It's been three years since we've been on a vacation outside the state of Florida, and there was much debate about going on this one. After painstakingly planning, I came up with an itinerary that statisfied everyone's wants and needs, but it did mean Asa and I would be driving and everyone else would be flying. Our cars are just a *tad bit* on the old side, so we decided to rent one for our road trip. It's worth noting, in our 18 years together, Asa and I have never road tripped just the two of us! The five of us, sure. But not just us two, so this was a new adventure for us. We got up Friday morning (the 12th) and finished packing the car before heading out.
We decided that instead of just driving straight up to Ohio, we'd make a mini vacation out of it. We did stop quite a bit along the way to enjoy the drive. Look at me being outside the state of Florida for the first time in three years!
We stopped at the Georgia Welcome Center for a picnic lunch I had packed. We couldn't believe how much cooler it felt just a few hours north.
Eating under the shade was actually really comfortable! We also had some bird visitors Asa was trying to feed, while I yelled at him.
Continuing along, we stopped at the heavily advertised Magnolia Plantation. I was hoping to find some Georgia peaches, but no such luck.
We did find a lot of Georgia Bulldogs stuff though.
T'Ola had told us about Buc-ees the night before we left, and said we had to stop to check it out. It was our first stop for gas...
And it was a little crazy. It's like a whole store in there! They have everything from clothes to a bakery!
They even have a fresh jerky counter, which Asa was most excited about.
We loaded up our basket with snacks to bring along the way. We got these awesome blueberry yogurt covered preztles, some yummy warm cinnamon almonds, and we even got a pulled pork sandwich to share.
For real, we need one of these closer to Tampa. It made for excellent road trip snacks!!
Also worth noting: Buc-ees is where we spotted the Hawaii license plate. We were about two hours into our trip when I remembered the license plate game we used to play when I was kid. So we kept track of them along the way to see if we could find all 50 states. We did pretty good. Here's our list: Washington, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Connecticut, Michigan, North Dakota, New York, Maine, Alabama, Utah, Illinois, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Hawaii, New Jersey, California, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Virigina, Oregon, Massachusettes, Arkansas, West Virgina. By my count, that's 35. Not shabby.
A little south of Atlanta, Google told us to get off i-75 due to traffic and it took us on these crazy backroads. I was just along for the ride, but getting off the highway did give us the opportunity to pass all kinds of peach stands, and I finally got my Georgia peaches!
It was a nice scenic drive though, and before we knew it we were in the mountains.
I had decided we'd go to Gatlinburg for a couple of nights before heading on to Ohio, but I thought it would be good to stop in Cherokee, North Carolina so we'd have daylight to drive through the Smoky Mountains. We found a Roadway Inn to stay at, and it was a comfortable enough room complete with a king bed.
We also had a balcony overlooking the river. At one point we even spotted a couple of deer across the way.
And the weather was much cooler than we'd felt in months! Vacation was looking pretty promising.
Next up: Tubing down the Oconaluftee River!
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