PirateLover
12-19-2007, 01:58 AM
See my pre-trip reporthere (http://intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=121048)
Cast
Maryanne-Me, 21, turning 22 on the trip
John-Boyfriend of 5 1/2 years, 24
Billy-cousin, 23
Lauren- Cousin's GF, 22
(For all of you waiting for the engagement story, it doesn't happen until day 3 ;). I'll try to keep up with these as much as possible. Sorry for the delay.)
Dec 1st
John and I knew that we had to get a lot of sleep so after double checking each other’s packing and going over our plans, we went home and tried to get right to sleep. I think we were both asleep by 9. This gave us a decent 7 hours of sleep before waking up at 4. Around 4:40 we were all loading up the car. We tried to pack as light as possible and managed to fit everything in with minimal room to spare (enough space to see out the back).
I started the long journey down I-95 as we hit the road around 4:50. I drove until about 6:30 when we took our first break in Maryland, after which John took over for a long time. Billy and Lauren were out cold in the back for most of this time. This was a theme for the trip (http://www.dailymotion.com/maryannea/video/x3stsv_car-ride-2_family).We had a run-in with a gas station worker in Virginia when the pump wouldn’t accept our credit card. He kept asking John in a thick accent “Deed yah poot thah card een? Are yah suuure?” John just asked him to cancel it out and then we paid in cash. We were almost through Virginia when a local police officer in Emporia decided to pull us over. The speed limit was 65 and he clocked John at 79 when he passed a tractor trailer. This brought our spirits down a bit. He doesn’t cut us any breaks. With the car packed to the gills and 2 people asleep in the back you might think he’d see we are folks headed on vacation and at least knock us down a few miles, but nope. Everyone told us to watch our speed in Virginia…oh well, we almost made it!More car video (http://www.dailymotion.com/MaryanneA/video/x3strj_car-ride_family)
Billy soon took over and manned the helm through the Carolinas. We definitely got a kick out of all the South of The Border billboards. We were almost tempted to stop but we really just wanted to get to our hotel room. Also, we heard from many people who had gone down to Jacksonville when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl that it really isn’t much to behold for all the hype. It looked practically deserted when we drove by. As we neared the end of South Carolina, we stopped for gas and another driver switch. I got out to stretch my legs and a woman comments on my Eagles hoodie and says that she used to baby-sit Brian Westbrook when he was growing up in Maryland! Very nice woman. John drove the rest of the way. I would’ve taken over again but I had a massive headache that came out of nowhere. It was cool seeing Jacksonville lit up at night and also seeing the big Daytona Beach sign with the palm trees.
We rolled into Sheraton Vistana at 8:43pm! The suite was nice. It had a microwave, fridge, kitchen area, table, chair, sofa-bed, and a separate king bed room. The TV player in the living area also had a DVD player which was nice. With tax it came to $112. If I had a family and couldn’t afford onsite accommodations with these amenities, I would definitely stay here. There seemed to be some great activity areas that we couldn’t even take advantage of.
Overall thoughts about the drive: It took us about 16 hours and honestly it wasn’t too bad. Other than the ticket and gas station incident it was relatively eventless. There was a lot of construction though, and somewhere around Jacksonville we accidentally veered off 95 onto another road but we quickly got off and got back on 95. Hooray for GPS navigation systems! John’s back was pretty good. He was a bit sore at the end but was fine after some rest. Also of note, Billy managed to eat an entire jug of party mix during the journey. ;)
Sorry I don’t have any pics for this day, I had my camera packed away. But there will plenty to look at for the rest of the reports!
Cast
Maryanne-Me, 21, turning 22 on the trip
John-Boyfriend of 5 1/2 years, 24
Billy-cousin, 23
Lauren- Cousin's GF, 22
(For all of you waiting for the engagement story, it doesn't happen until day 3 ;). I'll try to keep up with these as much as possible. Sorry for the delay.)
Dec 1st
John and I knew that we had to get a lot of sleep so after double checking each other’s packing and going over our plans, we went home and tried to get right to sleep. I think we were both asleep by 9. This gave us a decent 7 hours of sleep before waking up at 4. Around 4:40 we were all loading up the car. We tried to pack as light as possible and managed to fit everything in with minimal room to spare (enough space to see out the back).
I started the long journey down I-95 as we hit the road around 4:50. I drove until about 6:30 when we took our first break in Maryland, after which John took over for a long time. Billy and Lauren were out cold in the back for most of this time. This was a theme for the trip (http://www.dailymotion.com/maryannea/video/x3stsv_car-ride-2_family).We had a run-in with a gas station worker in Virginia when the pump wouldn’t accept our credit card. He kept asking John in a thick accent “Deed yah poot thah card een? Are yah suuure?” John just asked him to cancel it out and then we paid in cash. We were almost through Virginia when a local police officer in Emporia decided to pull us over. The speed limit was 65 and he clocked John at 79 when he passed a tractor trailer. This brought our spirits down a bit. He doesn’t cut us any breaks. With the car packed to the gills and 2 people asleep in the back you might think he’d see we are folks headed on vacation and at least knock us down a few miles, but nope. Everyone told us to watch our speed in Virginia…oh well, we almost made it!More car video (http://www.dailymotion.com/MaryanneA/video/x3strj_car-ride_family)
Billy soon took over and manned the helm through the Carolinas. We definitely got a kick out of all the South of The Border billboards. We were almost tempted to stop but we really just wanted to get to our hotel room. Also, we heard from many people who had gone down to Jacksonville when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl that it really isn’t much to behold for all the hype. It looked practically deserted when we drove by. As we neared the end of South Carolina, we stopped for gas and another driver switch. I got out to stretch my legs and a woman comments on my Eagles hoodie and says that she used to baby-sit Brian Westbrook when he was growing up in Maryland! Very nice woman. John drove the rest of the way. I would’ve taken over again but I had a massive headache that came out of nowhere. It was cool seeing Jacksonville lit up at night and also seeing the big Daytona Beach sign with the palm trees.
We rolled into Sheraton Vistana at 8:43pm! The suite was nice. It had a microwave, fridge, kitchen area, table, chair, sofa-bed, and a separate king bed room. The TV player in the living area also had a DVD player which was nice. With tax it came to $112. If I had a family and couldn’t afford onsite accommodations with these amenities, I would definitely stay here. There seemed to be some great activity areas that we couldn’t even take advantage of.
Overall thoughts about the drive: It took us about 16 hours and honestly it wasn’t too bad. Other than the ticket and gas station incident it was relatively eventless. There was a lot of construction though, and somewhere around Jacksonville we accidentally veered off 95 onto another road but we quickly got off and got back on 95. Hooray for GPS navigation systems! John’s back was pretty good. He was a bit sore at the end but was fine after some rest. Also of note, Billy managed to eat an entire jug of party mix during the journey. ;)
Sorry I don’t have any pics for this day, I had my camera packed away. But there will plenty to look at for the rest of the reports!