On the road again
It's been a while since we took a big road trip, so everybody was excited when we rolled out of bed early Saturday morning and started making our way to Tampa. We broke the trip over two days. On the first we drove from Philadelphia to Bryson City, NC (700mi/1,120km), where several of Chelsea's relatives on her mom's side of the family live. The second day we drove from Bryson City to Tampa by way of Atlanta (600mi/1,000km). It's a long drive!
Fortunately, the route we take keeps us off the busy Eastern seaboard corridor. We travel further inland, taking the PA Turnpike west to Interstate 81, and then following I-81 all the way south to Tennessee before dropping into North Carolina. For much of the first day we essentially had the road to ourselves:
The kids spend their time in the car watching movies, playing video games, and reading books. We usually put Nick and Anna together in the back row, and Maria in the middle row. The seat behind Chelsea usually gets left empty so that she can recline for naps. Here are the kids in our typical setup:
Just less than half of the total drive on the first day is within the state of Virginia, which has about 325 miles (520km) of mileage on I-81. It feels endless. Here we are stopped about two thirds of the way through heading south:
As the kids get older, road trips like this are becoming easier for us. They can more easily keep themselves entertained, and they're also more comfortable with dozing off for a nap from time to time without us coercing them into it:
I-81 takes us alongside the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Great Smoky Mountains, both part of the Appalachian Mountain range that runs south to north along the East Coast from Georgia to Maine. We mostly drive in valleys until we turn to enter North Carolina, at which point we go up into the range. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina on I-26 is at an altitude of about 3,500 feet (1,100m) above sea level, and even this is low ground between peaks:
We stayed for the night with Chelsea's cousin Jessica and her family. They built their own house on some family land several years ago, and the view from their property is spectacular:
We arrived around dinnertime, and the first order of business for the kids - big and small - was to jump around on the trampoline:
Thanks, Jess and Scott, for hosting us!
Sunday we had a big breakfast and set out for Atlanta. We drove out of the mountains and into the rolling hills of north Georgia:
We met up with Chelsea's dad and his wife, Alison, for a late lunch at a Sweet Tomatoes in Atlanta. We were remiss in taking photos:
After the late lunch it was time for one more big push. We encountered a lot of traffic between Atlanta and Macon, which is par for the course. But as the sun set and the road opened up, we made good time and got into Tampa late that night.
I'll have more pictures and a recap of the whole trip next week. I will not be online tomorrow, so this will be the last update until we're home again in Philadelphia. See you again soon!
Fortunately, the route we take keeps us off the busy Eastern seaboard corridor. We travel further inland, taking the PA Turnpike west to Interstate 81, and then following I-81 all the way south to Tennessee before dropping into North Carolina. For much of the first day we essentially had the road to ourselves:
The kids spend their time in the car watching movies, playing video games, and reading books. We usually put Nick and Anna together in the back row, and Maria in the middle row. The seat behind Chelsea usually gets left empty so that she can recline for naps. Here are the kids in our typical setup:
Just less than half of the total drive on the first day is within the state of Virginia, which has about 325 miles (520km) of mileage on I-81. It feels endless. Here we are stopped about two thirds of the way through heading south:
As the kids get older, road trips like this are becoming easier for us. They can more easily keep themselves entertained, and they're also more comfortable with dozing off for a nap from time to time without us coercing them into it:
I-81 takes us alongside the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Great Smoky Mountains, both part of the Appalachian Mountain range that runs south to north along the East Coast from Georgia to Maine. We mostly drive in valleys until we turn to enter North Carolina, at which point we go up into the range. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina on I-26 is at an altitude of about 3,500 feet (1,100m) above sea level, and even this is low ground between peaks:
We stayed for the night with Chelsea's cousin Jessica and her family. They built their own house on some family land several years ago, and the view from their property is spectacular:
We arrived around dinnertime, and the first order of business for the kids - big and small - was to jump around on the trampoline:
Thanks, Jess and Scott, for hosting us!
Sunday we had a big breakfast and set out for Atlanta. We drove out of the mountains and into the rolling hills of north Georgia:
We met up with Chelsea's dad and his wife, Alison, for a late lunch at a Sweet Tomatoes in Atlanta. We were remiss in taking photos:
After the late lunch it was time for one more big push. We encountered a lot of traffic between Atlanta and Macon, which is par for the course. But as the sun set and the road opened up, we made good time and got into Tampa late that night.
I'll have more pictures and a recap of the whole trip next week. I will not be online tomorrow, so this will be the last update until we're home again in Philadelphia. See you again soon!
