We made it!
We are done! Hooray for not being in the car! Our butts can reinflate to their normal hemispherical shapes. We have safely reached our last destination and celebrated my grandma’s 90th birthday, which was the only other anchor event for the road trip besides Rhinebeck. Being on the road is now a fond memory.
From the unique beaches of Edisto Island and the old city of Charleston, we drove straight down I95 to South Florida. The last 2 months have been fun. My reliable and extremely economic car (Honda Civic) managed to cross the country with no issues. The driving didn’t seem that boring because our friends, family, and a handful of quirky destinations were sprinkled throughout the thousands of miles.
Fun approximate road trip stats.
Departure date from LA to arrival date in FL: Sept 10 to Nov 4 (I am a little behind with the posts)
Miles Driven: ~6500 miles (for reference, driving directly from LA to South FL is ~2700 miles)
Favorite road trip snack: Sugar snap peas, vegetables, and hummus. I also enjoyed popcorn, but according to Jyn, I am a crumby disaster 🙂 She’s probably not wrong. “Why can’t you just put less in your mouth each time?!”
Favorite new food discoveries: Hot chicken in Nashville and the crawfish beignets in Denver.
Longest Day of Driving: The first day. ~17 hours, LA to Denver (~1050 miles)
# of states traveled through: 27, plus Washington DC
# of yarn shops visited: 16 (not counting places we visited more than once)
# of salsa clubs visited: 10 (not counting places we visited more than once)
Average gas mileage: ~41 hwy mpg (with a loaded car), ~33 city mpg.
Average cost of gas: $2.35 per gallon (estimate)
Total fuel cost: ~$570
Total Food Cost: ~$1800 (total for both of us, yikes!)
# of hotel nights: 7 (All other nights were spent with our wonderful friends and family. We are very fortunate.)
# times car washed: 0 (Still accurate to this day 🙂 but I vacuum clean the inside).
Favorite places to drive: Colorado, Upstate New York, Utah.
Places I liked driving the least: New York City, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, and South Florida.
Place with the most roadkill: Pennsylvania. So many dead deer.
Prettiest Drive: Small streets in Upstate New York during fall.
Place that most exceeded expectations: Pittsburgh. I expected drab industrial but experienced lush greenery, hipster restaurants, and a vibrant downtown… and the steepest street in the continental US.
Thing that we missed the most: Jyn says her cats and clothes. For me, it’s my own bathroom.
What did we learn?
We have learned that you can find salsa dancing in major cities, except Evansville, Indiana. You can find boba tea and yarn shops almost everywhere. This country is filled with funny, odd, and ridiculous billboards/signs. Additionally, it is likely that you could stumble upon a town with your name (Example: Benson, NC), but probably not Chindaville. Fun things to do are everywhere, but it may take more research to unearth those gems. It has been a unique treat to see how our friends live their daily lives. Nearly every one of them has a different method of making coffee, ranging from elaborate modern contraptions that belong in niche coffee houses to no buttons or machines at all (pour over style).
While traveling between destinations, the car was full of stuff (~24 bags). Stuff for the around-the-world trip, stuff that will stay in Florida, and stuff for the road trip. At each stop, we half unpacked the car to ensure that the important items were safe. Eventually, we developed a method that made packing/unpacking fairly efficient.
Next… Around the world for a year.
Next up is the big trip that I have been talking about for years. FINALLY! We depart from LAX on December 30th and expect to be outside of the US for nearly a full year. The adventure is almost here. It doesn’t feel real yet, but once we get on that first business class flight to New Zealand, perhaps it will set in. The itinerary on this blog has been updated. Due to the asinine ticketing process, we needed to make substantial changes to the plan. Check it out to see our destinations (rough summary of countries).
Travel Knit Dance 