Week 1 of the Road Trip

The road trip has arrived.  When I started piecing together my travels after school, the road trip quickly went to the top of my list.  It all started about 8 or 9 months ago when I was bored one night and started a list of every place I wanted to visit.  The United States list was quite long, and instead of going to 25 different places, it morphed into multiple 3 or 4 week trips.  As you can imagine, traveling and visiting new places with other people is much more fun than going at it alone.  Instead of trying to get one or more people to join for each trip I began to think, "What if I just go all out- 1 big trip, a semester on the road.  I think I can convince a person or two to join me."  Sure enough, I paid two homeless people to enjoy the trip with me.  After they tried to take my camper the first night on the trip, I reevaluated.  Just kidding.

I pitched the idea to Bub some months ago and he jumped all over it.  He graduated last December and spent the spring semester saving money for the trip before he heads off to Australia for graduate school in February.  Beginning last summer with our trip to Australia, Bub has began to pawn off all his personal belongings (tv, dvds, bed, his soul) to pay for trips.  You know anyone willing to do that is fun to travel with.  Bub is the most logical thinker of the 3 of us and his jorts (cut -off jean shorts) bring class to the group.    Bub also can grow a pretty mean mustache, which will be grown to new lengths on the trip.  His love for the Colts and his man crush Peyton Manning cannot be ignored- a stop for a Colts game somewhere along the trip is a must.  Bub's engineering degree and knowledge of random stuff is bound to come in hand at some point during the trip.

I threw the idea out to Allen Bradley very shortly after.  If you know Allen, well, he isn't one to turn down a good opportunity.  Allen seems to know a little bit about everything, and he can fix or rig anything up.  When you hang out with Allen, he is down for about anything…. if you want to watch a movie and head to sleep fairly early, Allen is in for that.  If you want to stay up until 5 o'clock in the morning and see where the night takes you, Allen is in for that too.  I have gone to sleep before Allen 2 or 3 times that I can remember.  He isn't one to miss out on anything and plenty of times Allen wakes up at 8 or 9 after a late night to go work.  Allen can drive anything with wheels or a motor and can back the trailer into any tight spot- a skill that we have found to come in handy already.

Me, Bub and Allen

I get back to Raleigh on Sunday night, August 7.  The plan for some time now has been to leave on August 9.  In order to leave by August 9th, well, I needed to have all of my supplies and clothes ready to go.  But hey, what's the fun in getting things done early….. it makes everything a challenge when you wait until the last minute and it improves your improvisation skills.  On August 8th, we had everyone over for a cookout before the day we left…… All the parents were there along with Fabio, Kristi and Tab.  Then, the next day, I drove the camper in town for a last meal in Marion at Nara with most of the same group plus Jordan Vance. (Jordan claims he is meeting up with the crew when is off of work in November.)  Fabio went back to Brazil the same day we left after a 5 week stay…. Fabs, it was a hell of trip man.  Allen, Bub, Jordan and I went to AutoZone to get new mirrors for the car and floor mats for the truck.  After that, approximately 1:15  pm eastern time zone, the camper departs Marion N.C heading north with Allen, Bub and myself on board.  

The big thing with driving a huge camper is the amount of time it takes to get places.  I am usually a pretty fast driver (Usually 9-12 mph over the speed limit on the interstate…. or however fast traffic is moving, which ever one is higher) but the camper requires patience because you don't feel safe riding 10 mph over in a camper.  Rides that would normally take 2 hours in a car, take 2 and a half hours in the camper, but if you aren't in too much of a rush, its really not that bad.  Plus, it's one of the two ways I like to drive, either faster than everyone or slower than everyone.  You don't get stuck in other driver's blind spots and no one is driving the same speed as you…. you drive the same speed as someone, and they forget about you.  Either pass or get passed, not both.  The camper is 21 feet long and makes for a little difficulty when turning.  Better swing out wide to give the rig some room, or risk driving over curbs.

I looked at plenty of campers before buying one, and I got the smallest one with the most ideal layout for three people.   1 short queen bed, 2 bunk beds, a small couch and kitchen table, bathroom, small shower, microwave, stove, outside grill, refrigerator and freezer.  Add ons that really might be necessary but good ideas.  Tv, Sirius Radio (One for inside the camper, one for the truck), and xBox 360.  When I say a road trip, by no means are we roughing it.  For all the beds, Tempurpedic mattresses, the only way to sleep.  The truck has a pretty simple layout with one exception- tvs in the back of the headrests.  I didn't plan on buying this, but found a truck with everything that I wanted with tvs in the headrests.  Worse things have happened.   

