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It’s finally time to pick up the car and begin the driving part of our trip, starting with an 884 mile trip down the East Coast.
Up until now we’ve been travelling on Amtrak trains as our stops of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C all have excellent transportation links.
Travelling down the east coast of America it gets a little bit trickier.
For the purposes of this post however, all you really need to know is I’ve booked a “full-size” car and we’ll have it for 60 days. The public transport network across America is sporadic, and driving really is the only way to go.
Besides, there’s a reason road tripping America in on so many bucket lists. Driving gives us freedom and the ability to discover much more of the country than trains, planes or buses would. Our plan is to drive down the east coast from Washington DC to Orlando Florida, across to New Orleans then northwest until we hot San Francisco.
The morning after the night before…
If you are following along with our journey it will be no surprise to say this morning we are greeted by a very hungover Hayley.
Having spent her last night in Washington D.C sampling as many cocktails as possible, she is a little worse for wear and continues to retch most of the morning.
She won’t be driving today methinks!
I’m really nervous about taking on the responsibility of not only driving first, but also driving us out of the Capitol city! I have never driven in another country before and the prospect of doing it for the first time right in the centre of Washington D.C terrifies me.
First things first though, we have to get from our Airbnb apartment back to Union Station to pick up the car.
Meeting the Mystery Machine
I phone the cab company and the person I speak to at dispatch is awful! I’m not even sure a car is coming, let alone one big enough for four passengers with luggage. At least there’s no plane or train to catch so it’s not a disaster if we are late.
The car does arrive happily and the cabbie who picks us up is awesome!
He arrives in a wheelchair accessible van and chats away to us the whole journey, making sarcastic jokes and pointing out various buildings to us. He is very entertaining, kind of like the anti-tour guide! We love him!
After a fun trip to the station we hunt down the car rental desk and collecting the car goes smoothly (ignoring the fact that Hayley disappears several times to be sick…)
And then the most amazing surprise happens.
Once in the parking lot we are told that they don’t have a ‘small’ car for us… (I’d booked a full-size car which I guess is small to them!).
And so are giving us a minivan instead at no extra cost!
The car is huge and amazing! It has seven seats and automatic everything: the back doors, the boot, a reversing camera, cruise control. It is truly epic. And in retrospect, I don’t know how we would have managed the trip without a car this big.
We dub it the mystery machine and nickname it Scooby! Which is how we have now become the Scooby Gang, a moniker that remains all these years later!
Setting off down the East Coast
Now as I mentioned, I’m pretty anxious about driving out of Washington DC. I had hoped my first driving experience in America would be on a quiet back street, not in the middle of the capitol city heading straight for the interstate.
But there is not other choice so the gang very kindly heed my warnings that I need complete silence for a while.
I’ve been trying to be open and honest about my mental health and communicate what I need at times of stress. It’s a learning experience for all of us, and we have good and bad days. I am very grateful for the whole trip though as it taught me so much about what I need to do for my own wellbeing, and how important it is to talk about it with my friends.
Anyway, this is how we end up driving in complete silence for about fifteen minutes around the suburbs of Washington DC.
The GPS is a bit confused by the Union Station parking lot and honestly, I’m not ready to make any turns into oncoming traffic yet. So I end up just making left turns for a bit, and then following a random car around for practice.
By some miracle of good fortune, the car I am following is heading for the I-95 south! I’m a bit panicky as the interstate looms, but suddenly the GPS exclaims “continue on I-95 for 871 miles!”.
Huzzah!!
Fayetteville, North Carolina
We have got three days to get to our next planned stop in Orlando, Florida.
This is the first part of the trip with not fixed overnight abode planned as we just want to see where the road takes us.
Having no concept of the sort of time and mileage we will be happy to cover each day, today is an experiment.
I drive solidly until lunchtime when we stop at Denny’s which will become our driving day lunchtime ritual. After filling our bellies and starting an addiction to vanilla iced coffees we hit the road once more.
I have to stop for petrol (well gas since we are in America) and google rightly informs me how to do so. Unlike here in the UK, you have to prepay for your fuel. Which is a great idea in my opinion having worked in a petrol station myself. No drive offs if you pay first!
