All posts filed under: Adventures

A collection of posts about my adventures, short and long trips included.

Panama City or Bust!

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Above are some pictures from 2008, the last time I visited Florida. We visited Daytona Beach, Huntington Beach and Orlando. If I learned anything from last year’s Gypsy Trip its that the keys to surviving long drives is good music, good directions and good company. Well, and wild berry Skittles. Yesterday I embarked on an 11-hour drive from my home in Walton, Ky., to Panama City, Fla. A piece of cake compared to last summer’s 7,000-mile adventure, but still a long time to be in a car. Thankfully, this time I have some new gadgets at my disposal. I traded in my Blackberry for a Droid last fall, and with it came the never-ending app store. Y’all can have your iPhones. Sh’niqua (only sometimes) lets me down. Here are my top five road trip-approved apps: Pandora Internet Radio Its an endless supply music, as long as your network lasts. My favorite thing about this channel is it plays more than just whats in my library. And the more you listen to it, the more it …

Road Trip: East Coast Extravaganza

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Danielle and I are taking to the road again, this time with two more interns, Raymundo and Adam. As soon as the first train leaves Woodley Park, we’re headed up the East Coast to Maine. Although this trip won’t have the epic proportions of the Gypsy Trip, it does have some notable statistics nonetheless. We’ll be covering about 1,500 miles in two days. Its about a 10 hour drive to Maine from the District, but with side trips we’ll be in transit about 12 hours each day. But my most favorite statistic: We’ll be covering 12 states in 48 hours. We’ll see Virginia, Maryland, Deleware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. I’ll be adding a whopping seven more states to my count!  We’ve talked about making a video with stories written by each of us to put out on the wire. And we’ve discussed a mockumentary that would have nothing to do with the Foundation’s wire. I’m not sure what we’ll end up with, but rest assured …

The Journey of a Lifetime

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There isn’t much to say about our last couple of days on the trip. After we left Yellowstone, we stayed in Deadwood, South Dakota in the nicest cabin of our entire trip. The next morning, we saw Mount Rushmore, and drove into Minnesota to sleep before leaving early this morning to come home.  Everything kind of ended slowly, with all of us sorry to see the trip end, but looking forward to sleeping in our own beds, with our own showers and real food. Not something from a gas station microwave or out of the cooler. We traveled a staggering 7,500 miles on this trip. We covered 17 states in 13 days and 12 nights. We visited two UNESCO World Heritage sites, eight national parks and monuments and as much Pacific ocean as we could squeeze in. We camped in the tent four nights, stayed in cabins three nights and bunked with my aunt and uncle one night. We stayed in hotels in Hannibal, Mo., Manhattan Beach, Calif., San Francisco and Las Vegas. The Paris …

Road Bathrooms

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This is kind of a crude subject, but restrooms are a vital part of life. Don’t worry, I’m not getting into anything too gross here, but we’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of a long drive in the middle of nowhere and ya gotta go. You drank one bottle of water too many and things are starting to get dire. I never thought I’d be blogging about bathroom experiences, but these are some worth sharing. Here are my top six bathroom stories of the trip — and we’re only halfway through. Fannie Anne’s Saloon This has to be the coolest bar/restaurant I’ve ever seen. Located in Old Sacramento, Aunt Charisse said its been around forever and you can tell. The inside of the place is covered wall to wall in antique license plates, tin signs, bottle caps — really anything you can imagine. We had just finished dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack on the river, and Amanda stopped there to use the restroom. I was delayed because I couldn’t find my ID in …

To those who’ve gone before

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In keeping with the spirit of roadtrips I wanted to share with you some of the websites I’ve come across in my online meanderings while preparing for this trip. I haven’t found anyone else who has camped their way across the country though. Pansies. 🙂 We aren’t looking for love, but this reporter sure was. This husband and wife pair converted their minivan into a camper. Creative, but Amanda and I aren’t that comfortable with each other. These two have a map and everything on their website. Read these observations of an 11-day roadtrip across the country. (I think the trip made him slightly bitter.) Pay special attention to the last paragraph of this film scout’s blog post. He has us re-mapping our entire trip! Smithsonian Magazine posted a (rather long) nice story about the “Great American Roadtrip.”

Gypsying 101

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When I tell you what I’m about to say, you’re either going to think I’m stark, raving mad or I’m going to be your hero. Personally, I think I’m a little of both. In 12 long days I will embark on a journey of epic proportions. We’re calling it a “Gypsy Trip” — we being my best friend Amanda and I — because we are going to gypsy our way across the country. Sadly, we will not be hitching up a horse and wagon, but we will be pitching a tent almost every night of the trip and camping our way through some of the most beautiful spots in the good ol’ USA. And we might even have to do some fortune telling along the way to pay for gas. I know what you’re thinking. Camping? Really?  Yes. Pitched tent, sleeping bags, s’mores and all. Our reasoning is simple: Camping is much cheaper than hotels. Sure we won’t have air conditioning. Sure, we’ll be dealing with bugs and spiders and creepy crawlies of all kinds. …