Here we go again. Yet another road trip, traveling around the country like I own the damn place. The following is a partial excerpt from the trusty ole' road trip journal.
Wed. 6/5/13
And so begins my foray into another road trip, along with my companions Scott (of previous road trip legend), Michelle, and Sarah A. (
we're going to preserve her anonymity because the internet is a scary, wondrous place). I had been crafting the preliminary plans for this particular adventure about four months ago. The details of the trip developed gradually and with the feedback of many esteemed colleagues. Our itinerary includes stops in Philadelphia (well, Malvern if you want to get picky about stuff), Shenandoah, the Smoky Mountains, Nashville (at a resort, mind you), the infamous concert known as Bonnaroo, Mammoth Caves, Columbus, and completing the round trip back to Boston.
The adventure started early in the day (pre-day we'll call it) as I picked up my compatriots in good ole' Soup. (
If you don't know the background story behind the name of my car, well the short story is I spilled a crapload of soup on the passenger seat this one time. There it is.) Unfortunately for us, Soup is not as spacious as we needed. My mess kit became a frisbee. Sarah and Michelle were ass-to-ankles in the back next to a mountain of stuff. No matter: spirits were high and we made good time from Boston to Hartford, but Stamford got us at rush hour. We were blasting some good music, which is typically the solution to most problems. Oh did you hit traffic? GUESS WHAT, HERE ARE SOME BEATLES SONGS. We had a quick stop off at Sarah's house in CT to get MORE STUFF, including a sleeping bag BIGGER THAN PLANET EARTH, and then drove down the rest of the way to Philly. Apparently a building collapsed, which is an unusual event even for the "exotic" city of Philadelphia, so the city was kind of off limits to us. Whatever, we continued on to glorious Malvern for some steak sandwiches and Wawa. Wawa, I have missed you. Certainly not our final Wawa stop on the trip. We decided a tour of the Victory Brewery was in order, so we got some good beers and headed home (my family's home "technically"), where my parents presented us with a veritable feast. We also re-watched the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones, because that was was a DOOZY.
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| Victory Brewery, in all it's majesty |
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| In order to try every beer on tap, we got four different flights |
We used our remaining time to get some shoes for Michelle, because I guess we only knew this trip was coming up FOUR MONTHS IN ADVANCE. And also some Rita's Waterice for our tummies. And now I am extremely tired because I only had three hours of sleep last night and I drove all day. Man, packing that car is a bitch.
Thur. 6/6/13
Rainy times be happening. Oh well. We will make the most of it. At some point.
We woke up at my parent's house fairly early with the intention of getting the most of our day, but that is proving to be difficult. Morale is... lower than I would hope for. But that's because it's pouring right now and we just drove 80 miles along Skyline Drive with zero visibility of said "skyline."
Excuse the digression. We woke up; my Mom was kind enough to prepare fruit salad for our departure... followed by Wawa soon thereafter. The drive down to DC actually wasn't so bad, and we met Michelle's parents at her house for brunch. It scratched me right where I itched (my stomach). Very little to report except for a great cardboard box session with their cat. Good times.
A few more hours of driving led us to the northern entrance of Shenandoah National Park, just in time for the rain clouds and fog. Huzzah. Good news is that I was able to purchase my third National Park Pass (after a slight miscommunication involving a Shenandoah-only park pass - no thanks). The visitor's center had a movie that highlighted the beautiful scenary along Skyline Drive - all of which was hidden to us in this dense fog and rain. Good to know everything we couldn't see is friggn gorgeous. Memories of Mt. Saint Helens: we're driving through the inside of a ping pong ball. This is a serious bummer. 80 miles of overlooks and we can't see 20 feet in front of us. Just sitting in the car now, waiting for the rain to slow long enough to set up the tent.
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| Oh good. |
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| BEHOLD: THE BEAUTY OF SKYLINE DRIVE |
We decided to set our tent up when the rain died down a bit, which ended up being a moment when it rained the hardest yet. So that's good. Let's just say that we learned some tent setting-up methods for next time. Then we played some cards in our damp, transient edifice, and Michelle had a coughing fit and that was our day. Not much else happened. We used the camp stove to cook dinner. Spaghettification commenced. It was probably a depressingly hilarious scene to look upon. And then it was pretty much sleepyland after that.
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| "Fog Magnifies Small Details" - thank you visitor center video for your sublime haiku-like poetry |
Fri. 6/7/13
It rained almost the entirety of the evening, but it turned out to be dry inside. I was not expecting that: thank you, tent. But the clouds were out, so our view was quite white. Thus, we slept in. When we finally arose, it had cleared a tiny bit. By the time we packed our tent away our campsite viewing area, previously a blanket of fog, had become quite nice. Finally a picture-worthy memory.
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| Turns out it was more than just "endless white" |
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| LET'S BLOCK THE AMAZING VIEW WITH OUR BODIES |
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| Pretty easy on the eyes |
I then drove south out of Shenandoah to exit the park. STILL FOGGY. What the hell? Give me a break here. So yeah, not much to see leaving either. 120 miles of Skyline Drive with virtually zero views of Shenandoah valley. Thankfully we stopped at a wonderful little place called Pink Cadillac Diner, where I filled up on basically every menu item. This sated my hunger for the time being. AND an opportunity to soak up the locals engaging in some sort of primitive form of communication. They sounded like mere grunts and belches to our untrained ears, but somehow the waitress could understand the gentleman in the next table. Not long until: TENNESSEE! Whoo! This is my 40th state! We blasted "Wagon Wheel" more than a few times. Due to the nature of the song's lyrics, it has become our official road trip song.
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| I still don't understand the gigantic King Kong statue |
Shortly thereafter we drove into Asheville, NC for what we heard were some great breweries. The stories were true. We visited Wicked Weed, the Hedge, and Asheville Brewing for great beer and pizza. Unfortunately we had to cut our visit a bit short because of how long the drive was. Scott's friend was able to meet us for some dinner and beer, so it was cool to hang out for a little bit.
Then Michelle courageously navigated the twisty mountain pass to Cataloochee campground: our home for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for the time being. We efficiently set up our tent in the rain (yep, more rain) and got unpacked in the dark. We then took the opportunity to explore our campsite, situated right on a little stream. This will make for some great music at night. We went down to the stream and let our eyes become adjusted so that we noticed some of the famous Synchronous Fireflies surrounding us. I'm excited for this park.
On our way in to the Smokies we stopped at an overlook: it was unfathomably beautiful. Just enough fog to show the dozens of layers of mountains across the backdrop. It was actually so impressive that I find it difficult to put into words.
ENJOY A PICTURE INSTEAD.
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| They just keep going |
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| The females |
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| Ok let's prepare for a good photo... |
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| NOPE JUST KIDDING |
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| Here's our backyard stream! |
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