We’ve made our way to the shores of Chesapeake Bay, couchsurfing tonight with fellow Van fan Leslie Berg. Leslie and I first met while standing in line at the Supper Club in New York back in 2005. Van was set to perform at some totally silly time like 6 p.m. and both of us got there mid-afternoon, early enough to secure ourselves a good spot in front of the stage come showtime. It all worked out, but I vowed after that show that that would be the last time I’d stand in line for anybody or anything. I’ll sit in line as long as you want me to, but standing like that is a young person’s game.

Bridget and I are still working on the part where we get on the road each day early enough to get in more than two hours of daylight driving. The sun went down on us on the New Jersey Turnpike today, leaving about three hours of driving in the dark ahead of us. If you’re going to all the trouble of driving across the country to see places you’ve never seen before, it makes a lot of sense that you’d see a lot more of it if you did it in the daylight. I know we’re going to do a lot better at this tomorrow, but the good thing about all this nighttime driving is the dancing lights on the road in front of you.