Good morning, friends! Ryan and I
have enjoyed a beautiful (albeit frigid) anniversary celebration, so I thought
I’d take you on a virtual vacation! Are you ready? No packing required!
We
based our destination this year solely on our desire to fill in more states on
our travel map! We managed to visit THREE states while we were gone, which brings
our total of new-to-us states this year to four. Unfortunately we did
not choose southern states, so we spent our days layering an adding all manner
of hats, coats, and gloves.
Our
trip began on Thanksgiving Day. We had planned to have lunch with Mom and Dad
before heading out on the open road, but Mom was under the weather, so we opted
for an earlier-than-planned start. We still donned our Thanksgiving shirts and
began our trip by stopping at one of our favorite coffee shops, the Shaka
Shack, for some vacation coffee. (Yes, they were open on Thanksgiving and even
invited anyone in need of a place to go to join them for the lunchtime meal.
Isn’t that amazing?)
We
made it to the Columbus area before pausing for our own Thanksgiving lunch:
turkey and ham wraps in the parking lot of a random hotel off the interstate.
The
day started beautifully, as far as weather went – even some blue skies and sunshine
in the mix! But it clouded over quite a bit the farther east we drove.
A
little before dinnertime, we happened upon a Bob Evans that did not have a full
parking lot, so we decided to chance it and possibly get a real meal on
Thanksgiving. Some of you might remember that a couple of years ago, in Destin,
we tried this at Cracker Barrel and found out you have to order hours in
advance – AND they only serve a traditional Thanksgiving meal menu that day. Bob
Evans offered four regular versions of a Thanksgiving meal and four breakfast
options. My heart was so happy! We both ended up getting breakfast, actually,
and it was delicious. (Ryan ate all of his and half of mine – ha!)
It
was dark, but not terribly late by the time we reached our hotel for the night. By this time we had scurried through a brief section of West Virginia and had made our way into Pennsylvania.
I was delighted to find out there was a combined Dunkin and Goodwill across the road from our room. Alas, no time to stop and enjoy that combo, but it’s a good one!
We
did hit the hotel gym that night. Running and biking for the win!
When
we returned to our room, we watched Christmas Vacation!
It was a fine start to the trip, and I was both amazed and grateful that we did not have a single travel issue on Thanksgiving Day. Not one detour, encounter with road construction, delays from any kind of accident, or anything else. Other than some random rain, it was a perfect day to be out on the open road! (We did learn, at the end of the day, that double yellow lines on hilly, curvy roads, are apparently merely a suggestion. We were passed SO MANY TIMES on a double yellow, in the dark, in fog, on hilly, winding roads. That was terrifying.)
Come
back tomorrow to read about our first frozen adventure!
1 comment:
Sounds like a great start!
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