Due to some minor scheduling changes, we found ourselves with a free day to be able to shop for food, update the website, and get ourselves prepared for our journey away from the East coast. The best place for us to spend this extra time was at Jed’s home in Frederick, Maryland, which was right on our way, and where there was plenty of computers to go around, two side-by-side televisions with cable (which I now wholly do not take for granted), and a hot shower. We even had four cats and a happy lab available to keep us busy.

Jed was happily reunited with his girlfriend Angela for the day, but had to spend most of his time holed up in his office editing video and updating the webpage. Branic was by his side, working on another computer editing different days, taking frequent breaks to fill up his mug with more of Angela’s delicious coffee! I did my writing on a laptop set up on a TV tray in the living room, with Sportscenter right in front of me. Kevin, free of any driving obligations, was visited by his friend Ali Taylor for a few hours and enjoyed his break from reality. It was a day as busy as any other for Jed, Branic, and I, but the only difference was that the ground was not moving beneath us at 70 mph.

When Jed and I went food shopping for the RV while Kevin and Branic stayed behind, we decided to buy some delicious steaks and we enjoyed dining on a feast of steak and baked potatoes. The steak we picked up was really good, and a refreshing meal compared to number seven at Taco Bell.

Tonight was the first time during our entire trip so far that I was finally able to sit down and see an NBA playoff game. We watched the Lakers try to overcome a 2-1 series deficit against the Spurs, and Kobe’s 42-point performance was nothing short of amazing. It was when the pre-game commentators came on and briefly touched up on the previous highlights of the rest of the playoffs, when I realized just how far out of touch I have been with the rest of the world these last 15 days.

We got up the next morning to load the RV with the food and supplies we had picked up yesterday, and Jed used every free moment he had to take advantage of the high speed internet at his home and to steal some kisses from his girlfriend before saying good bye.

When we finally hit the road, we had to find a place that could refill our propane tank because since our propane tank was empty, our refrigerator stopped working. We lost a lot of food when the refrigerator stopped the previous day, and we had a cooler filled with ice to remedy our problem for the time being. After searching Frederick for a store that we found had now gone out of business, we decided to go ahead and leave for the long drive to Nashville and hopefully find a place to fill our propane tank there.

During our long drive, I was talking with some of my friends on my Sidekick, and when they started talking about different current events, I found myself lost and unaware of the things that had happened lately. Consistency and familiarity has been thrown out our window. Time to watch TV is non-existent, and it is hard to really read an entire newspaper every day. Although I know that the Heat have evened the series against my Pacers, I have no idea who isn’t playing well or who we might face in the next round. The same goes for news in the rest of the States or the world. Iraq? The presidential election? Don’t ask any of us. It’s as if in the last 15 days, when our focus has been solely on the Deaf community and on the asphalt in front of us, we’ve left the rest of the world behind us.

Cool.