May, by the numbers
Safe to say we officially hit the Chaos portion of our trip.
Here are some stats from the first three weeks after we left Atlanta:
Beginning April 30, we visited seven states in seven days…
And slept in different beds 9 days in a row.
In a period of two weeks, we slept in a total of 11 beds;
If you bump that up to three weeks, we slept in 14 beds.
We didn't sleep in the same bed more than twice for three weeks straight.
Here’s how it went. Hold on to your butts, it's a long one...
April 30: Atlanta → Savannah
Wake up in Atlanta, pack up, say goodbye and try not to cry. Drive to Savannah. Eat dinner at a place called Treylor Park (because, c’mon, it seemed required), eat fried banana pepper rings with ranch dressing, which was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Also, pb&j chicken wings.
Sleep in Savannah, Georgia.
May 1: Savannah → Charleston
Take a carriage tour around Savannah that is surprisingly disappointing, but ends up paying off because the retired couple we shared the carriage with was raving about Charleston. Get some of the best eggs I’ve ever eaten at Little Duck Cafe, and spontaneously decide to ditch Savannah early and drive to Charleston instead. Walk around, get dinner at Fleet Landing (hush puppies stuffed with crab and crawfish!).
Sleep in Charleston, South Carolina.
May 2: Charleston → Raleigh
Hire wedding planners! Feel a large weight lifted. Lunch at cute little French cafe, appropriately called G&M. This time, a really awesome carriage tour. Drive to Raleigh, where the RV park had an actual speed limit of 7.5 mph.
Sleep in Raleigh, North Carolina.
May 3: Raleigh → Richmond
Visit Mike’s “Aunt” Mary Louise (who is actually his grandfather’s sister), who is 99 years old, and join her for lunch at her retirement home. Then drive to Richmond, while pondering life and the future.
Get surprisingly good Thai food in the suburbs. Pack up everything we’ll need for the next six weeks into three bags each.
Sleep in Richmond, Virginia.
May 4: Richmond → Baltimore
Drive the RV to a storage lot in Baltimore. Turns out our designated spot is right next to a building that’s being painted, so if we park there, we’ll get paint on the RV. Instead, we’re allowed to park on the front end of the lot, with direct visibility from the street (all the other vehicles being stored were hidden from view), and blocked only by a short chain link fence with no barbed wire. Leave the RV and hope it’s still there when we get back.
Stay in an airport hotel in Baltimore, Maryland, order room service, and veg.
May 5: Baltimore → St Louis → O’Fallon, IL
Fly into St Louis, have three and a half hours to: get off the plane, get our many bags from baggage claim, take a shuttle and rent a car, drive a half hour to our hotel, check in early, iron Mike’s suit, change our clothes, drive another half hour to Aviston, IL, for Mike’s friend, Jenni’s, wedding! Somehow make it in time.
Sleep in O’Fallon, Illinois.
May 6: O’Fallon → St Louis
Run to Walmart to get a replacement suitcase because one of our large ones already just died. Breakfast at Egg & I. Drive to St Louis, get BBQ at Sugarfire, drive through Delmar Loop, see the arch.
Sleep in St Louis, Missouri.
May 7: St Louis → Baltimore
Fly back to Baltimore, and Budget rental car does everything in their power to take as much money from us as possible. (Never again.) Stop at the RV to move it, and nobody appears to be living inside (win!).
First night sleeping in the same place two nights in a row! Visit Mike’s cousin, Rachel, and her husband, Jonathan. Walk around their neighborhood, Hampden, and get dinner at The Food Market (best fried pickles ever).
May 8: Baltimore
Jonathan gave us a personalized history tour of Baltimore, which is basically our favorite thing to do in a new place (walk, look, and learn). The highlight for me was checking out the Peabody library, which I wanted to permanently move into. Dinner all together at Parts & Labor. Lots of walking and talking. Realize what a privilege and a pleasure it is that we get to do this. What other opportunity would we have had to spend so much time with these awesome people? The people you normally only see at weddings and the occasional Christmas gathering? We had a great time, and feel so lucky. Once again, our decision to take this trip is reaffirmed.
