Or at least my blog does. I’m writing my final blog entry from the airport terminal in Baltimore waiting for my flight to Connecticut. Flying with luggage for a month of camping and traveling is not so much fun! I was just thinking that if they lose my luggage it would really suck, because I’ll lose just about every pair of underwear I own (that should have made you laugh)!
This trip has definitely helped with my US geography. We ended up traveling through 25 states, and if you hand me a blank map of the USA I can probably fill in most of the states now (I don’t make any promises for the middle of the country still).
I’m slowly regaining the concept of the days of the week; it’s a slow and steady process. I might have it back fully by September.
Last night at dinner Ilona’s dad asked us about our favorite places and meals on the trip, and I think that’s a good way to end my last blog. I think that my favorite places on the trip were Lake Tahoe, the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur, and New Orleans. As for my favorite meals, I’m not sure I can pick. We had so much amazing food and I really enjoyed all of it! Cooking for myself again in September is going to be very sad, that’s for sure.
We experienced a few glitches and some changes along the way, but overall everything went pretty smoothly. I really enjoyed visiting with friends and family, and meeting some of Ilona’s friends and family. If you are reading this and are one of the people we visited, thank you again for your hospitality!
I can’t express to you how happy I am that I can now cross off cross-country road trip from my giant life to-do list! :) Thanks for reading along and sharing the experience with me!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Chevy Chase, MD
We rescued the tent this morning and it was very wet!! A guy in the campsite next to ours said that just about everyone abandoned their tents and slept in cars last night. Glad to know we weren't alone.
The drive to Maryland was pretty uneventful, minus stopping at South of the Border of course. I was worried that we might miss it, but soon discovered that was an unnecessary worry. The billboards along the highway were so entertaining! Here's an example of one with a picture of a sausage on it, "You never sausage a place! (You're always a weiner at Pedro's!)." I definitely rank the place right up there with Wall Drug.
The Mini has made it through all kinds of weather and terrain, and then it stalled in the middle of Washington, DC less than 5 miles away from it's home! Luckily it restarted and we didn't have any further issues. We just couldn't believe that it would make it this far and then give us problems.
For dinner tonight we had a nice meal with Ilona's parents once we arrived in Maryland. Ilona's mother made wonderful gnocchi, cut up tomatoes and basil, and we also had some fresh summer fruit for dessert. It was very enjoyable.
Tomorrow evening I'm flying back to Connecticut. I'm sure the day will be spent organizing and getting ready to fly. Hopefully there will be a stop to John's Hopkins thrown in there before the airport.
The drive to Maryland was pretty uneventful, minus stopping at South of the Border of course. I was worried that we might miss it, but soon discovered that was an unnecessary worry. The billboards along the highway were so entertaining! Here's an example of one with a picture of a sausage on it, "You never sausage a place! (You're always a weiner at Pedro's!)." I definitely rank the place right up there with Wall Drug.
The Mini has made it through all kinds of weather and terrain, and then it stalled in the middle of Washington, DC less than 5 miles away from it's home! Luckily it restarted and we didn't have any further issues. We just couldn't believe that it would make it this far and then give us problems.
For dinner tonight we had a nice meal with Ilona's parents once we arrived in Maryland. Ilona's mother made wonderful gnocchi, cut up tomatoes and basil, and we also had some fresh summer fruit for dessert. It was very enjoyable.
Tomorrow evening I'm flying back to Connecticut. I'm sure the day will be spent organizing and getting ready to fly. Hopefully there will be a stop to John's Hopkins thrown in there before the airport.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Charleston, SC
I'm not sure where to even begin! I had to take notes again today so that I wouldn't forget anything. Keep reading on because the best parts will definitely be saved for last!
This morning we started out with breakfast at Clary's Cafe. It's the cafe mentioned in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was pretty entertaining listening to the men sitting at the table behind us discuss the book versus the movie. After that we toured Juliette Gordon Low's house, "The Birth Place of Girl Scouts." It was pretty excited to tour the house in person after hearing about it for so many years in Girl Scouts. The tour guide spent a lot of time talking about the furniture, but it was still interesting to look around the old Victorian house. There was one family on the tour and all four members were a few crayons short of a full box. I kept exchanging glances with another man on the tour and smirking; we were both thinking the same thing about these people. I love sharing moments with strangers.
