I've been living at home in Richmond, Virginia for the month of May, but it is finally time for me to return to Athens for the rest of the summer. Before I can once again call the Classic City my home, I must complete the eight-hour drive south from Richmond to Athens. So that I don't have to power down I-85 South by myself, I have enlisted my boyfriend as my travel companion.
Meet Dillard,
who, much to his misfortune, has spent the last couple of days in Richmond and is now driving me back to the Georgia. As a form of entertainment for the both of us, I thought it would be a good idea to document our road trip hour by hour.
9:00 a.m.: Hour 1
After packing up the car, I said goodbye to my parents and my dog…the final goodbyes are always the hardest.
I kindly volunteered myself to be the first behind the wheel. It is still undecided which of us is the better driver. The first hour was pretty uneventful. I put Dillard in charge of manning the Spotify because my phone is almost out of data. This was an unavoidable but questionable decision. Our music tastes don't always line up, but he thinks he is somewhat of a Spotify connoisseur because his “Sad Country” playlist has almost 500 followers (as you might be able to guess, he thought of that name all by himself).
10:00 a.m.: Hour 2
Midway through hour two we left the great state of Virginia and entered into North Carolina, where we will be for about 400 [awesome] miles. Upon entering the state of college basketball and Cookout we took a quick stop at a rest area. I have told Dillard that we will be taking minimal stops along the way, so we must be very liberal in our choice of pit stops. Here, we switched places and Dillard got behind the wheel, where he will most likely be for the rest of the trip. Dillard claims that he loves road trips, but we will see how he feels around hour six. I've also asked him to count every Cookout sign and billboard that we see in North Carolina, as I am convinced there are at least 40 (sure enough, as I write this we see our first one!).
11:00 a.m.: Hour 3
My favorite part about driving in North Carolina is the roads. North Carolina has some high quality roads.
That's pretty much my main observation from this hour. At this point, our Cookout tally totals to three, which is a bit less than I expected thus far.
12:00 p.m.: Hour 4
Halfway there!
This hour has been an exciting one. With all of this driving, Dillard and I worked up an appetite. Luckily, my mom packed us an unnecessarily large amount of food -- Sandwiches, three bags of chips, apples and bananas, three extra large cookies, and a jumbo bag of m&ms.
As I said earlier, I am trying to minimize the amount of times we have to stop, so our prepared lunches came in pretty clutch. We have also discovered Spotify's “Flashback Friday” playlist, which is a testament to my superior DJ skills.
1:00 p.m.: Hour 5
The hours are starting to move a little slower now. Our current ETA is 4:30, so moving along slowly but surely. In hour 5 we continued listening to our “Flashback Friday” playlist. Dillard was a huge fan, saying, “Pitbull always puts me in a good mood…Nicki is crushing it…Tik Tok is definitely Ke$ha's best song.”
Midway through the hour, however, we got a little flashbacked-out, so I started listening to “Serial.” This podcast is a great way to pass the time during road trips. I am on episode six.
We also entered South Carolina at the end of hour five, which means the pristine roads of NC are unfortunately behind us.
Finally, in this hour our Cookout total is at seven, which is a surprisingly little amount – Carolinas, you are not what I thought you were.
2:00 p.m.: Hour 6
We have spent this entire hour listening to Serial. It has been getting us through South Carolina. Other than Serial, the only thing to report is that during this hour we passed my favorite landmark of the drive – the peach butt.
Located in Gaffney, South Carolina, home of the one and only Frank Underwood, this giant peach is a comical sight I never get tired of seeing. I wish we could have stopped and gotten a picture in front of the peach, but this street view will have to suffice.
Cookout count- 10
3:00 p.m.: Hour 7
All I have to say now is that I am ready to get to Athens. At the end of hour 7 we have 30 more minutes. Bring em on…quickly.
4:00 p.m.: Hour 8
And thus concludes our long (and exhausting) trip back to the Mecca. After traveling through some back roads, we finally made it the Athens. Both of us were very excited, not only to finally get off the road, but to finally be back home.
