Strange streets…

Driving around we got to see a great deal of streets, towns, cities and lakes names. We also soon realized EVERY city or town has a Martin Luther King Jr road/parkway/street/ave. Here are a few of our favourites…

Weird cos it’s named after a country	Ridiculous Towns/Cities/Counties	Ridiculous Lakes or Wildlife Centers	Ridiculous Streets/ Roads/Avenues
(I understand why…it’s just weird though)	Tallapoosa County, AL	The Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge, VA	Hooper Dooper Ave, NY
Belfast, ME	Coosawhatchie, GA	Lake Sunapee, NH	Effingham Road, VA
Worcester, MA	Dumfries, VA	Contoocook River, NH	Witchduck Road, VA
Rome, NY	Chunky, MS		Hardscrabble Road, CT
Moscow, TN	Welcome, NC		Hungerford Road, CT
China, ME	Voluntown, CT		10 Rod Road, RI
	Braintree, MA		Nooseneck Hill Road, RI
	Canandaigua, NY		Gaspee Road, RI
	Cheektowaga, NY		Tick Tock Lane, MA
			Narragansett Ave, MA
			Kennebuckport Street, MA

Causalities on the trip…

Lucky for me this trip was not nearly as trauma filled as my West Coast trip.

1)      I lost my dragonfly from my belly ring 

2)      My flip flop broke and had to be retired

3)      Tyler tripped on I’m not actually sure what, but I laughed when he tripped and later when we past the same spot the memory made me giggle again (two for the price of one)

4)      Tyler spilled water on his pants while washing his hands in the bathroom in Nashville, and had to walk back to the table pretending he didn't look like someone who just peed on himself.

5)      Multiple bag injuries to both of us. From carrying our bags, loading our bags and even kicking or tripping on our bags.

6)      I walked into someone. No, not the little stumble where you delicately bump into them. I full on walked into a person who was standing completely still, I’m surprised he never fell over. Tyler sa the whole thing happen, started to warn me and then figured what’s done is done (although secretly I think it’s payback for #3)

As for #’s 3-5 I blame all the driving… yup I am still using that excuse. However… #6… this was one of the best moments of my trip. Robyn must have gotten into a zone where she had completely tuned out the world around her, I saw her heading toward the guy and figured she would turn and avoid him as there was still some space between them and he was standing completely still looking at something in a shop. Then Robyn began to pick up speed and get closer so I said to her, “hey careful, you are gonna run into that guy” but she still continued to walk at a normal pace. Given I was walking next to her I decided at this point that I would start to walk a little to the left so that she had room to slide over and dodge this guy, given she did not move an inch when I did I finally shouted, “HEY! LOOK O…”  and before I could get it out she smacked straight into the guys back… he looked seriously confused, I laughed, and Robyn looked at me and said, “why didn’t you warn me?!?” … to which I responded, “I did… twice”

Hotels ranking in order…best to worst…

Radisson, RI

Best Western, DE

La Qunita, AL

Days Inn, GA

Clarion, SC

Motel 6, TN

Rodeway Inn, MD

Motel 6, KY

Motel 6, VA

(this is from their website...pretty sure it didn't look like this!!!)

Feels like home, I guess…

We drove through part of it :) (Both have been there before)

We have previously visited Tom and Jena in Ohio before so this stop was more of a catch up on friendship, gossip and sleep more than a sight-seeing stop.

Ohio!!!!

We had a relaxed breakfast together before heading back to Milwaukee. My home away from home.

Along the way we stopped in Indiana somewhere for gas and lunch. Once inside, we ordered our food, *waited a while* and sat down about to start eating when Tyler suddenly realized he had left the car running. He had to run outside in the rain to go turn it off. This was also the coldest day of our vacation, so our Hull hoodies came in use.

The drive was long and relatively uneventful. But I was glad with the company in the car (including werid audio books!)

Road trippin'

I have no idea what I was doing or how I left the keys in the car with the car running as I have never done that before in my life, but I think at that point my head was a little cloudy from all the driving (does anyone else see this as a re-occurring excuse for me being scatter brained?) That being said as we sat down I looked out the window and saw my car with the lights on and thought I had only left the lights on… till I saw the windshield wipers go… whoops.