After the tour we parted ways with Savannah and headed to Charleston, SC. On the highway we saw our first sign for South of The Border, telling us that it was 185 miles away. We'll be stopping tomorrow. It's another one of those places you just have to stop at while on a road trip, kind of like Wall Drug in South Dakota. I also feel like it's important because so many of my family members have stopped there before me while traveling the east coast.
Here's something that I think is funny, a chain of gas stations in the south are apparently called El Cheapo's. How could you not find that entertaining? I also noticed a guy riding a motorcycle who, between his face and stature, oddly resembled one of the monkeys from The Three Wise Monkeys (you know, Hear no evil, etc). I was pretty amused by that as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that I've learned a VERY important lesson in the past week: camping in the south eastern United States in July is never a good idea! That being said, we arrived at the campground in Charleston and discovered that when they said primitive camp site, they weren't kidding around. Everything was primitive except for the out-house that was air conditioned. I was joking about bringing my sleeping bag in there because the humidity was going to make for a third night of uncomfortable sleeping. Setting the tent up was a race against nature. Right before we began the process, we started to hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Luckily we finished putting the rain flap on before it started raining and got all of our sleeping stuff set up inside.
Being in South Carolina and all, we thought it would be fun to visit a plantation. We headed over to Mount Pleasant to visit the Boone Plantation. Movies such as North and South, Queen, and The Notebook have been filmed there. We made it at the end of the day and caught the last tours. I really enjoyed the tour guide, she was really funny and made a lot of jokes. My favorite joke was in reference to not being affiliated with Boones Farm Wine and not causing bad memories. I swear it was was a better joke in person when she told it. Anyway, not only did we get to learn a little bit of history about slavery and the plantation, but we also learned a little bit of history about Charleston. On a side note, I found it a little ironic that as we pulled up the driveway to the plantation there were Mexicans doing the yard work.
The end of the tour was about the time when our luck with Mother Nature ran out (she's been pretty nice to us for the most part). The sky had opened up and Mother Nature was giving Charelston all she had, it just poured cats and dogs! Being in the low country we were both very concerned about our belongings back in the tent, and decided our next destination was back to the campground to check on them. When we arrived we discovered a tent surrounded by water. Just to get to the tent we had to walk through ankle deep water. Not only was the tent surrounded by water, the rain flap was blown by the wind and it had been raining in our tent for god knows how long. We grabbed our stuff and decided to abandon camping to find a hotel, leaving the tent until the morning. We found a Holiday Inn and checked into a room, only to arrive at the room door and discover the key didn't work. The maintenance man came and let us in and went to get our keys recoded for us. After we unpacked all the wet stuff and set it out to dry, he returned and informed us that we were being moved to another room so that he could fix the door. Oy vey! At this point I was just laughing so hard because it was the comedy of errors. Finally, we settled into the new room and ate an over priced so-so dinner in the hotel restaurant. The nice part was that it is on the top floor and over looked the harbor.
To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty happy about not spending another night sleeping without air conditioning in the south east. Maybe I'll actually get a good night sleep tonight!
By the way, I've somehow picked up a southern accent when I say the word, "you." It's very catchy and it just started coming out of my mouth. Let me tell you, it caught me off guard the first time it happened! I don't really expect it to last long after returning to "The North."
This morning we started out with breakfast at Clary's Cafe. It's the cafe mentioned in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was pretty entertaining listening to the men sitting at the table behind us discuss the book versus the movie. After that we toured Juliette Gordon Low's house, "The Birth Place of Girl Scouts." It was pretty excited to tour the house in person after hearing about it for so many years in Girl Scouts. The tour guide spent a lot of time talking about the furniture, but it was still interesting to look around the old Victorian house. There was one family on the tour and all four members were a few crayons short of a full box. I kept exchanging glances with another man on the tour and smirking; we were both thinking the same thing about these people. I love sharing moments with strangers.
After the tour we parted ways with Savannah and headed to Charleston, SC. On the highway we saw our first sign for South of The Border, telling us that it was 185 miles away. We'll be stopping tomorrow. It's another one of those places you just have to stop at while on a road trip, kind of like Wall Drug in South Dakota. I also feel like it's important because so many of my family members have stopped there before me while traveling the east coast.
