West Coast Bound: Day 1 ~ From “Paradise” to “Emergency Calls Only”

Leaving the Beach House is never easy. We find incredible comfort at Grandma’s Four Seasons and we find that the ocean, sun and warm air have great healing powers for the mind and the body. By far the best part about the summer is all of the family that we saw, hugs that were exchanged, jokes that were shared, and tears that were shed from belly laughing. There wasn’t a dry eye as we said our goodbyes to Grandma, Grandpa and GG. We are so grateful for the incredible summer that we had and for the time we were able to spend with GG as we haven’t been able to spend much time with her these past few years. It was a treat to be able to visit with her this summer in her new home.

We pulled away from “The Best Place on Earth” with our car packed to the ceiling. We were a little nervous that that we weren’t able to see out of the back windshield and then we realized that we can flip our rear view mirror to rear facing camera mode. High fives! Off we went!

We drove out of Delaware and into Maryland (we got the sign!!) and over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Chewy wasn’t sure what to make of being 500 feet above the water.

As we wrapped around Washington, D.C. I’m not sure what was louder, the thunder, rain (or what Evan calls “asteroids falling from the sky”) or the Transformers movie exploding throughout the car. We made it out of the city before traffic got too thick and wound onto Rt. 66.

We passed the infamous location of my first traffic violation “aka 4630.” When I was a freshman in college I was a server at Chili’s. On my way to work one afternoon, I was pulled over by a state trooper. In his southern drawl he asked me if I was aware of the “HOV4630.” I wasn’t familiar with what “HOV” was and I had no idea what a “4630” was. I thought it might be code for some type of traffic violation. We had a few minutes of a very confusing conversation when he determined that I wasn’t “from around here.” He asked to see my license and then clearly explained to me that between 4 and 6:30 I can not be on that stretch of highway because it’s “HOV.” Ahh, clarity! My favorite memory of this story is the sound of my mom hysterically laughing on the other end of the phone when hearing the story.

I’ve always wanted to drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains therefore we decided to take a different route home from the one we took in June when we headed east. We drove out of D.C. through Virginia and onto the windy roads of West Virginia.
We drove across the top of the George Washington National Forrest, which was beautiful, and into the middle of nowhere. The “scenic route” was interesting. People take guns, their trucks and confederate flags very seriously out here. When we finally stopped to pick up a quick dinner and calculate the rest of our route we realized that we not only didn’t have any kind of service on our phones, but we had notifications saying, “Emergency Calls Only.” Evan’s comment summed up our experience, “West Virginia isn’t big on civilization, are they?” Every person that we spoke to though was incredibly friendly.

The last leg of our trip was supposed to be the most scenic but we had a late start so we stayed on the interstate and enjoyed this gorgeous sunset. The beauty of driving west.

We missed the signs for Virginia and West Virginia but we are very much looking forward to seeing the “Welcome to Ohio” sign tomorrow! 😉