Picture unrelated to doughnuts.

On July 19th of 1937, a genius decided to open up the first Krispy Kreme in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

In honor of that genius, and in celebration of melt in your mouth goodness, we gorged ourselves with dozens of hot doughnuts all night long in the birth city of the best doughnuts that ever existed.

Winston-Salem: A vicious cycle of gyms and doughnuts.

Picture related to viciousness.

“My daughter Anne and her friend Rachel are on a road trip… They would love to visit North Carolina and see you and your family while they are there if you are up for it!” my mom wrote to Tonia, her friend and colleague from Alliant University in San Diego, CA.

“We are in Winston-Salem, not very glamorous but would love to see them!” came the reply from our newest planned stop on the road in North Carolina.

I had met Tonia a few times before at a few dinners, but much not beyond that. Rachel and I weren’t sure what to expect when we finally found the house off a quaint winding road, flourishing with more green than I’d ever seen.

Picture related to more green than I’d ever seen.

We were quickly initiated into a flurry of friendly faces and a welcoming family and a bizarre (but delicious) arrangement of pizza, barbecue and other foods that arguably may or may not all belong together in one buffet of serving plates.

Casen, Tonia’s son, was a bit shy but wasn’t too embarrassed to play “Shoot me!” with his dad and their nerf guns.

While we were there…

North Carolina was a great stop for resting, walking around the historical district, eating hot doughnuts at Krispy Kreme, and making a quick day trip to the Apple store in Greensboro.

Oh, and having a photoshoot:

Also, we did things like going to the gym and immediately following it up with a stop at Dunkin Donuts.

Why bother working out if you’re not going to indulge?

That’s how it works, right?

One night in Asheville.

After our fun and relaxing time with Tonia and her family, we made a one night stop in Asheville — a “granola” town full of delicious, organic and locally grown food.

Thanks for the tip, Tonia! And for everything else, too. :)

Over and out.

- Anne

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Our visit to Niles, Michigan started out innocently enough with some American Italian food.

We met up with my cousins-of-a-sort Pat, Gail, their two daughters, and Carol at Pizza Hut for some reconnecting then spent the next two pleasant nights with Pat and Gail!

The Whole Crew!

Michigan Heat & Blistered Feet

After the initial Pizza Hut party, Gail took us out down to Indiana so we could check out the Amish culture in the area.

A picture of us and nothing particularly Amish-y.

Gail bought some awesome bread from an Amish store we explored, we drove through the Notre Dame campus, and toured the local outdoor swap meet in the midst of blazing Michigan heat and blistered feet.

Buggies shop too!

Defining “Lakes”

Our stay in Niles was especially awesome for two reasons. First, because Lake Michigan is a beast. Second, because my mom’s family grew up in Michigan and reconnecting and exploring your family history is utterly fascinating (albeit sad at times).

Now, about that lake part – at this point, Anne and I have already been pretty appalled with some state’s definitions of lakes and ponds. For example, they have this “pond” in Vermont called Grout Pond. We camped next to that “pond”. It was not a pond. And up until we got to Michigan we considered it a lake…until we saw Lake Michigan.

In the online version of the Oxford Dictionary (a dictionary with such a fancy name, its clearly legit), the word “lake” is defined as, “a large area of water surrounded by land.” The word “pond” is defined as, “a small body of still water formed naturally or by artificial means,” (I’m sorry, were there other formation options?).

As you may notice, there are no clear size restrictions listed here. And I’m pretty sure the only other option to choose from is a puddle, which really only applies to those little splotches of water kids jump in after it rains. So who gets to choose? In my opinion, the same guy that named Lake Michigan named Grout Pond…and never bothered to look at any other bodies of water.

The Beach Called Lake Michigan

If you’ve never had the opportunity to visit Lake Michigan, this might give you a better idea:

It’s the beach without sharks, plus sand dunes. (Which are awesome.)

It rained while we were there, but we still had some time to eat pizza, explore, and walk on the pier before everything became too drenched for us to stay.

(Note: Next is the part about Rachel’s family history. She will try to make it interesting, but if you aren’t in Rachel’s family, feel free to skip some.)

Invading Driveways

Before we checked out Lake Michigan, Gail gave Anne and me an epic tour of the surrounding areas where my family used to live. We even visited an old barn turned jam making, fruit selling shop!

Gail picking out cherries!

Anne’s raw honey purchase!

We also found the school my Uncle went to, the home Gail grew up in, and even the house where my mom used to live!

Why aren’t all houses this color?

The best story however, happened when we stopped to take pictures in front of the house my great-grandparents built.