Here's something that I think is funny, a chain of gas stations in the south are apparently called El Cheapo's. How could you not find that entertaining? I also noticed a guy riding a motorcycle who, between his face and stature, oddly resembled one of the monkeys from The Three Wise Monkeys (you know, Hear no evil, etc). I was pretty amused by that as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that I've learned a VERY important lesson in the past week: camping in the south eastern United States in July is never a good idea! That being said, we arrived at the campground in Charleston and discovered that when they said primitive camp site, they weren't kidding around. Everything was primitive except for the out-house that was air conditioned. I was joking about bringing my sleeping bag in there because the humidity was going to make for a third night of uncomfortable sleeping. Setting the tent up was a race against nature. Right before we began the process, we started to hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Luckily we finished putting the rain flap on before it started raining and got all of our sleeping stuff set up inside.
Being in South Carolina and all, we thought it would be fun to visit a plantation. We headed over to Mount Pleasant to visit the Boone Plantation. Movies such as North and South, Queen, and The Notebook have been filmed there. We made it at the end of the day and caught the last tours. I really enjoyed the tour guide, she was really funny and made a lot of jokes. My favorite joke was in reference to not being affiliated with Boones Farm Wine and not causing bad memories. I swear it was was a better joke in person when she told it. Anyway, not only did we get to learn a little bit of history about slavery and the plantation, but we also learned a little bit of history about Charleston. On a side note, I found it a little ironic that as we pulled up the driveway to the plantation there were Mexicans doing the yard work.
The end of the tour was about the time when our luck with Mother Nature ran out (she's been pretty nice to us for the most part). The sky had opened up and Mother Nature was giving Charelston all she had, it just poured cats and dogs! Being in the low country we were both very concerned about our belongings back in the tent, and decided our next destination was back to the campground to check on them. When we arrived we discovered a tent surrounded by water. Just to get to the tent we had to walk through ankle deep water. Not only was the tent surrounded by water, the rain flap was blown by the wind and it had been raining in our tent for god knows how long. We grabbed our stuff and decided to abandon camping to find a hotel, leaving the tent until the morning. We found a Holiday Inn and checked into a room, only to arrive at the room door and discover the key didn't work. The maintenance man came and let us in and went to get our keys recoded for us. After we unpacked all the wet stuff and set it out to dry, he returned and informed us that we were being moved to another room so that he could fix the door. Oy vey! At this point I was just laughing so hard because it was the comedy of errors. Finally, we settled into the new room and ate an over priced so-so dinner in the hotel restaurant. The nice part was that it is on the top floor and over looked the harbor.
To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty happy about not spending another night sleeping without air conditioning in the south east. Maybe I'll actually get a good night sleep tonight!
By the way, I've somehow picked up a southern accent when I say the word, "you." It's very catchy and it just started coming out of my mouth. Let me tell you, it caught me off guard the first time it happened! I don't really expect it to last long after returning to "The North."
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Savannah, GA
The biggest excitement in Atlanta this morning? That would be driving past the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and taking a tour of the CNN studio. Yup, I'm that dorky. We also drove past Emory and it really does look like a gorgeous campus. All of the buildings are really old and there are trees everywhere. It seems to be on the outskirts of the city. The CDC literally is the next building over from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory. How cool is that? As for CNN, you can take a tour of all the studios where they produce the news. We even got to watch part of a live broadcast. It was pretty awesome!
We arrived in Savannah this afternoon. I don't know, I'm not that overly excited about it now that I'm here. It probably has to do with the fact that I wasn't feeling too well. I didn't sleep well at all last night because it was so hot and humid, and then I was dehydrated this afternoon. The combination of the two made me not feel very good. It really hit me after we went down the River Street to walk around, but I'm starting to feel better after taking a brief nap in the air conditioned car and drinking water.
I really like our campsite though in Skidaway Island State Park. There are some really cool trees and it's not very crowded here. It rained a little earlier so some of the humidity broke. I'm very glad for that, because otherwise it would have made for another very uncomfortable night for sleeping.
We arrived in Savannah this afternoon. I don't know, I'm not that overly excited about it now that I'm here. It probably has to do with the fact that I wasn't feeling too well. I didn't sleep well at all last night because it was so hot and humid, and then I was dehydrated this afternoon. The combination of the two made me not feel very good. It really hit me after we went down the River Street to walk around, but I'm starting to feel better after taking a brief nap in the air conditioned car and drinking water.
I really like our campsite though in Skidaway Island State Park. There are some really cool trees and it's not very crowded here. It rained a little earlier so some of the humidity broke. I'm very glad for that, because otherwise it would have made for another very uncomfortable night for sleeping.
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