Road Trip 2008: Day 10

And so it ends …

We got up early and hit the road, driving through the morning fog in the northern Georgia hills.

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Driving through Georgia and Florida takes forever, but we finally made it home shortly before 6pm. Vacation is over!

vacation-756454Final wrap-up:

According to my Garmin StreetPilot c340, we covered about 3,000 miles, crossing 12 states, spending about 53 hours in the car (over 2 full days!) on our 10-day road trip. 😀

Looking at my receipts, the cheapest gas was $3.88/gal at a station in Virginia, and the most expensive was $4.19/gal at a fill-up in northern Ohio. My best tank averaged 27mpg (the stretch from Ohio to northern Tennessee) and the worst was 23mpg (Tennessee to Atlanta … going up and down all those mountains!).

Whew. Vacation was fun, but it’s good to be home …

Road Trip 2008: Day 9

This morning we packed up the car and then checked out of our hotel to start our last day in Ohio. Then it was over to St. Victor’s in Richfield for my niece’s baptism.

Immediately after mass, we bid friends and family farewell and hit the long road home. About 90 minutes down I-71, we stopped at a rest area near Mansfield, OH to fill up the tank and change out of our church clothes into more comfortable traveling clothes. As we were getting ready to leave, I heard someone call my name across the parking lot. I turned around to find one of my college roommates and his wife and kids who we hadn’t seen in years! They live in Detroit but were heading to Mansfield to see family and our paths crossed at that rest stop for just a few minutes. Talk about a small world … what are the chances?

We stopped again around 4pm just outside of Cincinnati for an early dinner where we met (on purpose this time) another friend from college we hadn’t seen in a while, along with her husband and 2 year-old son.

Our next stop was about 90 minutes later outside of Lexington, KY where we found a Graeter’s ice cream place for dessert. This was another favorite of ours when we lived in the Cincinnati area … yummy.

More marathon driving through the rest of Kentucky and the hills of Tennesee. I saw a lot of cool lightning in the clouds over the mountains. We finally made it to our hotel in Dalton, GA just after midnight. It was a long day of driving and we still have another 9 hours ahead of us tomorrow.

Road Trip 2008: Day 8

It was a late night last night after the fireworks show, but I managed to meet up early with my siblings. We headed downtown to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

img_1908-791938I had never gone to the museum while I lived in Cleveland … it was one of those things I figured I would get around to eventually. The exhibits were really cool, way too much to describe in a single blog post. My favorite things were the original hand-written lyrics sheets: it was neat to see the scratch-outs as the songwriter tried to find the perfect words. Did you know, for example, that Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was originally titled “Jolene” and had a totally different refrain? Some other personal favorites of mine included the piano that Ian Hunter composed “Cleveland Rocks” on, different early rejection letters to U2, and the Talking Heads memorabilia in the New Wave section.
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After finishing up at the museum, we headed past Progressive Field (formerly The Jake, or Jacobs Field) over the river to the Great Lakes Brewery for lunch, along with a quick trip across the street to the West Side Market. Mmmm … beer. 😉

After some more shopping it was back to the hotel for dinner and packing. It’s back on the road tomorrow afternoon as we head back to Florida.

Road Trip 2008: Day 7

Happy Independence Day!

The rain moved out as forecast and today was beautiful … low 80s and sunny. In the early afternoon we gathered at my sister’s and brother-in-law’s place for a family photo. We couldn’t find a local studio that could accommodate our large group (12 people) at a convenient time so we decided to do it ourselves in the backyard. It only took 4 or 5 timed shots with my mom’s Nikon SLR to get the perfect picture of all of us.

We gathered again, later in the evening, at Clague Park in Westlake for fireworks. We had a picnic lunch sitting around on blankets and lawn chairs as the sun set. Of course, we had to have some fun with sparklers while waiting:

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The big show was fantastic! It had to have been about 40 minutes and the grand finale was tremendous. I was able to get some cool shots with the “Fireworks” mode on my Canon PowerShot SD600, like this one:

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Road Trip 2008: Day 6

Today we spent a relaxing day with family.

We went to breakfast at First Watch with my brother before he headed to work then headed over to my sister’s place to meet my new niece (the major reason for this road trip). We were planning on taking the girls to the Cleveland Zoo, but the chilly temperatures and constant rain changed our plans for us. At the mall we had some photos taken of the two cousins together before meeting my mom for a late lunch and then doing some shopping. On the way back to our hotel, we swung past Mapleside Farms, home of the Johnny Appleseed festival in the fall and a favorite hangout of ours when we lived in the area (apples fresh off the tree are wonderful).

Later that evening I picked up my other sister and her boyfriend, who had just flown in from Chicago, at the airport. The three of us had a really late dinner (10:30pm) at the Cheesecake Factory. I tried the chipotle chicken pasta (I usually get the orange chicken or crusted romano chicken), which was spicy and delicious, and finished the meal off with a slice of Kahlua coffee cheesecake, also fantastic.

The rain is supposed to be gone for tomorrow’s July 4th celebrations, so hopefully fireworks are still in order.

Road Trip 2008: Day 5

Today was our last major day of driving for a while.