We first discovered Gail’s “throw all caution to the wind” spirit during our visit to Norte Dame. They have a pretty great library there where most people take pictures. Only problem is, there isn’t parking next to it! Gail was determined to get us that picture though and so she swung her mini-van up onto the curb, right in front of the stadium entrance. It was awesome.

And yet, even though we knew of Gail’s head-on spirit, Anne and I weren’t expecting it at all when she pulled the car into the back drive way of this house while the owner was on the phone working right next to us. This does not seem like a good time to run and pose next to the house…I thought to myself. 

But I did.

One of those, “Was it worth it?” moments.

As I raced for my life back to car, reassuring myself that this man in the driveway would never see my face again, he got off his phone and started walking over to us.

He was not amused. (Apparently lots of people come to his house and take pictures – only they do it for home renovation ideas.)

Thankfully, once we told him our story he loosened up and even invited his wife out to talk to us. Turns out, at one point they’d even found an old bike on the property with my grandfather’s name on it.

That about ends our journey with Pat and Gail! I’ll leave you to ponder this picture of Pat on the floor of the car.

Until next time,

Rachel

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Hello fair readers and subscribers: Here’s to the here and now!

Anne and I recently left the great state of Michigan where we stayed with my cousins of a sort, Pat and Gail in Niles and Anne’s Nerd Fitness buddy Mir(anda) and her husband, Chris, in Fowlerville.

The “getting to Michigan” part was a bit of a disappointment.

We had just visited Niagara Falls in Buffalo and instead of heading through Canada for what GoogleMaps told us was a little over five hour drive, we had to go around due to a lack of passport-age. Seven – eight hours was a disappointing jump.

We battled a rain storm on our way in and witnessed our first group of cars parked under a bridge for refuge – yet we forged ahead! (This was also the first time I realized how anything but sun must suck for motorcyclists.)

Bloated Goats

Fowlerville (Michigan destination #1) was the opposite of stormy and a humid 83 degrees when we arrived at the MBC (Michigan Brewing Company). Our first glass of Michigan beer!

I added another coaster from the MBC to my growing collection and Anne and I inwardly toasted Chris and Miranda for agreeing to let us stay a few nights.

The next night we checked out another local bar: The Bloated Goat.

Yes, that is actually the name of a bar. 

See?

Here, Anne and I got what will likely be the largest, iciest glasses of beer we will ever have.

HUGENESS.

It’s also where we discovered the Midwest drink combo, Summer Shandy – a half beer/half lemonade drink. (Something I highly recommend to anyone forced to drink beer against their will.)

Blistered Feet

Michigan was also the state where we really began to take exercising on the road seriously.

Anne was on her own mission to run a mile our second day there and I decided to join her.

“Shoes? Ughh, I’ll have to dig through the car…and putting on tennis shoes sucks. I’ll just go barefoot!” were my famous last words.

Running barefoot as a child is different than running barefoot as an adult. Our feet have a sixth sense and realize when running around barefoot on hot concrete is no longer acceptable in society…so they punish us.

And after running around in the yard and on asphalt during 90 degree weather, my feet decided to punish me with blisters. Some were on my toes, some on my heels – but the worst of my blisters were on the balls of my feet and about an inch long. OUCH.

Yet the exercise must continue! We hit up the gym that night with Miranda for some intense dead lifting instruction. Squats were squatted out, weights were lifted up, and races were won on the rowing machines.

Tear it up out there today folks! No pain no gain, right?

Until next time,

Rachel

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We’re working out a system to keep this blog in check, as we’re clearly way too far behind. From here on out (until we’re caught up) — Rachel will be writing posts about where we are currently, and I’ll be writing posts from way-back-when to catch you up on our past experiences. 

April 14th, 2012 — April 18th, 2012

Cities: Savannah, GA & Charleston, SC

Occasionally I sit back and realize that we are totally doing this whole trip wrong. For instance, we spend our time in random stores that may or may not be local to the area, and play with big spoons.

Is that how to spend an epic road trip?

Actually, yes. I kind of like doing it wrong.

Lady Savannah.

Lady Savannah was kind to us, but she wasn’t really a big partier. We stayed with a lovely host named Erin on recommendation of our Dallas host Kat. Erin was mostly busy while we were there, but we did enjoy the company of her massive American Bull Dog, Petunia.

The first night, we went to a small bar called Jerry’s Bar. It was basically a great watering hole for the locals. Oh, and it also had karaoke. We made the mistake of letting Erin know that we’d just had our first karaoke experience in Key West, and she made us stand and sing “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry.

That was not a good song for us as it requires: 1) high vocal range, 2) stage presence.

Erin was great though and came up to make us feel less awkward.

Savannah was cute, but we saw most of what we were interested in the first night we arrived. That’s when we decided to check out Tybee Beach, which is on an island right off Savannah!

