1 WEEK from today i’m driving alone from MA to DC to pick up my daughter at college.

if i have a knack for anything it’s over-preparing for a trip.

i pack everything imaginable including disaster provisions for the occasional hostage situation, a freak May blizzard, sudden illness, starvation, drought, the usual blights.

it’s about a 9-hour drive to the Capitol so i’ll make enough peanut butter crackers for 3 days, lug a couple of those 2.5 gallon Poland Springs water jugs, grab the Benadryl (even though i’m allergic to nothing), tuck away a napping blanket (for those extended traffic jams circumventing NYC), plug in my hand-me-down Ipod loaded with NPR podcasts (eg, This American Life, Fresh Air), and spread out maps covering the entire upper East Coast.

yes, those colorful paper thing-a-ma-jigs folded into 16 squares commonly used prior to 2005.

BTW we have new cars with the latest GPS systems but still i’ll take a map any day over a bossy robot.

for one thing, i just don’t trust the GPS system, always telling me to exit when i know i should stay on the highway.  and who chose those voices? either it’s Mommy Dearest or the world’s most obnoxious British butler.

but i think the thing that bugs me most of all is someone else telling me where to go…i like to make my own decisions. i don’t follow well. 

as for the occasional hostage situation, who can’t be bribed with a peanut butter cracker?