I must admit the first night of sleeping in the car was tough. Mostly because I had grossly underestimated how cold it'd be. I must admit I really didn't fully prepare for a trip of this magnitude, and it was evident the first night. For the most part, when I had toyed around with a 38-state trip to visit all the states I had yet to ever drive to, I did so without much of a concept of what was all needed.
My wife and I took a trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake for New Years, and after winning a small jackpot at Casino Niagara on our way back into the States, we decided to extend our trip and head up to Toronto. During the trip, we wound up in Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. During the trip, I had bought her a blanket/pillow set at a truck stop since she likes to recline while I drive. Aside from my winter coat, that was it.
In the morning, I found two feece blankets in the trunk. One that she uses when we go to Big Red games, and another we had just 'incase' we ever needed one. So, after freezing my ass off the night before, it came in handy.
After leaving at 8am, I drove south on US13 until I reached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. A $12 toll and a 29-mile drive (which can be found here), I was in Norfolk. I then drove I-64 south and west of the metro area until I got back onto US13/US460/US58. I followed US58 west until I reached I-95.
Here, was probably my first big blunder of trip planning. I knew I should've driven 35 miles longer to get onto I-85. But I was sick of not being on an interstate and had already eaten up a lot of the early day. And without looking at SC and GA on the map, didn't realize how much out of the way I-95 would make me.
But, with that, I drove south on I-95 into North Carolina.
It wasn't until I had gotten to Fayetteville that I had realized how far east I was of where I really wanted to be. Rather than clipping the northwest corner of South Carolina, I was now far east heading to Florence.
This was the only road sign of the day really worth taking.
I finally got into the Palmetto State well after I really wanted to. And with this, I now I had to cross it on I-20 to Augusta, and even further to Atlanta.
But first, a small note. The entire length of I-95 through North Carolina had billboard after billboard for this horrid place called "South of the Border". Right in SC after the border, was this Mexican-themed super-tourism trap. If it weren't for the fact that there were so many damn billboards for the place, I may have actually thought it was interesting. But with the absurd number of billboards polluting the roadside, I would never dream of stopping there.
I'm not sure where that picture was taken, but I know it was in South Carolina. I only got off the interstate about 3 times the entire state, but be damned if I can remember the actual towns or cities now that I did.
I finally entered Georgia, well after I had originally thought. I left Steubenville much later in the day for this type of trip, and instead of heading down I-77 to Charlotte and I-85 to Atlanta and Montgomery, I found myself ending Day 2, already delayed. I had though I could get into Mobile or into Mississippi before stopping for the night. At this point, Alabama was going to be a stretch.
But, I drove on, taking the southern loop around Atlanta and then I-85 to Montgomery. I stopped for this photo and then at the Information Center for this one.
This was a very nice 'short obelisk' at the visitors center. I continued on I-85 to Montgomery, and got as far as the Greenville, AL Rest Area before stopping for the night just before 1am.
Day 3