We showed up with no real plans, which turned out to be a horrible idea. We drove up and down the coastline for 15 minutes before realizing there wasn’t any free parking. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Into the car we dug, and found enough quarters to pay for a grand 42 minutes of beach time — but those 42 minutes were totally worth it!

The pier seemed like a great place if you want to have a picnic, so our only regret was not having food to eat while we were there.

You are always welcome.

Gentleman Charles(ton).

In Charleston we failed as blogging travelers and totally forgot to take pictures. So we snapped a picture of the road on our way out.

Yeah, you’re welcome.

Some of our first Mexican food on this trip since Texas was in Charleston. I won’t say much other than… stick to Southern Cali and Texas for your Mexican food. The food itself was fine, but it wasn’t real Mexican.

However, where you should go is to the Tattooed Moose, or the Lost Dog Cafe. Both of those had a fun atmosphere and good things going on.

I’m also a bit ashamed to say that we also saw Titanic in 3D while in Charleston. To be fair, it was going to be our first opportunity to go to a dine-in movie theater, and that part totally rocked!

All in all, our time in both of these cities was pretty relaxed and uneventful, hence the tame nature of this post. Coming up soon you’ll learn about our late night Krispy Kreme shenanigans…

Over and out.

- Anne

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“I’m kind of excited about Miami! I have glamorous ideas of it from watching TV shows like Dexter and Burn Notice. It’ll be interesting to see what it’s like in real life.” - me, a couple months ago

I now understand why people just kind of shook their heads and chuckled at me when I said that. More on that later.

Back to the Australians, gators and s’mores.

Pictured: Australians and gators.

Remember our awesome friends, Taryn and Hope? (They also have a travel blog and they are doing like a thousand countries so you should check it out.)

Let’s review our history, yes? So we met Taryn and Hope in Dallas while we were surfing with Kat. Then we hung out with them at Dick’s Last Resort in San Antonio. After that we booked a room with them for 3 nights in Austin.

Yeah, we go way back. And it turned out that wasn’t the last we’d see of them: We got to meet up with them at their last stop in the USA before they flew off into the distance.

The Australians that we didn’t let get away.

We booked a free Sheraton hotel with my travel points courtesy of SPG. Since we wanted to be able spend every last moment with our super cool friends, we told them they were welcome to crash in our room! So they promptly cancelled their hostel reservations so they could hang with us.

That’s how much they loved us. *sniff

We accidentally went to Pollo Tropical, which had been recommended to us by our Dallas friend Kat — but we’d forgotten. It only took us about an hour to drive what would have taken 15 minutes if we’d not gotten dazed and confused. That was mostly due to the insane amount of toll roads in Miami that we were trying to avoid. (The food was cheap and relatively delicious.)

Pictured: Friends at Miami Beach

Miami beaches in 40 minutes or less.

We were staying in Miami and we all wanted to see a beach or bust! Imagining a golden sunset with flashy lights in the background, we arrived and realized we only had enough coins to park for little less than an hour.

We shrugged our shoulders and walked to the beach, where we realized that it just wasn’t a beach day (or we were at the wrong beach, or at the right one a little too late). All of the chairs were stacked up near the booths and the sun was setting out behind all of the buildings.

I’d almost forgotten we were on the east coast until then — seeing a sunset at the beach with the beach behind the buildings rather than over the ocean was a bit disconcerting.

But still very pretty.

So we sat down and pulled out our makings for s’mores.

Hotel-made s’mores in Miami

…what? Rewind?

Taryn and Hope wanted to have s’mores before they left the states, because apparently that is an American thing to do.

We’d picked up the fixings for them at a grocery store before heading to the beach, even though we knew there was a very slight chance that we’d have any magical way to cook them.

(Side note: Wow. You know I’ve been in too many southern states when I start using the word “fixings” in my blog posts.)

We ate the s’mores raw at the beach, but there was plenty leftover when we got back to the hotel.

Then somebody brilliant said: “We could use the iron to cook them.”

Pictured: The best hotel s'more chef ever.

Bam. Instant success. It took us a few tries to get the perfect technique for the proper ratio of marshmallow gooeyness to chocolate melty goodness, but every try was still delicious.

Gators are right behind you!

Pictured: Overconfident tourist.

There’s one other thing you have to see when you to Florida: alligators.

Where better to go than the Everglades?

Pictured: The warning you get before walking into Shark Valley.

I’d like to fix this sign to say: “If it hisses or opens its mouth…” HOLY CRAP RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

Pictured: Yep, that's an alligator.

Pictured: Another alligator.

