Road-tripping alone is not exactly my idea of fun, even road-tripping with friends is not my preferred method of travel, I would rather fly, but sometimes its gotta be done. This is one of those times. Tuesday I leave the lovely metropolis of DC and my lovely friends of DC and head back South by way of Ohio and Missouri. Not exactly a direct route but it will work.

The first two days of travel, with the end goal being St. Louis, will be done alone. Two days in the car by myself. Ick. How do I survive? Only by the invention of audio books.

When I started traveling a lot, especially between Texas and Colorado, I discovered audio books. I think the first one I listened to was Little Women. I soon discovered that some of the classics I felt like I should enjoy but could never work up enough of an attention span to read, I could listen to. You see, since I was already bored in the car and had not much else to pay attention to (besides driving of course), it was actually quite entertaining to listen to authors like Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Jack London. They became wonderful stories that kept me alive while driving for so long alone.

My list of books I have listened to has continued to increase as the miles have increased. I have not only read classics, but mainly. I have listened to My Antonia, Call of the Wild, Emma, Mansfield Park, Wuthering Heights, and Brave New World and I am in the middle of listening to War of the Worlds.

Since I am about to depart again I have returned to my trusty provider of free audio books, Librivox. This website takes books that are in the public domain and uses volunteer readers and provides free audio books that you can download straight to Itunes. It is an amazing deal. If you do not like older books then you might look into buying audio books or visit your local library, as they usually have a decent selection.

This trip I am going to attempt to finish War of the Worlds and also The Scarlet Letter and Uncle Tom's Cabin, none of which I have ever read. Although I am sad to leave DC and am not looking forward to two days in the car, I am quite happy with my listening choices. I will let you know how it goes!

Here is my basic route according to Google Maps. Know any good places to stop?


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