Day 1 Highlights

- Left Marion

-Stopped in Boone, N.C. to see Travis on the way out of town

-Drove to Grayson Highlands State Park in Southern Virginia to camp for the night (About 3 hours)

Shazam, we barely made it out of North Carolina, but the state count is officially going.  The Grayson Highlands is a state park that the Appalachin Trail runs through.  It is in the mountains where wild ponies roam through the hills and right off the hiking trail.  Even though this is only about 2 hours away from Marion on a normal driving day, we decided it was a good first stop.  Our plans were to hike out, find a camping spot, and then build a fire and eat dinner.  We hike about a 2 mile trail and set up camp for the night, tents and everything.  After dinner (pork tenderloin on the fire and macaroni and cheese) and a lot of sitting around the campfire, about the time to go to bed, we come to a realization.  Wait a minute, we have a camper about 2 miles from here and the hike is completely downhill.  We can hike there in about 30 minutes and sleep on nice comfortable beds….. or we can sleep on the ground.  Yeah, we hiked back to the camper and slept on nice comfortable beds…. but no air conditioning, we have to be plugged up at a campground  Just night one of 105.  (Leave on Tuesday August 9th and return on Tuesday November 22nd, 15 weeks later.)

All of the Pictures are in the Grayson Highlands State Park

Added our names to the list

Day 2

-Left Grayson Highlands State Park approximately 11 am

-Eat Lunch near Marion, Virginia

-Drive through the Shenadoah Valley to Luray Caverns in Northwest Virginia (about 4 hours)

-Stayed at a campground near the caverns

The second day of the trip brought to our first tourist attraction and campground.  Luray Caverns in Northwest Virginia included a guided tour with a big group through the caverns that were formed over thousands of years from limestone.  The tour was about an hour and we got plenty of cool pictures.  The small ponds had water that was completely still and made for some great pictures with reflections.  Night 2 of the trip brought us to a campground for the first time.  The plan all along was to stay at plenty of campgrounds, Wal-Mart parking lots (where you can stay free of charge), casino parking lots and with family and friends along the way.  The campground idea sounded good, but I had no idea what to expect.  Little to my knowledge, the campground lifestyle is a whole other world.  Many people are like us, traveling across the United States and Canada, but plenty of people are retired travelers and some travel with the whole family in the summer.  Some people stay at the same campground for weeks at a time, while others roam around and travel year round.  Our rig is tiny compared to most in these campgrounds.  People have small houses on wheels that they travel with.  You plug the camper into a higher voltage battery hookup at campgrounds, and everything works at once.  When the camper isn't plugged in, it runs off of a battery that charges itself during the day off the car battery.  But it only runs the lights and something plugged into an electrical outlet for a few hours.  All the windows have pull down blinds and with a serious air conditioning system, the only time we wake up in the morning is because of noise outside and because the camper is too cold.  Not a bad problem to have in the middle of August.  The campgrounds all have community showers and bathrooms so you don't have to take a shower in a cramped space.  Check in is usually any time after 2 pm and check out is usually 11 am or noon the next day.

Day 3

-Left Luray, Virginia around noon to head to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania- In honor of the great William Grant.  William's grandparents have lived beside my family at the lake for as long we have been there, about 17 years.  William is like family to me- hope all is well brother.

William

- Drive through West Virginia and Maryland to get to Gettysburg (5 states in the first 3 days)

- Stop in Gettysburg Pennsylvania for a wine tasting, a view of the old Civil War Battlefields, and a stroll around the town.

-Head east to Chester, Pennsylvania site of the casino stop number on the trip. (2 and a half hours to Gettysburg, 3 hours to Chester)

We drove to Gettysburg from Virginia to tour the town of Gettysburg, a must see according to William.  We found a parking spot for the camper, which at times can be difficult, seeing the thing is like 30 feet long.  We grab a beer and an appetizer in downtown Gettysburg and sit for an hour or so and enjoy ourselves.  We get sucked into a free wine tasting and ended up buying a bottle along the walk through the town.  We then drive along the battlefield route on the outskirts of town.  We visited 3 or 4 sites where major battles took place during the all too crucial Civil War.  If I were a Civil War expert I would give you the rundown of what happened, but the battlefields were cool.  (In my 11th grade AP US History class, my teacher asked a girl in my class who fought in the US Civil War.  Someone taking an advanced US History class didn't know who fought in the Civil War, true story)  