It turned out to be mating season for alligators. One of our first sights was an alligator making a very strange guttural noise that sounded a lot like the gator in this video on YouTube (click that link if you want to hear it).

As we walked through Shark Valley we saw countless alligators swimming around, with no fence or anything to keep them from shredding us to pieces and making us lunch.

That’s where we lost Hope, forever.

Pictured: Taryn, and poor Hope

JUST KIDDING! We all lived to see another s’more.

Pictured: Hope photo-bombing Rachel's s'more photo.

So anyways, Miami isn’t what I thought it would be.

Perhaps if we’d had a guide who knew and loved Miami to show us the hot spots and tell us where to go when, we’d have liked it a bit more. In my personal opinion, it was a bit pricey and overrated. I’ll have to go back with someone who knows it next time.

Overall, we absolutely loved getting to see Taryn and Hope one more time! Even if their train was 3 hours late when we went to go pick them up ;)

Over and out.

- Anne

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Imagine a world where you’re surrounded by beautiful beaches on every side. You’re never more than a mile away from the nearest body of drop dead gorgeous ocean views. You can kayak, jet-ski, or simply take in the characters walking around. You can almost hear the roosters in the background…

Wait, what?

Welcome to Key West: Land of wonder, whack-jobs and chickens.

Don’t forget the roosters either. They’ll wake you up at 4am just outside of your car and never let you sleep again… but why were we where we could even hear roosters?

Let me tell you.

Key West: Land of Whack-Jobs

Our one and only bad CouchSurfing experience happened in Key West.

It was our own fault, really, because it was our first time messaging:

• Just a guy (not a woman or couple)
• Someone who didn’t have a really solid profile
• Someone who didn’t have references
• “Meh” pictures barely showing us who the guy was
• Someone who insisted on being called Wolfgang

Rachel and I knew going in that we needed to be extra alert and vigilant so that neither of us disappeared with a one-way ticket to a private torture island off the coast.

But we wanted to be in Key West for more than a few days, and we didn’t want to burden a single CouchSurfer with our presence the whole time — so we went ahead and took the risk by requesting this guy for our first 2 nights.

The night started out okay, but then he kept wanting to go the clothing optional bar.

You know what? I’m not a super judgmental person, and I realize some people are into things like public nudity. But it’s really not for me, and it seems like a very odd thing for a single dude to be trying to convince two girls to go do with him.

He wasn’t necessarily trying to get us naked there, but he did keep telling Rachel she should get her body painted… which involves stripping down and getting well, you know. Your whole body painted. Hashtag weird.

The first time he took us we tried to play it cool. The whole building is 3 stories, each story being a unique bar. On the top is the exhibitionist’s mecca.

“Let’s try the second level bar,” he said. It was a normal bar, and we played a game of pool there — which may have also been my first time winning at pool, by the way.

“Want to go upstairs and check it out for a minute?” he mentioned offhand. Well, he mentioned it offhand like five times, so Rachel and I figured we’d check it out for 30 seconds with our eyes closed and then get out of there just to shut him up.

We managed to make it in and out without much harm done. (It was not exciting, trust me.)

He then took us on a mini tour of the main street all the way up and down Key West. It’s like a mile wide island and it didn’t take more than an hour or so, what with darting in and out of neat looking spots.

Somehow we ended up back near the bar again. “Let’s go back! I have a buddy who is hanging out up there, you can meet him!”

It’s hard to tell someone that you don’t want to meet their buddies, and we were just in a really awkward position between: not wanting to piss him off if he was a psycho, and not wanting to be rude to the person who was offering us a floor to sleep on, yet also not wishing to hang out at the clothing optional bar anymore.

If you’re keeping track, the ratio of logical reasons to go vs. not go was 2:3 and we ended up getting dragged up there again. Awkward does not even begin to describe the situation. I developed a severe bladder issue so that I could drag Rachel to the second floor (where the bathroom was) to discuss our plans every 5 minutes.

We decided that if things didn’t escalate and he just turned out to be a dude with odd tastes we’d let it slide… maybe. If it escalated at all, we were going to get out of there.

After what felt like hours of being subjected to such awkwardness, there were finally two things which finally gave us our answer.

He…

• said: “I just like to watch! It’s fun.”
• took off his shirt not long after that.

As he reached for his shirt to take it off, Rachel and I met wide-eye to wide-eye and knew this is where we drew the line.

I had another moment of bladder difficulty and we whisked down to the second floor one more time to plan our escape route. It turns out I was feeling very sick and we were just going to get a hotel.

Of course, the term “hotel” here really means we found a side street to park on and we just slept in the car.

And that’s how we ended up spending our first two nights in Key West sleeping with roosters.

