In the Car: Memphis > Philadelphia

My first year in Memphis came to a quick end. On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend I went to a Redbirds game. Monday I chilled out. Tuesday I cleaned up my room, Wednesday I moved stuff into my new room (N207!) and was out of school for good by 11am. I took my car to get two new tires before I drove back to Philly for the summer. Packed on Wednesday, picked up Brittany at the airport on Thursday morning, went to Rendezvous for dinner Thursday evening, packed some more, and on Friday morning Brittany and I set off on our road trip to Philadelphia. Felt really good to see Brittany. Our itinerary went like this:

Friday (5/31): drive through Mississippi and Alabama and arrive in Atlanta Friday afternoon to hang out with John Washington (HH '03 and Emory '07 alum).



Apparently, other than Birmingham, Alabama has zero rest stops, restaurants, or buildings that include bathrooms. Alabama proved prettier than Mississippi but came up short when we were trying to find a place to eat and a place to go to the bathroom. You know how interstates have those blue signs right before exits that show you what restaurants and gas stations are off the exit? Well, Alabama had those, too, but their signs were totally blank. No place for unlucky motorists to pull over and grab a bite. We got off at one exit, drove on the new road for a bit, turned around, and pulled over on the on-ramp of 78 to relieve ourselves.

Got to ATL, parked downtown and then walked around Centennial park. Stopped in the CNN Center, where I thought of Karl and Brian and watching primary returns, then walked over to the World of Coke. We didn't have much time, so Brittany had the excellent idea of checking out Coke's gift-shop rather than taking the actual tour. Met John and his gigantic office tower, then went out for some food. Grabbed a few beers at night, then got up Saturday to go for a run before setting off to SC.

Saturday: drive from ATL to Seneca South Carolina to spend a night at Brittany's cousin's new house.

Short 2 hour drive up to Brittany's cousins. She took the wheel for the first time this trip and things went very smoothly. She has really matured as a driver under my tutelage - when we started dating, she was terrified of merging onto highways, but now does it pretty well.


We got in to her cousin's house (Hayden and his wife Katie) around 1pm and set out for some hiking around 2pm. Hayden and Katie are both paramedics, so for most of the time I was left out of whatever medical conversation they were having with Brittany. I actually felt pretty uncomfortable for a while, but once we got to hiking, there was less conversation for me to feel awkward about.



We drove up the mountains to visit a couple of waterfalls and an abandoned train tunnel that was begun in the 1860s but eventually stopped after the mountain proved too hard to dig into. I was impressed by Brittany's willingness to walk into a quarter mile long dark hole and climb up and down rocky trails. She was afraid of some lizards that we saw, but generally she was looking tough. I was even a bit rattled walking into the railroad tunnel, but it was fun and a relief from the heat.



Sunday: drive from SC to Clemmons North Carolina to spend a night at Brittany's aunt's house.

Drove out early on Sunday morning and got in around noon. Had some lunch and hung out for a bit before going par 3 golfing at this beautiful park by Brittany's Aunt Nettie's house. 18 holes had us roasting and burnt pretty good, but it was a lot of fun. Brittany could use some (lots, she's never golfed) work on her golf game - mine was also not pretty. It was strange inserting ourselves into her Aunt's family for an afternoon, but I liked everyone's unique personality. I thought her younger cousin, who just finished his 9th grade year, is a lot like Danny was, and I had fun giving him a hard time here and there. Brittany's older cousin had a 1 year old baby and I was totally clueless about how to interact with a fat, speechless, tiny human being - it was fun, though.

Monday: drive from NC to Alexandria Virginia, just outside of DC, to spend a night at my Aunt Roberta / Uncle JQ's house and meet my cousins John and Owen.

Other than spending a ton of time with Brittany, this was probably the leg of the trip I was anticipating the most. My aunt and uncle have two kids, John (7) and Owen (5), who I hadn't met yet.


My pops had said they act like James and I did when we were annoying little kids - so I was looking forward to it. This driving leg was pretty long and Brittany took the middle of it at the end of NC and going through Richmond. In the middle of this leg, at Wendy's, I realized that only people over 70 drive Buick Centuries. We sat down for lunch behind a group of old, dolled up Souther women gossiping over the local news, and I wondered aloud how many of them were driving Centuries. Sure enough, a gold Century was parked in the handicapped spot and probably belonged to one of those souther belles.


Brittany gave me the insightful advice of getting the kids a gift, so we stopped at Rite Aid and bought them an indoor basketball net / ball, which offered some of the best sports battles of my childhood with James and Andy. Pretty much chilled out at night - had dinner with their family, then the kids went to bed pretty soon afterwards, and Brittany and I watched the Penguins - Red Wings game. The next morning, John and Owen were up early, attacked me right after I woke up, and started pummeling me with pillows and balls for about 15 minutes as their parents were getting ready. They really took it to me - it was fun. We ran and then headed for downtown around 11 am.


Tuesday: spent day in DC, meet Cait Schopp and Laura Gavinski in evening, spent night at Laura's house.

Brittany's knowledge of dinosaurs is severely lacking, which I found out when we got into the Natural History Museum. The bros and I grew up on dinosaurs - so I was blown away that she didn't know what a Tyrannosaurus was. And people call me sheltered!! Also hit up the Native American museum - it was horrendous and would offend Boyce to the fullest. The 'Native American' food in the cafeteria was amazing, however.


Tiring day walking on the mall, so it was nice when we got to sit by the L'enfant metro plaza and wait for Cait. In some senses, I was jealous of people walking down to the metro. They had so much purpose. And they had an office to leave behind. Few of them probably took their work home with them and they were running to get on a subway that would whisk them close to home without driving through traffic. DC also seems to have the highest percentage of people who walk around in suits - everywhere you go on the Mall you see suits. I was sweating walking around in shorts and a T - how could people walk around in suits? Hit up a happy hour with Cait and Laura, then a Thai restaurant at night.


Wednesday (6/5): leave DC and head to home in Horsham Pennsylvania.

Brittany and I got up early so that'd we'd be able to run down to the Washington Monument area and check out the things we missed on Tuesday. It was a 2 hour odyssey that started out with me running back to Laura's house and running around Capitol Hill for 10 minutes trying to catch up to Brittany - I missed a turn. Ran down the Mall to the Monument, WWII memorial, reflecting pool, Vietnam memorial, Lincoln memorial, and then to the White House. Should've brought my camera, but didn't quite feel like running with it. Total running was 50 minutes - we took the metro back to Union Station and jogged back to Laura's house before setting out for Philadelphia.


Driving out of DC, we almost got smashed into by a crazed minivan driver who was trying to outrun the cops on the Beltway around DC. The van sideswiped a car just behind me and to my right before roaring past me and skidding around the corner of an exit ramp.

Pulled into my driveway after 1250 miles or so. We went and saw Sex and the City in the afternoon (what, you're too cool for that movie?) and tried to see the Phillies on Thursday. We took the subway down to the stadium, but the game was sold out. Hung our heads (this was failed attempt #2 to see a Philly sports team after going all the way to the stadium) and went to South Street for a while, which was relaxing and enjoyable. Drove Brittany to the airport on Friday morning (a bummer she couldn't make Trouble's bday party) - we totaled 1337 miles together over a week's worth of driving. It was a perfect start to my summer (other than failing to see the Phillies).