Amazingly I guess how much to pay to fill up the tank and we keep driving the I-95 until I’ve had enough.
The plan is to just pull into one of the many motels and hope they have rooms at reasonable rates. They do it all the time on TV!
We choose a Days Inn just off the I-95 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. No issues whatsoever. We check in, grab some pizza, and then I give Hayley a driving lesson in an empty parking lot.
She’s pretty happy driving I think and will be taking over from me tomorrow. I’ve done 316 miles today and tomorrow we hope to end up in southern Georgia.
Kingsland, Georgia
It’s a pretty uneventful driving day two as we head down the east coast towards Florida and the sunshine. The most exciting thing for me is I can stop wearing boots and put on my pumps. It’s getting warmer and warmer the further south we drive! Happy days!
Hayley drives us 300 miles and I take over for the last 50 as we head into Kingsland, Georgia.
These long driving days may not provide much content to share, but are intrinsic to our memories of this trip.
Being in the car together so much has led to an official Road Trip playlist existing. All thanks to the same songs being on the radio so much. Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars is now our anthem. It has even managed to follow us on other trips in later years.
And there are some inside jokes that will only ever make sense to us, such as being stalked by a moving wall, and witnessing the worlds tallest cow…
We choose another Days Inn as our rest stop as last nights was pretty good. Comfortable enough, reasonable price, breakfast included. All good selling points for a motel.
This Days Inn is a bit older and fulfils a few more motel stereotypes than the one in Fayetteville.
There is even a murder pool beneath out second floor window.
Sunshine State
It’s not such a great nights sleep here. The walls are thin and the beds less comfortable. Hayley and I share amazement that we can hear Alex snoring through the wall. I don’t know if this is a testament to his volume, or further telling of the quality of the rooms.
It doesn’t really matter though as it’s only a half day of driving today.
Of our 884 mile journey, we now only have 205 miles left till we arrive in our amazing Airbnb villa.
The sun is shining, and our sunglasses and sandals are finally out. I’m so happy that my coat and gloves can stay packed away for the next month!
We have been told to check out the Florida Welcome Centre on our way into the sunshine state. It has free Florida Orange Juice and plenty of tourism advice. We leave with a stack of brochures to help us plan activities for the next 12 days.
It’s such a nice feeling to know we are staying put for a but longer in Florida. Travelling around is great, but it’ll be good to have a little break. Especially in Orlando. It’s like having a holiday within a holiday!
End of the East Coast
As we can’t check into the villa till 4pm, we decide to go to Walmart on the way there. The car is so big that we don’t have to worry about space or carrying groceries place to place anymore!
Which means we can stock up on food and buy in bulk a bit more as we can now take supplies with us.
It’s little things like this that really sell driving as the best way to travel America. The biggest stores are all out of town and driving really is the only way to get around outside of the big cities.
Now with a car full of groceries we head over to our home for the next two weeks.
Four become Five
The villa is fantastic! Big bedrooms with memory foam mattresses, cable TV in every bedroom, two bathrooms, a big kitchen, and a shared pool.
(I actually come back to the same place next year with my family as it’s so good.)
There is one final thing to do today before we settle in completely however.
After a quick nap and recharge Hayley and I are back on the road again. We are driving to the airport to pick up Rosie who is joining us for this part of the trip!
We successfully navigate the toll road system, and use the free mobile waiting area at Orlando International Airport. Then with Rosie in tow head back to our Davenport home, the Florida crew now fully intact.
Alex and Ruth cook us all a yummy dinner of Hot Dogs and sweet potato fries, plus there’s Hot Chocolate for bedtime.
Tomorrow we are going to Universal Studios where The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is waiting to take all my money. We already have our passes thanks to a great deal from Attractiontix so are raring to go!
It’s been a great three day drive down the east coast, my only regret is that we didn’t stop more.
One day I’d love to come back and visit some of the smaller towns along the way. But for now we are happy to have made it safe and sound to Florida, and I’m excited to hit the theme parks!
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