Key West: Land of Chickens

About those roosters: first of all, the gypsy chickens of Key West are everywhere.

And the roosters are noisy.

The beaches of Key West don’t allow overnight parking, but they do open up at 6am. Turns out that the beach doesn’t sound like a bad place to sleep when the other option is your car.

The other bonus of the beach? Less chickens. For some reason they don’t hang out too close to the beach.

So at 4am when the roosters woke me up from my not so peaceful car slumber, I started to develop a plan. Just as soon as 6am hit, I drove us to the beach.

“I’m going to go sleep on the beach,” I whispered to Rachel, who had somehow managed to still be mostly unconscious at this point. She drearily followed me out to the quiet shoreside.

I spread my towel on the ground, brought out my pillow, cuddled under my jacket and fell asleep with this amazing view:

There are pros in every situation if you look for them, am I right?

Key West: Land of Wonder

CouchSurfing redeemed itself in the following few days, as it led us to meet some of our favorite people in the world, ever.

Meet: Ryan (in the hat), Lane (the only other female), Scott (far left) and Andrew (floating above us).

Ryan and Lane were our hosts, and they have an amazing background story.  You can read more about them and their own crazy adventures on their blog: Living The Dream.

Scott and Andrew were buddies surfing in a tent in the backyard, while Rachel and I slept on the couch inside. The six of us formed what would turn out to be a hilarious, quirky and awesome CouchSurfing family during the following three days.

We laughed…

We met drag queens…

We went kayaking…

(Although sadly, Rachel was feeling sick and couldn’t go that day.)

And shared generally fun times and sunsets together.

And I stole Andrew’s hat.

Key West went from being our most traumatic experience to one of our most epic experiences ever.

There’s simply not enough room to talk about everything that happened during our stay, so I’m going to leave you in the knowledge that we survived and came out on the other side for the better.

And our awesome CouchSurfing family is mostly to thank for that. :)

- Anne

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P.S. For anyone who found this article interested in good info for traveling in Key West:

- If you need a shower, the community center will let you shower for free. You just have to check in, and don’t leave a mess. We didn’t find out until it was too late, but I thought others might find it useful.

- The library has free wi-fi and bathrooms. This is very useful if you need either but don’t have anywhere to be.

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Ah, Disney World. That magical kingdom. That special place where dreams come true. That wonderful world of…well lets be honest here: spending money and waiting in lines. Fortunately, we planned ahead a bit with the snacks so we didn’t spend much in the parks and mainly subsisted on mini-apples, granola and canned fruit. (Our utter joy sustained us.)

Super Smiles.

But who am I kidding? We still freaking loved it.

In total, we were in the Disney World area for nine days: six days touring the park, two days resting our weary legs, and one day driving there and playing mini golf at Winter Summerland.

Thanks to Expedia we got a sweet deal for five nights at a local resort for $40 a night, complete with shuttle. Well, complete with really lame, limited-arrival-time shuttle.

And then there were four rather unpleasant nights in our car… 

Those nights became progressively better when we figured out we could cram all of our belongings into the front seats (a thirty minute process) and also when we determined that lying with our feet stretched out toward the front of the car is better for circulation. But still, our lodging was a Ford Focus hatchback.

In case you weren’t aware and aren’t totally obsessed with all-things-Disney, Disney World has a total of four main parks – there’s Epcot, Magic Kindgom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. With a six-day, single-park-a-day pass this left us with some decision making. We ultimately decided to spend our extra two days in Epcot and Magic Kingdom, mainly because Magic Kingdom is so Disney-ish and Epcot is utterly unique. (You should ask Anne about the sushi at the Epcot Japanese restaurant we went to some time. Well, maybe not if you’re hungry.)

We have masses of awesome Disney World pictures, so it’s gonna be hard to decide which ones make the cut. If you feel so inclined you can view each and every one here (the set starts with that picture of Anne wearing the awesome black adventurer hat she bought at the Red Barn in Bradenton…or my hot pink shirt).

Stunt Shows & Super Big Stuff

Hollywood Studios was our first Disney park stop of our Orlando adventure. We loved our second-to-front-row seats at the Indiana Jones show and the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show.

Can YOU see Indiana dodging those axe-wielding statues?

We missed out on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror as so many have pointed out to us. OUCH.

Wait, let me rephrase that.

We (unfortunately) missed out on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster as many people have pointed out to us and successfully avoided boarding the Tower of Terror. (We hate falling rides!)

The Beauty and the Beast show was amusing although there were quite a few moments of unintended hilarity.

But look at all those Barbie-esque dresses!

And It’s a Bug’s Life’s giant playground of huge stuff was just plain awesome.

It's places like this that make me miss my childhood.

