We are HERE! What a Road trip that was.

Our trip was supposed to take 20 hours of driving time, it ended up taking 32 hours. Our plan was to drive to my fathers school and spend the night in a dorm room.


We left Indianapolis, Indiana at 5am on our way to Kentucky. The problem that we had was, Kevin's car needed repacked. Michael, Kevin, and I finally went to bed at mid-night. So going to sleep was a bit hard, so we all got about 4 hours sleep. If that.

Leaving Indiana and entering Kentucky. You can see the bridge outline on the left of the picture.

Once we got into Tennessee. We took I-65 south to 24 East towards Chattanooga. By this time we were completely exhausted. We had to stop in Manchester Tennessee for an hour nap time. Our nap was taken inside of each of our cars. It was tricky, cause our cars were packed completely. It looked like a cockpit of a plane. Only enough room for one person. I did not really sleep there, my mind was racing to much to sleep even though I was tired. I did get out and walk around my car while I check on Michael and Kevin.


View Larger Map


We had a huge issue at the I24 to I75 split. Our convoy got separated. Kevin was the only one with a cell phone. Michael and I only had CB's. We spent the better part of an hour trying to find Kevin. I finally got the bright idea to call him on his phone. Michael found a pay-phone and called him. It was scary, we just did not know where he was. We stopped at the next gas station and called my father and asked to use him as a hub so if one gets lost again. I am glad we didnt get separated again.




This picture above was of the Tennessee Mountains, it was a pretty view. I just loved it. Hated what was about to take place though. We were on an uphill climb at this point. We had to go down the other side. The down slope was a 6% grade. You wouldn't think that would be to bad, but it was bad on me. The speed limit was 55 and I never got below 65 and it was hard to handle. Brake and coast was how I did it. I was worried that I was going to burn out my brakes.

Once we got into Georgia we was heading towards Atlanta. It was almost time for rush hour. We decided to stop about 30 miles before we hit Atlanta to eat at a Crackerbarrel. We had a nice but quick meal. Once we were done, we took another 1 hour nap. And then went into Atlanta. It was 7pm and their rush hour was still going on. The picture below shows Atlanta.

We got to Macon Georgia and decided to spend the night there. We found a cheap hotel. Express Inn. $27.00 for a night. We got the room and stretched out on the beds. Kevin fell out first, and he snored so loud that Michael and I could not sleep. Then when I thought I was about to fall out, there was a train horn and I did not know we were right next to the train tracks. It shook our room. No sleep for us. We left 3 hours after arriving.

We drove into Florida on I75 and took I10 towards Jacksonville. We had to stop again for a nap. It was 6am and I needed some sleep. I finally figured out how to stretch out in my car, I put up my legs on the pile that was in my passenger seat, and a pillow behind my back. I fell out. I slept for the whole hour. Once we hit 295 south to 95 south we drove the rest of the way. We got to our new apartment in Ft. Lauderdale at 1pm.

We hit construction in every state on our trip. I kept saying on the C.B. No More Orange. ugh.

Once here Michael had to go to his new job site and check in. Kevin drove him and I stayed behind to wait for our cube and the ups man and the AT&T to show up. Every thing was scheduled to be here in the afternoon. The cube showed up, but the guy that delivered it was a bit annoyed that I didn't have his money order. I told him that my room mates would be back with the money orders. He said that he couldn't wait much longer. As he was calling his office, they showed up with the money order to pay him. He dropped off our cube and left.

Once that was done, we signed the lease for our apartment and got the keys. We then had to unload our cars. Kevin said as soon as his car was unloaded he would go get us dinner. As he went to get food, I blew up our air mattresses using the car air pumps. While the air pumps were running, I unpacked some of my tubs. When they returned, I was done blowing them up and we ate and went to our new bed rooms.

I woke up about 3 am and thought I needed a shower. I turned on the light and freaked out. There was an ant trail going across my wall to one of the tubs that my drink was on, I spilled some coke on it and they were having a party on my tub. Thousands were in attendance. I quickly sprayed them down with window cleaner and started wiping the mess including them. They were climbing on my hands and arms.

Today we unloaded the cube. Every thing made it ok except the washer, the knob broke off.

We went to the beach, it was beautiful. I am going to be changing my blog name. Its going to be called Allen's Adventures

Have a great night,
Allen