Installment 1

Hello everybody. I am writing to you from the public Library in Savannah, Georgia, a city named by Le Monde as the most beautiful city in North America. You can decide for yourself how much stock to put in a French newspaper's opinion on North American cities. It is, however, quite beautiful here. There are large and majestic trees everywhere, with Spanish Moss hanging down from almost every limb to great effect. The streets in the historic downtown area are arranged in squares and there is an abundance of statues, fountains, and grand Southern antebellum architecture.

Am I sounding too much like a travel guide? Perhaps that is the inevitable result of the reliance Chris and I have developed on two books in particular, Let's Go USA On A Budget and Road Trip USA: Cross Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways. So far these books have been essential for use to decide where to stay and what to do.

We started off the trip on the 16th from Chris' house in NJ and drove straight to DC. In DC we visted the WWII memorial and Roosevelt memorial. We tried to think a little bit about what the USA means to us, before embarking on a trip all though the country.

While out at a bar in DC with friends, we met a guy who had done a lot of road trips and even had a website to provide advice based on his experiences. Among other things, he told us to turn off the GPS and just get lost. Through well over 1000 miles on the road so far, we haven't managed this yet. To the contrary, we are so familiar with our Garmin that just today we named her Gwen. Gwen is quite knowledgeable and very dependable. Although at first her stoic affect made us resent her, we now know that she really wants to help us get around. This is best evinced by the way that she pours pride and satisfaction into the final word in "proceed one mile to destination."

After DC we spent one day hiking and then camping at Shenendoah National Park. We proceeded for two nights to Smoky Mountain National Park. The hikes and campgrounds have been beautiful and we've tried to capture it a bit in pictures. After one hike we stumbled into an Carver's Apple Orchard and Restaurant in Cosby, TN. There we had an awesome lunch while looking out over the orchard valley, with mountains in the background and horses prancing about in a clearing between the trees.

Later that night, before a dinner of s'mores, we went to a wildlife talk where we learned that if a fox has a black tail it is a grey fox and if it has a white tail it is a red fox. Amazing. Also, when confronted with a black bear you should try go through several steps such as making noise and throwing rocks to try make it run away. If none of these steps work, you must fight it and try to land a punch in the nose. Chris and I want to fight a bear while only receiving minor flesh wounds. So far the closest we came was being about 20 feet away from one while in the car.

From the Smoky Mountains, we headed to Charleston, where we camped on a wooden platform in the parking lot of a hostel. These meager accommodations suited us wonderfully as they were cheap and provided our first access to showers in a couple of days. That is, unless you count our swim in a 100 foot waterfall the day before.

At the hostel we met a cool Swiss guy named Patrick who joined us for a great dinner of seafood tacos. Before dinner, we were served beer by a bartender who had just been stiffed of a tip and introduced our new friend to fascinating English words like "thundercunt." After dinner we met up with some other people from the hostel, including a bro from Michigan who never went more than 2 or 3 sentences without talking knowingly about how hot the women in Charleston were and how much he enjoyed hitting on them.

Savannah was our next, and current, stop. Here we've hiked a state park, walked the town, hit the bars and the beach, and had an awesome family style soul food meal at a famous restaurant here called Mrs. Wilkes boarding house. After lunch we had our picture taken while holding a newspaper photo of Barack Obama at the same restaurant last year. The woman who took the photo asked several times if we really wanted "him" in the picture with us. Last night I learned that Chris is a sucker for happy hour bar specials when he bought five drinks all at once last night because it there were two different deals that were apparently too good to pass up.

Amongst our various destinations the car has been one of our constants. Chris says it is our home and we are definitely comfortable there. From the car we are seeing and experiencing a lot. We like to read road signs out loud. A couple of favorites were Maw's Cold Storage and Li'l Cricket Gas Station. Two church signs that we liked were "Free trip to heaven - ask inside," and "if you like ice cream, you'll love our Sundays."

Our days are full and rich and varied. We have encountered good fortune at every turn and we joke that it only rains before or after we arrive somewhere. Wish us continued luck!