Maryland and D.C.

August 5th, 2013

 (PREPARE FOR LONG POST w/pictures and videos)

 

We arrive in Maryland to meet up with Mykel Lande. So then, should I just spell it like, Marylande? We get there and the first thing Mykel does is offer us our favorite food ever...IHOP. It was soo perfect after driving all day from North Carolina.

Note: Always eat a good meal after a long drive it's necessary for great sleep and unwinding from the day.

 

 

 *Our sleeping quarters in Mykel's apartment :P

Mykel lives in College Park near the University of Maryland. We traveled back and forth between there and downtown Silver Spring. The next few days we walked around and explored a little. Alyssa used to live with Mykel a few years back so they both got to show us around the beautiful neighborhoods. Maryland has amazing greenery there, but the traffic is so strange! They control traffic by square boxes above the lanes with red X's and green arrows. I had never seen anything like that before. Honestly it's pretty hard navigating because you don't really know where oncoming traffic is besides the lights.

 

***Please watch all the videos!***

       

              

            Sorry about the low volume quality! This was recorded on a cell phone :/

Next stop.... The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History!

 

       

On the road again... to the Great Falls!!!

                                      

 

 

All in a days worth... we traveled on to the next beautiful spot that took us hours to find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

 

 

 

 

We just wanted to take some time to thank Mykel for this amazing opportunity and for all of the love and support we have from our MD family! We love you all! We will never forget the moments we had out there. Stay in touch always and maybe you can come out to CA and visit us! This was our first long stay and there were some beautiful memories that we can pass along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone reading is driving out to the east coast, we recommend staying a few nights to see the museums and make it a point to see the wonderful nature. Definitely go down to DC and take a walk around and check out U St. It's such a different element!                  

                                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the day goofing around and this was the first time we got to enjoy a day on the town with no obligations.  

 

 

  

  

^ Liz sent us a wonderful update message while we were there and we wanted to share it. You're so cute Lizzy.. you made our day. We hope you're enjoying college! Love you <3

THANK YOU AGAIN EVERYONE IN MARYLAND, IT WAS GREAT!

 

 

 

 

North Carolina Adventures

August 2, 2013

 

We checked out of our hotel room in Adel, GA at about 12 p.m. It was a really positive start to our day even though we were all still bummed on not being able to do anything planned for GA. I know I personally was really looking forward to going to Helen and going camping... but again, I was GLAD to be back on the road again.

 

~And so we traveled... around Atlanta, through the tip of South Carolina, and then arrived in North Carolina! Surprisingly a long drive by the way!

 

 

 

~~~~BELOW ARE THE ACTUAL STOPS WE MADE~~~~

 

*Around 8/9 p.m. we get to my grandma's house in Hickory (One of the hardest places to navigate around in). My amazing grandma is 93 this upcoming month. She also just got her second hip replaced a few months ago and walks without a cane.

**Her Advice** DRINK MILK!

 

 





 * We left there and decided to go to DUKE UNIVERSITY...not realizing that we would get there at 2 in the morning. After getting lost a few times on the winding roads of Durham, we finally parked right by the famous chapel building. The security guards just let us walk around and venture all that we wanted. All I can say is we didn't want to leave. OH, AND WE RAN ACROSS THE FIELD :) Here are some pictures:

 

 

* This long day was still not over because we needed to arrive at the place we were going to stay for the night which consisted of vague driving directions and driving through corn fields and on dirt roads. My Aunt Ish lives in Harrells, NC (which doesn't even exist on the map behind this post...) It is basically a very small town in the middle of nowhere on The Black River. At her place, she has a puppy, Sadie, another camp dog, Sofie, and 3 loveable cats. We stayed in one of the mobile homes she owns and traveled back and forth to the houses by golf cart. We did lots of fun things here including: going on a crazy boat ride down the river (sawing down trees as we went), riding on the back of my Uncle's tailgate drinking tea, and having a huge bonfire. Very relaxing.  

 

 

 

We stayed with Aunt Ish for several nights and then decided it was time for our next adventure (which we will be posting soon.) Please comment! I hope everyone is enjoying the blog so far!

 

 





The Minor Bump in the Road... Adel, Georgia

August 1,2013 8:13am

 



Let's just say Georgia's first impression is something we will never forget. I drove through Georgia's first city, Valdosta with no problems. Reaching the city limits of Adel is where the trouble began. I was exiting I-75 to find a gas station, but what do I see in my rear view mirror? A cop. His lights were flashing and he was speeding up right behind me; he came out of nowhere.



 

This is the aftermath of SPEEDING in Adel, Georgia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ...Five minutes later

 

 

 


We were on a hunt for a Shell gas-station that our GPS was leading us to. Turns out there was never a Shell in Adel and due to the fact that I just got a speeding ticket, my mind was everywhere. Then all of a sudden, the only thing I could hear is Casey saying," Red light! Red light! Red light!"

 

 

My first instinct was to slam on the brakes. The immediate stop sent the rack that we had used to hold all of our luggage, flying over the top of the car and breaking right in the middle of the street. When it flew over it scraped the hood of the car and completely broke off the arm of one of the windshield wipers.  JUST MY LUCK! Panic was in the air and thank goodness Adel had a lot of  police because they helped us load our stuff in the car. Once we got everything in the car, we pulled into the nearby Days Inn.
 

 

Later this day

 

 

.

 Luckily we had this incident on local roads near not only a hotel, but O'REILLYS. I swear we went to O'Reilly's like a hundred times this day, or at least it felt like it. We eventually gave up on a search for a rack and had our handy helpers Stacy and Stephanie help us out finding proper tie downs.

 

Can you guess which one is Stacy? and which one is Stephanie?

 

 

On the road again

Even though we didn't get to adventure in Helen or slide down big rocks or camp, we still learned something from Georgia; Never EVER speed and there are amazing people you can meet who might just save the day.. Thank you, Georgia for making us stronger then when we first entered.