First off, if you've missed any parts of our multi-state Florida to Wisconsin (and back) road trip, you can get caught up here:
Day 1 - Florida to Alabama
Day 2 - Alabama to Illinois
Day 3 - Illinois to Wisconsin
Day 4 - Wisconsin
Day 5 - Wisconsin to Ohio
Day 6 - Ohio to Pennsylvania
Day 7 - Pennsylvania to Virginia
Day 8 - Virginia to Georgia
Day 9 - Georgia to Home
(Also, full disclaimer: I'm typing this a month or so after we finished this trip because I wanted time to really absorb what we did and enjoy that post-trip high!)
So... how do I feel about road tripping?
I think I love it. Just based on this trip alone, 9 outta 10 stars. It was great to hit the road, see different places, eat different food, be nomadic, and be together.
But me being me, let's do a Pro and Con List!
Pros
A Change from The Ordinary
We don't normally do a lot of unordinary things in our "every day" life. I like to go to races nearby, so I'll have a day where I wander around a local city (such as Jacksonville, about 90 minutes away), but rarely take a weekend away. When we do, it's because we've attached it to something, such as a wedding or a longer race. Because of Covid, we haven't been to Disney since January 2020, which has taken away our "excuse" to get away for a weekend.
Seeing New Places
I honestly can't think of the last time we went somewhere new. Living in Florida means that we aren't surrounded by other states; we have to drive through the same towns to get to new places. Also, North Florida and South Georgia are geographically similar, so even going to Savannah never really felt like I was going "somewhere different." Honestly, I have to sit and think hard about the last new place we went, and I think it was a cruise to the Bahamas, way back in 2002 or so!
New Experiences
Besides the biggest new experience of driving through multiple states, we went to Niagara Falls! We saw 40% of the Great Lakes! If we'd gotten the chance, we were going to go snow tubing! I mean, how awesome is that?
New Food
While we didn't try nearly as many local joints as I'd hoped, it was fun to even try regional fast food, too. We went to Buc-ee's for the first time (and second time). We tried a place called Jack's. We devoured milkshakes from Cook-Out. And all the yummy pastries from O&H Bakery? Oh, yeah, I love this part of road-tripping!
New Stores
I love convenience stores, that's no surprise. I feel like you learn a lot about a region or neighborhood by their gas stations and convenience stores. We went to KwikTrips, QuikTrips, Sheetz, Friendships, Enmarkets, and so many more! We went to Scray Cheese, Tennessean Truck Stop, Boyer's Candy, and the amazing Mars Cheese Castle!
Cons
Driving at Night is Boring
Being from Florida, we get a lot of sunshine. Our average sunset is anytime between 5:30pm and 8:15pm. So imagine my surprise when, as we started getting more north, the sun began to set earlier! Once we were up past Illinois, it seemed like dusk started around 3:30 or 4 o'clock. It was distracting, and I found myself getting sleepier much earlier - which is a very bad thing when driving! Also, because we couldn't see anything, there was nothing to look at. It was just miles and miles of dark highways and bright exits. The trip from Chicago to Port Clinton was the worst, because we drove until midnight.
Didn't Plan Stops/Activities Very Well
As I've said a few times in the blog entries, I had this grand idea that we'd just mosey on down the road and stop at any ol' place that looked interesting. But... except for a few places, we never did! Sure, we stopped for ice cream at the Tennesseean Truck Stop, and we found that birding trail, but I was envisioning fun roadside stands, like "Cousin Cooter's Old Time Store" and we never got stuff like that... maybe I romanticized it a little too much. Also, because of the windy road situation, we skipped a lot of the backroad travel anyway, which greatly reduced the opportunity to find Cousin Cooter. If - when - we do other road trips, I need to plan better and FIND these places before we go driving willy-nilly down the road.
Didn't Stay Long Enough in Big Cities
This one made me feel really stupid. Going into this, we didn't really plan on wanting to tour Chicago, but multiple things ended up on my "Wanna See" list (like the Chicago Theater sign, Cloud Gate, Route 66 sign, etc), and we never had the time (or the opportunity, see next item) to do it. We were able to see Cloud Gate, and I am thankful we got that in, but between traffic and poor planning, we had hardly any time in Chicago. Hubby and I both agreed that we need to do Chicago again - in the spring, when there's no cooties, and we can devote a good few days to seeing it right.
Didn't Try Enough Local Food
Hubby and I are both picky eaters, not very adventurous. Couple that with also being frugal, and we more often than not stick to familiar places like McDonald's and Wendy's. It's hard for us to see "Bob's Bigtown Burgers" on the side of the road and say, yeah! let's go there for lunch! How do I know I'll like the food? Is it affordable? Do they have something he can eat? I was overwhelmed in the planning of this trip, because of the sheer number of miles we were covering, and I didn't do much research into what local places would work for us, and so we fell into familiar. I think Jack's was the only unfamiliar place we ate at, and that was safe because I knew they served chicken fingers (I saw some guy talk about Jack's on the internet...).
Doing This During a Pandemic
If this had been a normal vacation road trip, we probably wouldn't have chosen to do it when half of the country was still locked down because of cooties. But we didn't have that much of a choice. We needed to drive, so we took advantage of the situation. Chicago was a ghost town (made for great Bean photos, though), many places were closed. In many places, it was also still "winter" and things were closed for the season and wouldn't reopen until Memorial Day (typical "summer" season for Northern states, apparently). Most places were indifferent about masks, but many (Chicago, New York, Pennsylvania) were militant about it. Every single hotel we stayed at either had no breakfast or limited, prepackaged breakfasts. Every hotel pool was closed. All of these things were off-putting and slightly unwelcoming. Hopefully if - when - we do this again, many of these closures and restrictions will be a thing of the past!
So, knowing what I know now, would I do this again?
Yup. 100% would do it again! When can we go!?!?
Visual Map of Where We Went
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