Mickey Magic

Our first day in the Magic Kingdom was primarily spent adjusting to the sheer massiveness of the park…and comparing rides to Disneyland (which I might possibly prefer – except for the huge castle).

By the time our second day at the Magic Kingdom rolled around we had mastered Fast Passes and the layout of the park. Plus, TWICE we were handed Fast Pass tickets to awesome rides. Thank you kind strangers of Disney World!

We ended up loving the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and thought the Jungle Cruise was pretty cool. My favorite part of the park was Tom Sawyer Island.

Anne preferred the ice cream.

Probably the most unique thing about the Magic Kingdom was that we rode three different forms of transportation to get from the parking lot to the park, or vice versa. They offer occasional buses, monorail rides, and of course, they went Disney-style with ferry boat rides.

Our first night in Orlando we met up with our friend Ben and his friends for mini-golf at Winter Summerland – a mini-golf course featuring two opposite weather Christmas-themed sections.

We don’t have pictures of that…

But here are pictures of everyone eating at Steak ‘n Shake!

We also met up with them again later at Epcot.

We don’t have pictures of that either…

But here we are again at the Animal Kingdom with Ben!

Keeping Up! with the Animal Kingdom

Speaking of friends, we met my favorite person during our day at the Animal Kingdom…

…Russell!

Best. Day. Ever.

Here are some other things we did at the Animal Kingdom that were not quite as awesome as meeting Russell:

We watched the Festival of the Lion King (okay, it was pretty good.)

We checked out some alligators.

We discovered dinosaurs.

We went on a safari.

We rode Expedition Everest (oh fine, this may have been better).

We found the tree of life.

We rode unicorns over the Disney castle and then stopped for this quick lunch with Aladdin and…okay, just checking to make sure you were paying attention. ;)

It’s Raining in Epcot

I ended up being a little surprised by the layout of Epcot and after all it had been built up to be really expected more rides and shows. But it probably didn’t help that it rained our first day there.

We really enjoyed exploring Norway, being foodies in Japan and the random shows we ended up finding. And Text Trax is the best ride!

The flower and garden festival also made things a little more interesting with all of the Disney-shaped plants around.

Belle? Is that you?

Epcot, ladies and gentlemen!

But where in the world are these San Diegans now??

What’s coming next:

TEHE.

Until next time,

Rachel

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This is (at least) the fourth time I’ve had to come back to this post. Ay Caramba! (Okay, so I don’t technically know the meaning of that expression…but I’m sure any Spanish-speaking person will tell you that it fits this situation.)

Regardless, Bradenton was fantastic and I’m having trouble capturing it all.

From the good company to the good food and sandy beaches, we were hard-pressed to leave…even though we knew our next stop would be Disney World.

Red Barn. Strawberry Shortcake. Bealls. Let me just start by telling you how we ended up in Bradenton in the first place.

Getting to Bradenton

I’d been excited about Bradenton for some time because it was the next place I’d get to see family (having family or close friend visits is imperative to maintaining sanity on the road). My Uncle Bud and Aunt Jeanette have a vacation home in Florida so it was decided we’d make a stop between Pensacola and Disney World.

I think Anne & I knew it’d be heaven from the moment we felt their air-conditioned apartment and tasted turkey sandwiches.

Extreme heat tends to strip a persons happiness faster than a hungry piranha…and it was hot in Florida.

Ahh, the sweet taste of relaxation. That night we caught up my Aunt and Uncle on all of our road trip adventures and sat down to our first episode of one of my Uncle Bud’s favorite shows, The Good Wife. We also learned that one of Florida’s natural terrors lurked in the lake behind us…that’s right, I’m talking about alligators. And still, we slept soundly that night.

Strawberries & More

The next day we awoke to a hearty breakfast and a hot cup of coffee, then found ourselves whisked away to Parkesdale Farms.

Sittin' in a strawberry.

“What lies in Parkesdale Farms?” you ask.

Strawberry shortcake, that’s what.

Does this tempt you?

EVERYONE loves strawberry shortcake!

My cousins of a sort, Gail, Pat and Carol, met us for strawberry shortcake in Parkesdale and we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of conversation and complete deliciousness!

I, of course, was appointed queen of the strawberry.

Bealls Outlet was our next stop – the store my Uncle Bud had been raving about for its incredible shoe assortment. I tended to favor the clothing selection, although I did get a nice pair of tennis shoes. My first pair in years that weren’t borrowed or Converse – thank you Uncle Bud and Aunt Jeanette!

And if strawberry shortcake and shopping wasn’t enough, we enjoyed a fantastic buffet-style dinner, check out the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and ended the night with another relaxing evening at home.

