MA-FL - Day One

After filling the car all the way up, eating Jake's mom's delicious crepes, and coming up with a vary vague plan we got on the road around 9:30am from Boston.

Since our car is brand new Jake won't drive it over 60 until we reach 500 miles. As such we're in New Jersey driving down to Atlantic City and planning to camp somewhere around there or Cape May.

My first night of camping ever is approaching fast. We're planning to stay at Belleplain State Forest in Millville. My back is already hurting from sitting in the car for seven hours, so we'll see how well it responds to sleeping on the ground.

We stopped to rearrange the car as soon as we got on to the Mass turnpike because my seat was so close to the windshield that I tought I might freak out. We then had to rearrange it again when it got so hot that Jake decided to dig for his shorts. The luggage in the trunk was locked just to make it more fun. I must say that due to my laziness and unwillingness to repack we ended up bringing enough clothes to last a month or more and about 25 pairs of shoes. You don't have to tell me - I know that it's insane. I figurw this is the mini-trip so I can afford to be insane. Yeah, right.

We walked into the hotel in AC where we parked the car. Neither one of us gambled before so we walked around and picked a machine which turned out to have 3 credits in it. We played and won 65cents. We then gambled away 50 cents at a few other machines and ended up leaving the place up 15 cents without putting in a cent of our own money. That's the kind of gambling I can deal with.

Gas: $19.64
Miles on the car: 478
Breaks: (bathroom/food/stretch/etc.): 4
Toll spent: $7.95
Parking: $2.00
States: MA, NY, NJ
Sites: Atlantic City

MA-FL - Day Two

After three hours of driving around we finally realized that we had driven past the campsite about 4 times. Around 10:30 we pulled into the campsite and found a little spot. Thanks to the headlights we setup the tent in no time and decided to skip dinner and snore. The night got colder but other than that we had no animals, no bugs, actually no noise at all. It was calm and peaceful. I woke up without any back pain at all. It appears I can get used to this life which is great news.

I picked our route for the day. We're taking the scenic routes 13 and 17 all the way down to Miami. Today's my day to drive and it will be my first full day of driving ever. Cross your fingers.

We plan to stop at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and possibly visit Kitty Hawk and Wilmington. Drive through Myrtle Beach and end up in Charleston for the night. I might be underestimating the distance so we'll see how the plan gets revised.

Btw, the emails are typed on my tiny blackberry which may explain the typos. Also I type most of the mail up during the day and update it until we go to bed which is around when I send the mail.

So it is now 8:17pm and I drove from 9:30 till now. No accidents and pretty okay driving. Tons of backache though. We're on the way to Rodanthe Camp ground which is about 25 minutes south of Kitty Hawk. It looks like it will be another night of setting up tent in the dark.

Gas: $12.34
Miles on the car: 879
Breaks: 1
Toll spent: $12.50
Ferry: $33
Parking: $2.00
Curly Fries: $4.50
Previous night's camping: $10.00
States: NJ, DE, VA, SC
Sites: Cape May, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

MA-FL - Day Three

Last night's camping was quite windy because we camped right in front of the beach. But we survived it and even got lucky enough to take a shower this morning, so we're all clean and back in the car. Today's plan is to make it down to Charleston.

It's Jake's turn to drive so I'm looking out the window and planning to read The Quiet American. Our brand new car is getting covered with dead bugs so intermittently we stop and clean the front of the car and the windshield. Fun fun!

We're spending our entire day shooting down to Charleston through Route 17. Depending on when we get there we may camp at Buck Hall at Awendaw or at Lake Aire RV Park and Campground in Hollywood. I am hoping to dine in Charleston and maybe see a movie. It's 77 degrees in the bottom of North Carolina at 5pm. Hot hot!

After driving straight down we made it to Charleston at 7:30 so we're staying at the Lake Aire campground. I am trying to convince Jake to setup our tent and drive back to Charleston to take a stroll because Savannah is in tomorrow's plan and I don't want to waste time driving back in the morning.

Gas: $13.57 @1.39/gal.
Miles on the car: 1342
Breaks: 3
Walmart diet-coke: $11.35
IHOP lunch: $6.00
Toll spent: $0!
Parking: -$2.00 I wrote this for yesterday but we didn't park anywhere yesterday.
Previous night's camping: $15.00
States: NC, SC
Sites: The Outerbanks, passed through Roanoke Island and Mrytle Beach

MA-FL - Day Four

We're down to the last two days. The first event for the wedding is at 9pm tomorrow night. We appear to be on schedule but I am never too confident about my abilities to calculate travel time using a map.

Last night's camping was awesome. The ground was on a swamp. We got there in daylight, setup camp and went into Charleston and walked around. Charleston is beautiful. With small colorful houses and cobblestone side-streets it looks like a small European village. I didn't get to take any pictures because it was late night by the time we got there.

I slept so hard that I didn't even wake up once in the middle of the night. Which is a huge accomplishment for me. We got up around 6:45 and watched the ducks that were completely unfazed by our existense and approached the tent with confidence. Racing to avoid the mosquitoes we got ready and got right on the road at 8am, the earliest we've been on the road in the last four days.

It was my turn to drive so I drove us down to Savannah which I think is the most beautiful American city I've ever been in. We took an hour and a half break and walked around the city and its amazing parks. I'd been down here with Jake's family two years ago but that was the week I'd had an MRI and found out about my herniated discs so Jake and I had had to fly back to New York. The three hours we'd spent in the city had been enough for me to know that I wanted to come back.

Today's plan was to go to Jekyll Island and camp at Daytona Beach but we ended up zooming right past Jekyll island because I wasn't paying attention and didn't tell Jake to get off at the exit. Thanks to that we changed our plans and decided to drive to Naples where my friend Ashlie happens to be and staying in her hotel room. Finally a clean shower!

Gas: $6.10@1.39 & $12.41@1.49 & $6.86@1.52
Miles on the car: 1966
Breaks: 3
Bagel lunch: $1.35
Parking: $0.50
Camping: $15.00
States: SC, GA, FL
Sites: Charleston, Savannah, Naples

MA-FL - Day Five

My friend Ashlie was staying at the Ritz Carlton so we ended up going from camping it to the Ritz, quite a change! After a delightful night of chatting, showering and charging up all our electronics. We awoke fresh and recharged. We ate from the delicious buffet, hugged her goodbye and we're on the way to the Everglades and then to Miami.

As soon as I opened the AAA tourbook for Florida, I realized that our everglades plan was badly made. We drove around for 45 minutes, saw some really neat grasshoppers, and then scrapped the plan and went right through the scenic route 41 to Shark Alley and walked around. We saw alligators, turtles, gar fish, a cormorant and a snake. It was indescribibly beautiful.

We are now back on the way to Coral Gables, at this point less than 30 miles away. After last night's fancy hotel today's famous Biltmore might not even look that fancy.

We're officially in Miami now which makes this leg of the trip over. The next leg is Florida to New Orleans starting Saturday morning.

Gas: $9.32@1.61
Miles on the car: 2144
Breaks: 1
Valet: $7.00
Toll: $1.50
Camping: 0!
States: FL
Sites: Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Coral Gables