I need a break. I need to get away. If I didn't have plans to go to Johnstown tomorrow morning, I'd have made plans to go somewhere else. It's been a while since I drove over a state line out of New Jersey somewhere other than New York City -- and usually, for me, driving in the City ends at the ramp to the Port Authority parking garage on 8th and 43rd (only the last time, it involved circling the parking levels four times each before stumbling upon an empty space).

I've reached another one of those funks, those mild depressions where I'm restless at home and pissed off at work. I'm back to hating the drive into the office, particularly now when the roads around Fort Monmouth are either blocked off or monitored and traffic is worse than usual. I found a better way in today, a way I'll likely use again on Saturday and in the future until my regular routes ease up a bit.

I think it's a combination of frustration with work, my lack of travel of late and the coming of autumn that has me restless. I did go to Chicago -- I woke up there a month ago today, in fact -- and while that eased my wanderlust (there's the word) for a time, there is something to be said for traversing the roads to get somewhere -- or to get away from somewhere.

So tomorrow morning I'll wake up at 7 a.m. and not struggle with the snooze. If nature wakes me any earlier, I'll probably not fight it, and get my day started that much sooner. It won't matter if it's grey and rainy or a crisp, sunny fall morning -- the six hours and the Pennsylvania Turnpike that lie ahead of me will inspire me.

Morning radio -- Scott and Todd on PLJ -- will accompany me down the Parkway and across 195 to the New Jersey Turnpike at Exit 6, and when I start to lose the New York stations, I'll start the CD selections as I cross the extension over the bridge into the Keystone State (where You've Got A Friend In ...) and onto the Pa. Pike, soon merging with I-76, and the first toll road in America. I'll keep an eye out for tigers but will likely only see them on the license plates.

And when I take Exit 11 and cruise the smaller highways and backroads up to Johnstown, I'll feel the anticipation growing in my stomach because unlike a random trip to an unknown place, the excitement in this one comes not from the mystery at the end of the road but the soothing comfort of familiarity and love.