The Beach

Our third day in Bradenton was a beach day. We drove around checking out the awesome views and crazy expensive houses, then settled under a beach umbrella in the sand.

Plus, we enjoyed some outdoor eats at a restaurant next to the beach.

See how close we are to the beach!

Bye Bye Bradenton

Sigh. Our last day in Bradenton had to come. We started it out right with a Cracker Barrel brunch and shopping at the Red Barn.

My main purchase of the day was a wide assortment of fruits & veggies. Apples, Bell Peppers, Oranges, Kiwis…after all, food doesn’t come with that $200-something Disney World ticket.

The characters of Toy Story look forward to meeting you.

And now back to my West Virginia sunset…

Until next time,

Rachel

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Peach wine — yeah, that sounded good. A free wine tasting is all you need to keep your day strong during a multi-hour ride from Madison, AL to Pensacola, FL.

I pulled out my phone to let Alex know when we’d be getting there. She was so worried about being able to time a meal with our arrival! Little did she realize that we’re really easy to please.

It was going to be the first time we’d seen Alex and Bryan since they got married. In fact, it would only be the third time we’d even met Bryan at all! It wasn’t too long ago that I’d have laughed at you for suggesting I’d actually be in Florida when I saw him next.

He wasn’t at the house when we arrived. In fact, Alex wasn’t there either, much to her dismay! But it was only a few moments before she pulled into the parking spot next to us, back from the grocery store with our dinner in hand.

After our delicious meal of filet mignon wrapped in bacon (Rachel tells me there was salad, but my memories are fondly filled with meat) we gathered Bryan from his place of work and headed straight to a quirky, somewhat Bohemian bar called The Elbow Room. By quirky, I mean nerdy. And by nerdy, I mean filled with Star Trek paraphernalia and references.

We played an intense game of Scrabble in which Rachel totally cheated to win. (Rachel tells me she didn’t cheat, but my memories are fondly filled with the idea that I should have won.) Bryan came a close second, with Alex and I somewhere in the distance yelling “Get back here now, I mean it!”

The Hunger Games was weighing heavily on my mind since I had read the whole first book in the last 24 hours, and when I voiced my preoccupation I learned that Alex was also very interested in seeing it. At first we thought we’d go and see it on Saturday (the next day) but the longer the night went on, the more we realized we had to go see it right then and there.

So we got to see the Hunger Games, which was awesome. And frankly, I don’t know if you noticed, but I was pretty awesome as well. (If you can’t see the picture, you won’t understand.)

…no, I am not a nerd. And yes, I read the books because of the movie. And that’s okay.

A warm welcome to Florida beaches.

We tried to start our own version of Hunger Games on the beach, but it didn't go as planned.

Florida beaches are much different than San Diego beaches. First of all, you can actually walk out into the water. We didn’t do that in Pensacola, but we could have.

Secondly, the water is pretty warm. For those of you from the West Coast, that’s just weird right?

Last of all, the water is really calm compared to San Diego beaches. I finally understood why we’re known for our surf back at home — it’s because we have surf.

We happened to be there on a day where there were actually some waves, but for most of what we saw in Florida that was a pretty rare sight.

That day included a drive-thru tour of the college Alex and Bryan attended and met at. We brought the day to a relaxing pace by picking up Hungry Howie’s pizza and watching Orange County for the first time.

We girls felt a little sluggish after that and went for a run. It turns out Alex is in much better jogging shape than either of us.

Bidding farewell to old friends.

Our time in Pensacola felt short as Sunday morning rolled around. After we bade Alex and Bryan adieu,  we picked up some tasty caffeine at a local shop called the Drowsy Poet (we got the Shakespeare and Milton) and were on our way.

If you’re ever in Pensacola, make sure you hit the beach (if only to see the white sand). It’s a beautiful thing, and it was one of my favorite Florida beaches.

Over and out.

Anne

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Before I plunge into this Alabama tale, I’d like to point out just how difficult it’s been for us to exercise on this trip. Not that other states don’t have enough open space to work out it…but unless we awkwardly abandon our hosts in the morning for a run, exercise in their living room, or stop on the side of the road during a drive, exercise is rather inconvenient.

The main problem, I guess, is that I’m not especially eager to exercise in the first place. So if you make the whole process of exercising difficult to arrange, let’s just say I’m not gonna go out of my way to make things happen.

Anyway, I bring all this up because Anne & I actually exercised a few days ago! Impressive, I know. And you know that whole two-days after thing where you just want to tear off your limbs because your muscles are in so much pain? Well, that happened to us yesterday. And based on the incredibly long time it took us to walk up a hill, I think our desire for health and fitness has at last been renewed. Here’s to a new week of movement!