May 9: Baltimore → Silver Spring
Mike and I grab lunch with Rachel, then have to work. Didn’t have anywhere to do a client meeting, so Rachel’s friend let me come work at her house when she was gone, even though I’ve never met her! Bonus time hanging out with the dog, Charlie.
Say our goodbyes, and drive to Silver Springs, MD, outside of DC. Go downtown DC and meet up with an old family friend, Ruben, and his girlfriend, Kate. And again, what an opportunity to see people you never get to see! I’m also very grateful at the many good people -- strong people -- who work for the federal government right now, because I don’t think I’d have the patience (or optimism) to do it.
Sleep in Silver Springs, Maryland.
May 10: Silver Spring/DC
We spent the entire day walking around DC, and saw: the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the relative distances of all of the planets outside the Air and Space Museum, the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial, the WWI memorial gazebo (where I had to stop to take a networking call), the Martin Luther King Jr memorial (which was my favorite), the Lincoln memorial, the Vietnam memorial, the Korean War memorial, the White House (with accompanying motorcade, including some spectators who insisted that they’d seen Trump’s hair and red tie), the International Spy Museum, and the Portrait Gallery and attached art museum. I was surprised at how moved I was, seeing the memorials, remembering the history, reflecting on everything we’ve seen throughout America, and thinking about all the stuff that’s happened here. In a time when it’s easy to lose hope, and easy to feel anxious about the future, this country’s history reminded me that times get really hard, and then something is forced to give, and then things can then become better than before. And I want to make the choice to believe MLK, that “right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Despite the feeling that things are hard or getting worse right now, this is still a great country to live in. Most of us can wake up not having to fear our government, not having to worry about being murdered for our beliefs, or our religions, or our races. There is still progress to be made. But hopefully someday, none of us will have to worry.
May 11: Silver Spring → New York City
Four hour drive to Brooklyn takes six hours. Meet up with Mike’s brother, Zac, and his wife, Jess, whom we’ll be staying with for a good chunk of our NY stay.
Mike fully and immediately embraces NYC driving, honking and yelling at people while exclaiming how fun it is to drive there.
My carry-on suitcase promptly dies, too. Luggage casualty #2. Always an adventure.
Return our rental car to a hilariously creepy spot in the deep underground corner of a hotel parking garage. We brought it in 45 minutes early; the Budget system wanted to charge us an extra $200 for bringing it in early (it kept trying to charge us the day rate instead of the lower weekly rate) so we had to wait around until 9p for it to charge us the original price, instead. (See? Never again.)
Get a really late dinner with Zac and Jess at Little Mo.
Sleep in Brooklyn, New York.
May 12: Brooklyn/Manhattan
Breakfast at Le Garage, and then we all take the train into Manhattan. Go to MOMA, which further reinforces my lack of understanding of art in general, and modern art in particular. Get hot dogs on the way out, and walk around a bit. I was surprised at the anxiety response I got while walking around Manhattan. There are just SO MANY PEOPLE, everything and everyone is constantly moving, the buildings are huge, the trains are crowded, you just get swept around the city inside currents of people, and there’s nowhere to duck out and just take a breath (at least, without standing in line, taking the train for an hour, or spending lots of money). It’s fun for a visit, but I don’t think I could live here happily. What I do love, though, is that every other person is speaking a different language. And the fashion! Definitely different from San Francisco, where the rich people just wear more expensive t-shirts and hoodies.
We got stuck in the rain on our way back to Brooklyn, but stopped at a pickle store which was entirely filled with barrels of pickled things. Each armed with a pickle, our spirits were lifted, and all was well again with the world. (Seriously, why aren’t pickle stores a thing everywhere?)
First, delicious Italian-style pizza at Santa Panza. Then we spent the rest of the night at home, playing games and watching Mike and Zac eat every-flavor jelly beans while Jess and I laughed at them when they accidentally ate a Dead Fish or Spoiled Milk flavor.
May 13: NY → SF
And now I’m writing this on a plane to San Francisco! I’m headed back for a two-day business development workshop for work, and then Mike will join me for a few days.
We’ll spend just under a week here, mostly working and doing all the home-stuff that we can most easily do in SF, like doctor appointments and haircuts. And, to keep things as complicated (but as fun) as possible, we’ll of course be sleeping in three different places while we’re here! (Thanks, friends!)
