Honeymoon Road Trip - Days 1 & 2 - Travel days

Welcome to Days 1 and 2 of our honeymoon, a 10-day roadtrip from Central Florida to Seattle.  For those of you new to MeltingPotTravel.com, click here for the background information on our trip.

Our first day was a delivery trip - taking the kids to grandma's house in NC. It was our last night in a familiar bed so we used the opportunity to rest up for a really, really long drive. I failed to mention that the night before we left, I pulled a hamstring playing softball. Not the brightest thing I've done, but luckily my doctor was able to call in a prescription for an anti-inflammatory into a pharmacy in NC. My wife was concerned about me backpacking with a bad leg but I was sure by Day 6 I would be ok for the backcountry of Yellowstone.

The highlight of the trip to NC was breakfast at Bojangles'. I think there must be some narcotic in the biscuits, because I crave it constantly.  Bo's is hard to find south of SC, so it's a must-have when we visit anywhere north of Savannah. After a good night's sleep and an awesome breakfast, we hit I-40 West toward the NC/TN border. Before we even reached Asheville, we ran into a detour due to an overturned semi. This is when our Microsoft Streets and Trips software begin to pay for itself. We purchased the travel and map program with the GPS receiver included (we didn't have a portable GPS at the time) and had it connected to our laptop.  The interstate was completely closed westbound and the detour route was jam-packed with travelers and other semis. My navigator-wife was able to reroute us on a secondary detour and cut at least 30 minutes off our detour.  After this small victory, we were ready to conquer the Wild West and everything in between.

The relatively uneventful, but beautiful drive took us through Knoxville and Nashville, TN, briefly through Kentucky and Illinois, in roughly 11 hours.  However as we arrived into St. Louis, crossing the Mississippi River with a breathtaking view of the Gateway Arch, we were rejuvenated and for the first of many times on this trip, awe inspired.

We barely arrived in time to take one of the last trams on the night to the top of the 630-foot Arch. Just a note of warning, if you are claustrophobic, you might want to skip the ride to the top. The photo to the left is my wife inside one of the tram capsules, which has seating for 5, but I have no idea how 5 adults could fit!

The nighttime view from the top made the long drive worth it and was a fitting end to the first day of our honeymoon. We crashed at a nearby Holiday Inn Express and enjoyed the last bed we would see for a week. Next stop, South Dakota...

-TJ