Silly City Folk

The drive into Alabama, much like most of our driving in the South, was beautiful and generally free of people. We headed to Madison, a city near the top of the state, to meet Anne’s family friends the Schultz’s for dinner and real beds.

“We need to buy gas soon,” we said to one another. ”This place up here looks cheap!”

It was cheap for sure, but it also wasn’t automatic, only offered one type of gas and certainly didn’t have “pay at the pump” options.

“So I guess we just go inside?” I said, and inside I walked.

“Uh, Hi! So do I just pay here for gas?” I said to the woman at the counter.

“Hello! Welcome wearied traveler! Yes, you can pay right here!” she told me.

Okay so maybe she didn’t say it exactly like that, but this lady was friendly. 

“Okay great, do you guys take cards? Or is there a charge or something if I use one?”

“Oh yeah, it’s $2.13,” she said.

“$2.13?”

“Yes,” and then she proceeded to tell me what I thought was something about them being a gas station in the middle of no where so of course they have to charge a fee because of expenses and whatever.

“Oh okay, yeah, that makes sense,” I said. “Well uh, I’ll just get $25 in gas then if that works.”

“Okay, $27.13 is your total. I’ll get your bag of ice.”

Ice? Maybe I heard her wrong, I thought. Maybe it’s a Southern thing…Buy a gallon of gas and get a bag of ice FREE! No, that’s ridiculous. Maybe she’s getting a receipt? No…that’s definitely ice. And sure enough…

“Here’s your ice!” she said as she plopped down a large bag of ice on the counter and slid it to me.

I should just take it. I don’t want to be rude, I mean, she’s SO NICE. No, where would we even put the ice?? 

“Um,” I said. “I didn’t, uh, want ice.”

“You didn’t??” she laughed, confused. “I thought you said you wanted ice!”

I laughed with her. “Oh! No, I just wanted to buy some gas!”

I had already paid so we agreed to just apply $27.13 toward gas.

“Okay, thanks!” I said to her, walking out.

“You have to stop it manually at $27.13,” she told me because clearly I was new at this.

I confirmed I heard her and wandered back outside to tell Anne my story while we attempted to figure out the gas pump.

“We have to stop it manually,” I told Anne.

“What? Really? Hmm…” we pondered the gas pump together.

“How do you start it?” I asked Anne. She didn’t know.

After an embarrassingly long amount of time the nice lady at the counter came out to help us.

“Hahaha, you city folk!” she told us and showed us how to pull up the lever and start pumping the gas.

We probably still looked really confused because then an older man who worked there came out to help us.

“You girls need help?” he said in a gruff voice.

“Uh, sure,” we said.

And after another minute of embarrassment as he stood there pumping our gas for us, we were back on the road and laughing at our first true taste of the South.

Shuffleboard with the Schultz’s

Shortly after we arrived in Madison, we were fed an awesome dinner of corn bread, cucumber salad and a shredded beef type of stew. Mmm. Lydia and Bob then gave us the official tour, ending with the awesome game room they have upstairs.

Here we discovered shuffleboard. Well, it’s where Anne discovered it and I actually learned how to play.

Shuffleboard is fantastic and took up much of our time at the Schultz’s home. Anne meticulously re-vamped the wax table and we had some pretty close games. If you haven’t ever played shuffleboard, get on that (because it’s pretty fun).

Unclaimed Baggage & Wine

The next day we decided on visiting the Unclaimed Baggage center Lydia had told us about. It’s a store comprised of everything people leave at airports, purchased sight-unseen by this store and sold to whoever wants it.

There was some pretty awesome stuff there including diamond rings, a TON of clothes, and iPads! My question for you is, who decides it’s too much work to get their DIAMOND RING back? Were they just like, “Oh, whatever. I’ll just spend another $10,000 and get a new one. No biggie.” My conclusion is that they must have died in the wearisome process of baggage claim.

Anyway, we bought some pretty neat stuff there like my new camera bag. I was in dire need of an upgrade from the plastic Target bag I was using.

After we were all shopped-out we headed back to the Schultz’s house and Lydia treated us to a wine tasting where a few of her awesome friends hang out on Thursday’s. Shout out to all of our Madison friends!

Anne and I are pretty sophisticated wine drinkers now – especially after our Vineyard stop on our way out of Alabama where we had another wine tasting and bought the most delicious Peach wine. We even tried chocolate wine with Lydia. Imagine mixing chocolate milk with wine…now you can share with the kids, too! Just kidding. ;)

But before we knew it, our time in Alabama was over and we were headed out on the long drive to Pensacola where Alex and Bryan eagerly awaited our arrival, thinking of nothing else. Well, probably.

Until next time,

Rachel

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