>Thoughts from the Road

>Alright, we've done it. Rich and I threw some of our belongings into our (sweet) Scion and took to the open road. Those of you who are vastly aware of my anti-spontineity status, now would be the time to close your swinging jaws. Since we chose to be anti-planners for the next several weeks of the trip, I am uncertain of how often I may or may not be able to update our travels, but I do promise the four of you who read this I will do my very best to keep you abreast of our happenings.

A recap of our last few days are as follows:

July 1st

Fresh-faced and gleaming with visions of new adventures at 9:30a.m., we turned for the last time in several weeks onto the good ole' GSP with D.C. as our first destination.

After sitting for 4 hours in Deleware in bumper to bumper traffic and only slightly regretting our American road trip, we chose to entertain our traffic neighbors with "Here Comes the Sun."

Arrival in D.C. =$50 in gas

The book I finished in the passenger seat that was supposed to last me the whole trip=10.95

Hearing the words, " Mr. and Mrs. Shannon, it appears we have upgraded you to the King Suite. Is that suitable?" priceless

July 2nd

Alright. I believe we are the only two people in existance who saw all of D.C. in a little under three hours. And considering that this is my blog, I have chosen to be terribly honest. I was enamored with the White House, awed by the Lincoln Memorial(standing where MLK Jr. stood when delivering the "I Have a Dream" speech was quite a unique experience), enveloped by the beauty of the Smithsonian and moved to tears at the WWII and Vietnam memorials. But, my favorite part about our stay in D.C., you ask? Unashamedly I will answer: THE ROOFTOP POOL. I am unsure if this makes me as unpatriotic as that sounds. I am chosing not to care. You didn't see it, you have no idea. A pool. On the roof. Overlooking all of Washington D.C. Off the chain.

Leaving our King size bed and swimming extraveganza was difficult to do, but we had places to see, people to meet. We stopped in Richmond, VA along our way south and asked the portly parking attendant where the best place to grab a bite to eat would be. In his none-too-delicate southern drawl, he "reckoned" it would be the "Capital Ale House". Hearing the word "Ale", I had officially lost my husband in the pursuit of a good beer and a burger. Quite the understatement, I assure you. If ever you are in the Richmond area and are looking for a good beer garden, an upper and lower level bar and a crab BLT- Capital Ale is worth the trip.

A few local beer bottles in toe, we thanked the attendant for his top notch suggestion, and he hardly charged us for watching over our car and I quietly decided that if it wasn't so blasted hot, I could like the south. Just a little.

Our next stop was undecidedly Virginia Beach, longing for some sea salt and sand so I gave my mom a call from the car to update her on our trip. Come to discover, she's in Oak Island, NC where my family owns a beach house and informed us that if sand and sea were what we were after, there was no better place than Caswell Beach and the price would be right- yup, free. We're into free. So, we breezed past Virginia Beach's Holiday Inn and drove 5 more hours down to the very tip of N.C.

The beach house was quite literally the perfect label. It was, built right on the beach- like, I counted 15 steps from the deck to the waters edge. The water was warm, the sand was like powder and we camped out for 24 hours, leaving well rested and a little tanner. Well, Rich was anyway.

July 3-4

We're recharging in Fuquay-Varina, where my Mom has a house and, of course, our car already looks as though we've been traveling for weeks. So, we're cleaning up, doing some laundry and anticipating our next stop in Raleigh, to stay with Rich's friends Adam and Steph Parken.

A few observations so far about North Carolina:

1. All high ways smell like beef jerky

2. The best place to find a good wine is at the local Walmart

3. Dinner at Applebee's is close to a black-tie affair

Who knew?

Again, I'll do my best to update as much as possible. Until then, on the road again!