Only a drive through Maryland

Gettysburg Battlefield

Vantage Point

We wanted to check out Philadelphia the next afternoon but want to get closer than Gettysburg.  My idea- hey let's just drive and see if we can find a casino along the way.  Sure enough, we find one about 30 minutes west of Philadelphia in the town of Chester.  The plan was the gamble as long as we all wanted and sleep in the casino parking lot whenever we get tired.  Now, anyone who knows me or reads this knows by know, I like to gamble- a lot.  I stick only to $1 and $5 side bet with friends over random things and then casino gambling.  No sports betting for me, that's too dangerous and too hard to win.  My dad was a much smarter guy than I am and even he struggled in sports betting.  My plan for the trip and casinos.  Start with a certain dollar amount- we will call it X.  I start with this for the night and walk away A) When I double my money B) When I lose all my money C) When Allen and Bub can't stand to spend one more second in the casino.  There aren't really any other options.  In my gambling career, I can double my money about anywhere I go, I just don't know when to walk away.  This trip, I am strictly abiding by the rules and walking away when the money is doubled.   You can get lost in casinos and playing blackjack, with no windows and bright lights all the time, you never know what time of day it is.   Casino night one got ugly- X was all lost and I walked back to the camper with my tail between my legs as the sun was coming up and 0 for 1 doubling my money.  My two games, blackjack and roulette did not pull through on casino night one.  Allen, on the other hand walked away up about 400 bucks.  Well played, sir.  Although we did meet a few gunslingers in the casino that night.  At one roulette table, Allen and I were playing with a truck driver and a guy with a thick African accent.  The truck driver claims to be married to someone way better looking than he was, but only after she got to look at how nice his house was.  The guy with the thick African accent tried to have the guy spinning the roulette ball removed from the table because he was losing so much money.  The characters you meet in casinos.  

Day 4

-Left casino parking lot approximately 11 am

-Arrived at New Jersey campground about 20 min outside of Philly.

-An hour nap with showers before we head into the city.

-Philly Cheese Steak for lunch in Philly

-Tour of Freedom Hall and a walk around the historic area of Philly.

-Drive through the rest of the city (30 min drive to NJ Campground)

The fourth day brought us to our first big city and a twist on the trip.  At the campground, we unhooked the camper from the truck and left it while we took the truck into the city.  This is the main reason I got a tow behind trailer, so we could unhitch whenever we got to a campground.  This makes it much easier to get around and is quite convenient in many situations.  None of us had ever been to Philadelphia before and we wanted to check out the city for the afternoon to see what it was all about.  The Philly Cheese Steak was phenomenal.  We went to a quick place on the streets rated very highly.  The people working there were the stereotypical city people, fast talking and wanting everything to keep moving.  The second they took my order, it was to hell with me and on to the next person.  No one acknowledged my presence after they took my order and I got my food.  The historic area in the city was neat, we saw the Liberty Bell and the room where the Constitution of the United States was drafted.  The drive through the city was really cool too, something about big, nice buildings is just fun to look at.  Philly gets an overall good score from the 3 of us, decently clean city in its nicer parts, a go-to food, a few historic items, a city right near the water, and good combination of modern architecture and historic feel to the city.

Philly Cheese Steak anyone?

Philadelphia Courtroom in the late 1700s

Room where the constitution was drafted

A picture of a random lady in front of George Washington's Statue 

Downtown Philly

Day 5

-Left NJ at noon to head to the Connecticut Coast- Hammonasset State Park 

-Drove around New York City and arrive around 6 pm (4 and a half hours)

-Eat dinner, get out on the beach and have a few beers and attempt to fish with little success

-Fish in the pond at the campground where we caught a small turtle- who we safely returned to the water.

As you can tell from the highlights, this was not the most exciting day of the trip.  If you remember the original plan of the trip from last post, we already aren't sticking to the plan very well.  Through 5 days, 3 cities of the original plan have been skipped- Baltimore, Washington D.C. (Sorry Rob, I will pay another visit in the near future and prepare for Aussie my friend) and New York City.  Driving into big cities poses a challenge with the camper.  Philly was the ideal situation, park 20 minutes outside the city, drop the camper, and drive the truck into the city.  This would probably be impossible with New York City, and no of us had any clue what to do in Baltimore, it just sounded like a good idea when I was making plans.  We took a few highways around New York City and then onto the Connecticut coast.  The campground we stayed at Saturday night on the beach was so packed.  There were hundreds of big campers and hundreds of more tents on the ground.  We did catch the park on the weekend but this place was happening, maybe this is the place to be in Connecticut on the weekends.  We tried to fish while we were there, but the only thing we caught was a turtle in the pond.  We unhooked the poor little guy and threw him back in.  We have been driving farther than originally expected on a daily basis, but we want to get out west before it gets too cold.  By the end of September, many places in the Rock Mountains see snow so we don't want to get stuck in that nonsense.