We left Cheyney around 8am and in short order were on the Philadelphia turnpike (I-76) heading west through the beautiful, mountainous Pennsylvania countryside. Having grown up in flat Florida, my daughter was amazed at the mountain views out her window as we passed through the Allegheny Mountains, including three tunnels.

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We passed into Ohio as I-76 merged into I-80 and finally arrived in the Cleveland area around 3pm. We had a late lunch at Red Robin (a favorite of ours that we can’t get in Florida … that might have been worth the approximately 1,500 miles we’ve driven since last Friday to get here 🙂 ) and then finally checked into our hotel. We made it! Whew!

Road Trip 2008: Day 4

We spent today in the City of Brotherly Love: Philadelphia, PA … our first day without any serious driving since last Saturday.

img_1717The day started at the Independence Visitor Center after which we just started walking around the historic downtown area. Check out this great ad (to the let) for an iPod-assisted walking tour of Signers’ Hall in Constitution Center. In the gift shop of the museum, I found t-shirts sporting four black presidential silhouettes (Franklin, Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson I think) rocking out with their distinctive white earbuds. I wonder if Apple is aware of that? 😉

In the Christ Church burial ground we saw Benjamin Franklin’s grave and my daughter went on a scavenger hunt to find the seven signers of the Declaration of Independence buried there. Four more (besides Franklin) were in the cemetary: Francis Hopkinson, Joseph Hewes, George Ross, and Dr. Benjamin Rush. We had to walk over to the church proper to find the other two: Robert Morris and James Wilson.

Next was the Liberty Bell, of course. In its new location in the Liberty Bell center, it rests with a beautiful backdrop of Independence Hall viewed through a massive glass wall. Very cool.

Our final stop was at the U.S. Mint. Unfortunately, no cameras (or camera phones!) are allowed in the building so we had to go back to the car to drop everything off before heading back for the tour. After a long hallway of historical information and objects, you’re suddenly looking through windows down into the huge factory-like area where the coiled sheets of metal are loaded into huge machines that stamp out the blank coins. The blanks are whisked away in little buckets on conveyor belts to the stampers where they are imprinted with the proper signage. It was amazing to see what looked like millions of blank copper pennies shooting by below us.

After all of this walking we were starved, so we drove over to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch. My daughter and I split a cheese steak at Rick’s (her first one) … mmmm! After dining we shopped around in the market, picking up some fresh fruit and seafood for dinner back at my brother-in-law’s and sister-in-law’s 1887 Victorian home in Cheyney, PA (during our visit, I learned that my brother-in-law runs a blog about Victorian furniture called Rare Victorian, neat!)

Tomorrow: more driving.

Road Trip 2008: Day 3

More driving today, as we crossed 5 more states/districts: Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

We left Wilson, NC around 9ish and found our first Starbucks since leaving Tampa about 50 miles north on I-95 … finally! 😉 Continuing north into Virginia, we decided take the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry across to Williamsburg. This entailed leaving I-95 and taking some back roads through the Virginia countryside, which was a nice change from the monotony of the interstate system. The ferry ride across the James River was pretty cool.

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Once in Williamsburg, we made a bee-line to The Cheese Shop in Merchants’ Square for lunch, making sure to pick up some bread ends and house dressing for later. After lunch we briefly strolled the grounds of the colonial settlement, taking some photos of the courthouse, armory, and Governor’s palace before jumping back into the car.

Many hours later, we took a detour through Washington, D.C., driving through the national mall to catch glimpses of the White House, Capitol building, and the Supreme Court. Then it was back to the interstate.

Finally around 7:30 we reached my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s place in Cheyney, PA. Tomorrow we’ll probably take in the sites of Philadelphia.

Road Trip 2008: Day 2

Today was a driving day. We left Orlando bright and early shortly after 8am and took I-4 the rest of the way to I-95. From there we turned northward bound …

We crossed into Georgia around 11:30am and then headed over to Savannah for lunch. We ended up at The Shrimp Factory on the river walk … excellent Caesar salad and really good fried shrimp! On the way back to the car, we popped into the Savannah Candy Kitchen to pick up some sweets for the road.

Back on I-95, we made it to South Carolina around 3:30pm and then into North Carolina about three hours later. Would you believe we couldn’t find a single Starbucks off of I-95 between Jacksonville and Wilson? There’s a serious market opening there.

We finally made it to our hotel in Wilson, NC about 8:30pm. Whew. Tomorrow: more driving .

Road Trip 2008: Day 1

We spent today mostly around International Drive near the Orange County Convention Center. After breakfast at the hotel and a little time spent over at Downtown Disney, we headed over to the Peabody Hotel to watch the famous Peabody Ducks parade out of the elevator, down the red carpet into the fountain in the center of the lobby.

I love spotting technology breakthroughs (when the behind-the-scenes technology “breaks through” and is visible to the public). I found this Windows XP breakthrough on a plasma screen in the Renaissance Resort’s lobby:

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We went to evening mass at the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe. The 2,000 seat building is not a local parish church but a shrine that exists solely to minister to the millions of tourists that come to the area every year.

Tomorrow is a driving day … we head north.