Gabi (and Julia) are on the road again! This time - for the first time - with my lovely mother-in-law Margie and her also nice husband Mark! We have been planning this trip for a while now, and Puerto Rico was our first picked destination. But high air fares (it would cost about $800 a person to fly down there) made us change our minds. And here we are! On our way to Florida! Driving!
We left Toronto a bit later than planned: around 2:30 pm, but who's in rush? I just finished my last class for the week and will have a week off my studies for Reading Week, although I am taking down a suitcase filled with books, computers and readings.
We crossed the border at rush hour. It was a bit busy, but we had no trouble getting into the United States of America.
Here is my little spot, in the back of the car. It was comfortable for a while, but later I needed to move to the front seat to accommodate my big belly. We made a point to stop every two hours to pee and walk for a bit. Pregnant women are strong candidates for blood clots.
Our plan was to to keep driving, non stop, for about 26 hours straight. But we realized that this would be too much. We stopped at around midnight for the night in Summersville, West Virginia. That was a great idea! We all had an amazing rest, and felt 100% the next day to keep driving.
Here I am - half asleep - trying to get some orange juice (???) at breakfast!
Of course that was the joke of the day!
If you are ever driving by Summerville and need a place to stay, here is our advice: Country Inns & Suites. For $US100 we had a big room with a king size bed, a pull out couch and a hydromassage bathtub. On top of that, I had the best breakfast included meal at a cheap hotel in North America! They had the usual muffins, bacon and eggs, with toast, PLUS fresh fruits, yogurt and different kinds of healthy cereal. We were really impressed!
This is for my cute niece Carolina!
The drive was nice, with nice weather and a full moon, but the scenery wasn't anything out of the ordinary. But here is a couple of beautiful shots from a spot just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.
We drove through 8 states to get here: New York, Pennsylvania West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Passing by Charlotte, North Carolina. This is the 18th largest city in the US based on population. More than 700 thousand people live here.
As real Canadians, we were very happy to get away from the snow and cold weather. The temperature went up as soon as we hit Virginia. I had to rush to my luggage and get my Havaianas to replace my heavy boots! (and show off my manicure, of course!)
Check this out: 26 degrees!!!!!
Eating out can be a problem here. Although we packed as much food as we could, we still had to stop to have a couple meals. Here is one of our choices: Hardee's, where we had a juicey cheeseburger! Later that day we stopped in Sparks, Florida, where we had a - at least funny- experience. After trying few different spots, we finally found an OK place (Ihop) where we had a decent meal and were exposed to the delightful southern accent. But that's a different story for a different occasion!
TRIP LOG
Total time: 36 hours
(left Toronto Thursday at 2pm and got to Fort Meyers, Florida, Saturday, at 2am).
Kilometers: 2500
States: 8 states
Countries that Julia has visited inside my womb: 4 (Canada, Brazil, Argentina and USA)!!
Lucky baby!
As real Canadians, we were very happy to get away from the snow and cold weather. The temperature went up as soon as we hit Virginia. I had to rush to my luggage and get my Havaianas to replace my heavy boots! (and show off my manicure, of course!)
No comments:
Post a Comment