One last day in the good ol' South

Hello hello!

So, as of July 10th we FINALLY have our trip mapped out.  Our campgrounds set.  Our clothes all packed.  It actually, surprisingly, took us all of one attempt to fit everything in the car.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The last week in Massachusetts was lots of fun... in between packing and cleaning and running and saying hello/goodbye to people. I drove back up to Fairlee on the 6th to pick Jimmy up - a beautiful empty-car drive... one of the last I'll have for a while.  We threw a futon and bedframe in the back of the car and drove over to Keene, NH to see Jimmy's other grandparents for a day and spend a beautiful day on another beautiful lake.  Drove home that night to arrive in a misty and cloudy Massachusetts.  Thursday we spent the first half of the day enjoying Harvard Square and the wonders of Trader Joe's, then I raced off for one last doctor's appointment and then we spent the warm afternoon packing up the car with my stuff and tying a futon frame to the top of the blue subaroo.  (I totally MEANT to take a picture of this but alas, my camera was packed before I even realized it. Sooo no pictures for yous guys! At least not yet.

Friday morning we hopped in the car at 7:30 am and began the trek down the East Coast.  In terms of driving weather.... Friday was absolutely AWFUL.  I don't know if any of you were paying attention to the epic wave of thunderstorms that was working its way up and down and all around the east coast BUTTTT I'm pretty sure we hit every single storm on the way down. See: weather map below for reference of how much of the east coast was drenched.

Blue means rain. As does green. As does anything that is covering the east coast

I put on my sunglasses for all of 5 minutes probably.  Otherwise the drive was a panorama of torrential downpour, epic bolts of lightening, distant rumbles, not-so distant rumbles, and brief dry spells complimented by large rolling purple clouds approaching in the distance.  BUT we took it slow and calmly... using the excellent NEW GPS from Uncle Wicked Awesome (AKA Uncle Steve) and made it to Virginia after 10 hours of rainy roads. 

Saturday was an excellent day spent in good ol' Virginie.  We (all four of us now) went for a [suuper sunny] bike ride to lunch at Homemades by Suzanne.

And spent the rest of Saturday hanging out in a southern sort of way.  (Hint- for Meg this means staying out of the sun and humidity.) Saturday evening we all got gussied up for a weddding (Jimmy next door neighbor and old classmate/friend got married to her boyfriend since 8th grade) and I got my first taste of a wedding in 10+ years and a good dose of how a wedding might look on a Southern-plantation style house.  It was gorgeous, in case you're wondering.  Once again, totally failed to bring the camera but if you just want to use to ESP to tap into my brain you can TOOOTALLLY get an idea of how pretty the wedding was.  (wahwah!) ALSO more importantly.  Everyone should know that I successfully made it all night in 4-inch heels.  And yes, that did include some standing and walking.  Bam, day = successful

Anyway, on to today. the Day of Packing.  And camp reservations. And mapping. In a panicked rush - since I think we all thought it would take ALL DAY for us to pack the car we threw all of Jimmy's stuff in various bags, threw the roof rack carrier on top of the car, started working out the puzzle of how pieces should fit in and discovered suddenly that we were done.  Sure, there was perhaps a bit too much sweating and a lot of sunshine BUT we were done packing the car by 1pm.  Definitely was not expecting that. Final result is... HERE!

that's one full blue subaroooo

Which means we had plenty of time to sit down and finally map out the rest of the trip.  Attached is our trip planned out.  Also, as a side note, can I just say how much I love it when technology ACTUALLY works out well?  Anyway, feel free to click around on this map or follow the link underneath it to the Google Maps website.  Either way, each landmark will tell you a little bit about where we're going, when we plan to be there and how sunburned I'll be by then.  Wait no, scratch that last one.  There will be no sunburns.  I am going to prematurely veto each and every sunburn attempt RIGHT NOW!


View The Adventure in a larger map




Have fun exploring the map.  It's just about dinner time here in Mechanicsville (Jim - not Jimmy- is grilling up some tasty treats on the grill tonight) and we're planning on leaving bright and early tomorrow morning.  Pete, Hope and Bradley... tell your driveway to get ready for my full car and tell your arms to get ready for lotsa hugs!

Ciao for now,
Meg