I haven’t been on a road trip in about two months, and that’s a long time for me! I’m used to going on at least 2-3 road trips per month. To be honest, it was nice staying put, but I can appreciate a good road trip.
We planned on starting out at five am. My alarm decided not to go off at all, so we didn’t take off until 6:45. I’ve learned my lesson, and will never trust a cell phone alarm clock again. This happens all the time.
Since it was National Coffee Day, we stopped at McDonald’s for coffee around 8 am. National Coffee day had nothing to do with my coffee stop, I just love coffee and refuse to go without it. I don’t necessarily like coffee from gas stations, fast food, or coffee shops (unless it’s a latte or cappuccino) but I do like McDonald’s coffee. I love walking into McDonald’s and seeing the group of old men sit around and talk. I think all McDonalds has their usual morning regulars. It reminds me of my Grandpa.
When I get McDonald’s coffee, I put 4 creams and 1/2 packet of sugar in a medium sized cup. Enzo, Emilee’s dog, loves coffee just as much as we do. It’s hilarious when he tries to steal sips.
The best part about driving through the Carolinas is the scenery. We got lucky with a mix of weather yesterday. The fog was gorgeous laying on top of the mountains.
Emilee and Enzo slept like babies in the backseat.
We had Emilee’s old CD collection to rock out to. I forgot how excellent CDs are.
We made it to West Virginia about 10 am. I love driving through West Virginia because of all the mountains and farmlands.
As I mentioned before, I wanted to pack healthy foods for the trip instead of stopping. We had watermelon and pistachios!
I feel like it rains on every trip I go on. And if it doesn’t rain, it blizzards.
We stopped at a pretty rest stop for the dogs in Virginia.
I kind of forgot it was Fall until seeing the changing of the leaves. I can’t wait until it happens in North Carolina. On the way back, I’m stopping in Asheville to take photos of the mountains.
I got these all natural calming chews in Grumples Doggy Loot pack and decided to try them out on the trip. He’s usually really good on trips so I don’t have to worry, but there wasn’t much room in the car with all of us, so I gave him a couple.
He was really good and I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the Chews, but he slept most of the time, or sat between the console and watched out the window.
The more north we got, the prettier the trees were.
We were all hungry around noon, so I pulled out the road trip roll ups I made the night before. They were so yummy!
The sun finally came out.
It was hotter in the north than it is in North Carolina.
After driving and listening to music for hours, you start to get bored. That’s why I like playing question/trivia games or reading stories.
We started talking about haunted houses and ghost. You all know I’m obsessed with scary/creepy things. I’m pretty sure my apartment is haunted, and everyone who comes over thinks the same. We started telling scary stories and then for some reason it made me think of the story “girl with the green ribbon” that my mom read to me as a kid. Thinking back, I can’t believe she read that to me as a kid, but I looked it up. We all started laughing because of how ridiculous the story was, but doing silly things like that in a car makes the road trip much more fun.
We continued to read creepy/horror stories for the rest of the drive. We are a weird group. We plan on stopping at some haunted landmarks on our trip back. I can’t wait to blog about that.
We had about an hour left to go, but we had to stop again for bathroom breaks and more coffee.
I don’t like gas station coffee unless I’m desperate, so I picked up a 50 calorie iced coffee. They’re really good! Grumples found a comfortable spot as you can see. I ended up running him a half mile up and back down the road around the country gas station to stretch his and my legs. It felt so good after sitting in a car for 6 hours.
We made it to Ohio around 3 pm. What did we do next?…I’ll post that soon! 😉
The question of the day! How do you keep yourself entertained on road trips!?
Loved that drive just a few weeks ago coming home (back to Ohio where I live) from Charlotte, NC where I was visiting one of my best friends.
My favorite thing to do on road trips is to listen to motivational and/or fitness podcasts, they get me pumped! A couple of my favorite podcasts to listen to are Empowered Living by Steve Maraboli and The Power to Change (Mind, Body, Life) by Scott Colby.