Connecticut Coast

Day 6

-Slept in and left Hammonasset State Park at noon, in the pouring rain

-Stopped at Dinosaur State Park in Connecticut

-Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield Massachusetts

-Arrive in Windsor, Vermont at a local campground

Sunday, Day 6 brought us to our first tourist trap, Dinosaur State Park.  We see signs for this place a few miles out and get sucked in.  We are in the middle of Connecticut and no one is sure what else we could do on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  The exhibit is a sandstone slab with supposed dinosaur footsteps from where their feet touched the ground in a river.  Sounds fun, right?  This slab was discovered about a hundred years ago and then a museum, if you will, was built around it.  This seemed like a good idea from the start, ohhhh a museum built around the artifacts! Well, this looked like a huge slab of concrete that someone had drawn designs in.  We go in and check out a few of the exhibits and read a little about the park.  We then were dumb enough to watch an educational video that didn't really teach us anything.  To top it off, one of the ladies working there brought out an ancestor of the dinosaurs….. a lizard.  The three of us were the only people there without kids, and we probably looked creepy a week into the trip without shaving.  Allen, Bub and I are all trying not to shave the whole trip, but we already look homeless so who knows.  About a month or two into the trip, it will turn into a mustache growing contest- with Bub being the odds on favorite to win. 

We all laughed the dinosaur thing off and said, "It's Sunday and it's raining, we won't have anywhere else to go."  Wrong.  About an hour later, after going into Massachusetts, we see signs for the Basketball Hall of Fame.  We had already stopped for almost 2 hours on a 4 hour drive and were hesitant to stop, but if Dinosaur State Park deserved a visit, than you better believe that we stopped at the Basketball Hall of Fame.  The thing is, since we stopped for at Dinosaur State Park and it was late in the afternoon already, we were able to browse through the Hall of Fame for under an hour.  An employee said that the full tour would take about 2 hours.  The Hall of Fame was awesome….. what we got to see of it.  Damn dinosaurs

Supposed Dinosaur Tracks

Fossils

Magic

Lebron High School Jersery

D-Wade

NC State in 83!!!!! 

Greatest Coach of All Time

MJ

The Flu Game

6th and Final Championship

Day 7 and 8

-Left Windsor, Vermont in the late morning to more rain

-Drove to Burlington, Vermont to meet up with my mom's brother Scott and his girlfriend Laurie.

-Early dinner, beers, and boardgames on day 7

-A walk around the city and Lake Champlain on day 8

Because of the rain in Burlington, we were limited to what we could do in the city.  First we went to eat a local pub and brewery and then we went over to their place for a few beers and board games.  Scott taught us how to play backgammon (a game that Bub knew cheat codes to) and we all played a game called wizard- similar to oh, heck if you have ever played with the Wheelers or Koezes.  Laurie was watching a friend's dog, Pippen, and he proved entertaining for the next day and a half.  They made sure we were fed well and it was nice to see a familiar face along the way. The city of Burlington had the same feel as Asheville and is a college town located right along Lake Champlain and the Adirondak Mountains.  The next day, we went over to their place for eggs and phenomenal blueberry pancakes, the best breakfast on the trip so far.  They gave us a quick tour of the city, including the community garden and a walk right by the water.  Pippen came along for the walk and did just fine with no leash on the whole way.  We stopped at a local bakery and after a free sample, we bought a loaf of cinnamon raison bread that tasted more like Cinnabon.  We left in the afternoon to head to Acadia National Park in Maine.

Lake Champlain

Rock Sculptures right by Lake Champlain

Laurie, Uncle Scott and Pippen

Through 8 days, 10 states and about 1,200 miles traveled so far.  No one has shaved, been arrested, or been hurt so far on the trip.  Week 1- Great Success!  Thanks JHW 3 for making it all possible.

BlackJack- 0 for 1 doubling money plus 1,200 miles worth of gas...... ouch

Quotes-

"What do you guys think, should we do it?"  "I have absolutely nothing to do, I just have to be home for Thanksgiving dinner in 3 months, so as long as it doesn't take that long, I'm fine."

"Day 73- Los Angeles, Day 74- San Diego, Day 75-76- The Grand Canyon, Day 77-156 Las Vegas"

"If the trip happens to abruptly end in Las Vegas or New Orleans, I'm perfectly fine with that."  

"i asked that girl if she wanted to marry me.  She asked if she could look at my house first.  I told her that was fine and after visiting it, she agreed to marry me.  Damn, is she way to hot to be married to a slob like me." - Truck Driver in Casino

"Should we sleep here?"  "No, let's hike back to the camper.  Sleeping on a Tempurpedic Mattress sounds way better than sleeping on the ground."  

Pulling out of Marion of the trip- "What in the hell did we get ourselves into?  Things are about to get interesting."