Our 5 things we are thankful for today…

1) Wonderful friends (Thomas and Jena Kubiak, Geri Abbott and Jennifer Abbott Clark)

2) New friends (Blake Vaden and Megan Harper)

3) Tyler Augustin for putting up with me AND driving *pretty* safely

4) My camera *although it's needs to go to the camera doctor tomorrow*

 5) Braden, Finn and Annabel…for making me feel so welcome when I got home :)

Thank you for reading about our crazy, amazing adventure! The next few posts are things we found funny, interesting and even silly on our trip – enjoy!

Of a GREAT adventure

Green Lake…

New State (or area of the state)

Breakfast with Richard and Marilyn, which was, amazing! Then onto a walk around Green Lake, which is so awesomely beautiful! The water is clear and the trees are lush. This is another example where the pictures will do more justice than any of my words.

Next we followed Marilyn, as she was going to show us and awesome shop. Just our luck, we missed the turn into the parking lot, so thinking we could just take the next one, we turned and discovered we were now on the highway. Oh bother! Lucky Tyler has Google maps so we pulled out the map and tried to re-route, the off ramp we were supposed to take was closed which means to get back to the shop took a little more a u-turn.

Finally we got to Wagman’s where it is impossible not to find at least 5 foods you love. There is the grocery section of the shop then there is seating where you can buy food from a salad bar of sort and dine in. I’m talking shrimp, mac and cheese, stir fry, strawberries, deep fried chicken, so many types of salad…and so much more! After gathering plenty of food, we settled down to eat before our journey to Columbus, Ohio.

By the way…Today happens to be ‘Women’s Day’ in South Africa, so I mentioned this to Tyler. He then told me he had put all the SA holidays into his calendar so he could wish me and read up about it, but this must have ‘fallen off his calendar’ cos he couldn’t find it anymore. Am I the only one that finds this phrase slightly funny?

Again at this stage it was nice to see some friendly faces ready to greet us and show us around. We had a great time taking a walk around the lake and sharing stories, the breakfast was absolutely amazing and I am still waiting to get a recipe on that! As for the shop that we went to I think Robyn explained it well, but that is a fat kids heaven, I was perfectly at home there.

So I am not sure where the phrase of something “falling off your calendar” came from, however I hear it a lot in the business world when discussing schedules. Apparently it isn’t something my girl friend is use to. 

Small space for two people…

New State :)

No, the title is not referring to the car. We decided since Vermont is known for Ben and Jerry’s (ice cream) and it’s scenery, we would combine the two.

We planned for a two hour kayak down the Lamoille River. Two hours always seems a lot longer when you are pulling your own weight across water using an oar. But we were able to see some ducks and scenery. We also managed to get stuck on the rocks numerous times, but so did the rest of our group so I felt a lot better.

After ending at the Boyden Valley Winery, we had some Ben and Jerry’s which was great.

Then we started off to Syracuse, in upstate New York…to visit Dave’s (my host dad) parents.

So what we learned is that we can spend 90+ hours in a car driving around the United States, however we cannot spend 2 hours in a Kayak together. That being said I would challenge any couple of any age to take that challenge, I want you all to spend a week and a half in a car together driving every day and not staying in any one location for more than 24 hours and then hop into a kayak and force yourself to work as a team for two hours and report back to me… I would say we performed pretty admirably ;)

On the road again

Taken with a disposable camera

Our view on the river

The river

Our 5 things we are thankful for today…

1) Dunkin donuts breakfast

2) Finding postcards in New Hampshire

3) Kayaking in Vermont

4) Ben and Jerry's

5) Pretty trees, lakes and mountains (on our drive to Syracuse, NY)

I forgot to mention the stop/drive through Concord, NH (New Hampshire) but the pics are below

Pretty  church

New State :)

Pretty house/building

Where lobster comes from…

Maine is where lobsters come from, so I figured what better place to eat lobster. It’s a little tricky and very messy, but I had done my research before travelling and had read a short article about how to eat lobster. Tyler stuck to steak.

Onto Vermont…let the adventure begin…

Our 5 things we are thankful for today…

1) Eating real Maine lobster

2) The scenery at Acadia National Park

3) Seeing a moose (it was a statue…but still)

4) The giggle I got (Robyn) seeing Tyler wearing a crown eating a burger king kids meal

5) Healthy Food (I found veggies, fruit and yoghurt *Robyn*)

I have had Maine Lobster before and honestly I am just not a seafood person, however I love beef, I think that comes from being raised in the Midwestern United States which is known for having tons of cows, and hence tons of beef. I did however have some clam chowder so that should count for something right?

Yummy!

So ready to eat up!

My bib, haha