took my younger two kids out of town for a night. Dh was out of town. My older two were working. S19 had to pick up D17 at work. Typical late afternoon thunderstorms swept the area. The storm had just ended. Just after picking my daughter up, my son hit a patch of standing water on the road and spun out, landing in the median of the highway. The guardrail ended about 15 feet prior to where he landed but dense bushes are planted along the median where there is no guardrail, so they came to rest against the bushes (missing the guard rail meant no damage to the car other than scratches from the bushes!). That was a frightening phone call to receive since I was two hours away, They were shaken up, but otherwise fine and able to drive the car home. It was a good wake up call to my son. He told me recently that though it wasn’t necessarily the way he wanted to learn a lesson, it impacted him enough that he is now very cautious and aware while driving in the rain, understanding now exactly what hydroplaning is.
Anyway, my long winded way of agreeing that sometimes an injury free accident can be a blessing in disguise!
S19 and D21 have both had close calls. S19 had the accident with me driving. D21 slid off of a snowpacked road down a fairly steep enbankment with a fence at the bottom. Her car split the fenceposts, missing by a few feet on one side and a few inches on the other.
She drives so slow on snow and ice now it’s annoying to ride with her, but it’s better than the alternative. She would prefer not to drive on it at all, but until she moves to Arizona she is going to have to learn so I still have her do it, especially when we are going somewhere together and not in a hurry so I can give her advice.