Those sound interesting. I’ll have to check them out. I do love podcast on road trips if it’s just me and Grumps.
podcasts help a lot with long drives
I love podcasts when I’m traveling alone!
Agreed. It keeps me from getting bored. I get carsick after 2 hours!
Taralynn,
I am from the Asheville area. You definitely should take some pictures. Also, if you have time, buy a bag of coffee from Bean Werks in West Asheville. I work at a coffee shop and that is where we buy our coffee. Its fantastic. If you like dark roast coffee, Black Widow is the best 🙂
That sounds amazing! I might have to try that out! 🙂 Thanks !
My dog usually does well on car rides – she just lays there giving me those puppy eyes begging to get out as soon as possible. But I never have a problem with her and going on road trips. You said you got those chews from Doggy Loot, I was wondering if you have ever seen something like them anywhere else? I would love to try them out with her.
As for road trip fun? One game we play is the Cow game: you count all the cows on your side of the car, if you pass a graveyard all your cows die and you lose them having to start over. the person with the most cows at the end of the trip wins!
I usually get a composure at Grumple’s vet! They’re calming chews. I also get some treats at petco that have natural ingredients for calming.
And that cow game sounds hilarious!
That looks great and relaxing, it is a little more hectic when you have small kids. But I love travel, we are moving from North Dakota to Florida in a little less then two weeks. I’m so glad we are driving, and through plenty of states I’ve never seen. My husband gets the moving truck and dog, I get the vehicle and kids. 🙂 We are stretching it into a four day drive of about 500 miles everyday. Since I will be the driver (and usually am, even when we are all together) I just like to entertain myself with music and the scenery. It is relaxing for me to drive, I enjoy it. But when scenery gets flat and music gets boring, that is when I get antsy.
Have a good time in Ohio!
Love the signs of fall and great tips! I used to live in Charlotte and miss it so much! I am originally from Wilmington. Some of my family lives in Boone, NC and I hope it is on a road trip list of yours in the future if you love the fall scenery like in your pics! The Blue Ridge Parkway is soo pretty to drive along this time of year, lots of those pretty bright yellow leaves covering the road. So beautiful! Only a <2hr drive from Charlotte 🙂 Enjoy your trip!!!
I love sitting in the car and just zoning out. As long as I don’t have to drive I am pretty good with some music and a nap. Otherwise I have to stop a lot because I can’t sit still for too long.
Looks like you did a great job packing healthy snacks!
I love your dog he’s adorable ! How did you come up with the name Mr. Grumples ?
Looks like you had fun traveling! But I have a question regarding one of your pictures-who is in the drivers seat in the picture where you are in the passenger seat and talking about how you take your coffee? I thought just you and Emilee were traveling?
OK, so you are this all natural girl with healthy, tasty recipes, then you go and purchase a Starbucks product. Starbucks is the bain of all existences due to the processes they use make their coffee. Go with a Rainforest Alliance or Fair Trade coffee only.
I don’t eat all natural all the time. I try to as much as possible but when I’m traveling and on the go, it’s hard to stay on track. I’m only human.
While all the hype surrounding Starbucks drives me bonkers sometimes, I do respect the recent efforts they’ve been making to move toward 100% ethically sourced coffee. 🙂 http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/sourcing/coffee
And you’re right, it IS a balance. For those of us with a history of eating issues, letting go of food-related rigidity allows us to be kinder to our minds and bodies. Also, ~natural~ is a very loosely defined word. It’s perfectly okay to determine what natural means to you and to eat and live accordingly. 🙂
You make road tripping look so fun! Something about riding in a car makes me incredibly anxious and I get ants in my pants about 2 hours into the trip! I HATE packing and being in cramped spaces and everything gets so disorganized and I always forget something (doesn’t help that the husband’s long legs get cramped and the dog pouts allll the way there and allll the way back). Someday I will travel Taralynn style and just enjoy the ride. 🙂