From Charleston (SC) to Boston (MA) - Part I

[Jasmin83]

Hi there,

I want to write about my road trip from Charleston to Boston in March 2006.

I travelled with my boyfriend. We are both 23-year-old German college students. However, in 1999/2000 I spent 10 months as an exchange student in Everett, MA (on the outskirts of Boston), so I was quite familiar with the country.

My bf happened to intern in a company in Charleston from January thru March. So I thought that would be a be a good opportunity to go visit the US again. And of course I wanted to see my high school friends from way back then. But they still lived in Boston.

So here was our plan:

My bf bought a crappy old car in Charleston (Geo Prizm with a very high mileage) to go to work everyday. So we decided that we could as well drive all the way up to Boston.

When I arrived in the US, we first spent about 10 days in Charleston which is an awesome little city. I can recommend visiting it! If you go there, go visit Patriot's Point, The Battery, the beach, go on a ghost tour and just enjoy the atmosphere of this place.

While I was there, we also went on a day trip to Savannah, GA. It was nice, but definitely not as great as Charleston.

Then we were about to start our road trip. However, the day before we were to leave, the crank handle (do you call it that?)vof one of the car's windows broke and the window would just slide down, it didn't stay up anymore. Obvioulsy, we couldn't leave like that. So instead of packing our suitcases, we spent an entire day at a scrapyard/auto parts place (what's it called? I dunno).

But in the end, it all worked out well, it just cost us a lot of money... And then, the trip finally got started. Our plan was to drive up I-95 just cause it was the easiest way to drive and it enabled us to visit major cities.

DAY 1:
We left Charleston and kept going north for hours. And we were really wondering about all these South of the Border/Mexican signs. We had no clue what that was about.

We kept driving for about 8 hours, some breaks in between. As we got very close to Washington DC, which was supposed to be our first place to visit, we looked for a motel/hotel. We had a bunch of coupons and finally decided to stay at a Day's Inn somewhere in Delaware. That wasn't the cheapest place to stay at but as international tourists, we just wanted to be safe.

The next morning we got up early to enjoy the continental breakfast. Well, if a European thinks of continental breakfast, we'd expect freshly bakened bagels, scrambled eggs, jelly, all sorts of cheese and cold cuts, fresh bread, oat meal, cereals, yoghurt, fruits, juice and coffee. That would be a decent breakfast.

An average American hotel's continental breakfast slightly falls short of our expectations: The Day's Inn offered just toast and pretty gross muffins and donuts. It was pretty hard to get used to eating this extremely sugary stuff early in the morning...

But after that, we checked out and left for DC.

That's it for part I - I promise to continue as soon as I can.

[AZBuck]

Welcome Aboard the RoadTrip America Forum

Sounds already like you and your boy friend had a great time! I'm really looking forward to your insights into our country. I'm already amazed that you think Delaware is a fitting place to stay for a trip into Washington, especially when travelling from the south. How did that work out for you in terms of miles and logistics? I've enjoyed German breakfasts, and while they're a little heavy on the high-fat, processed meats for my taste, they are definitely better than what you get at a typical American motel advertising 'free breakfast'. Look forward to further installments.

AZBuck

[Mark Sedenquist]

And we were really wondering about all these South of the Border/Mexican signs. We had no clue what that was about...

"South of the Border" refers to being south of the North Carolina border and it is a semi-Mexican Themed motel and resort. Here are some old photos of the place....

Mark

[Jasmin83]

DAY 2:

We left the Day's Inn for Washington DC. Both of us had never been there before. First, we drove by the Pentagon which really doesn't look that great when you're actually close to it.

Then we drove downtown and found a garage for the day. The scary thing about that was that before entering the garage they opened our trunk and checked the baggage. They also tried to view with mirrors if there were any bombs underneath our car. So, yeah, that seems to be part of the US after 9/11.

During the first part of the day, we just walked around and visited the "political" sights like the White House (looks much bigger on tv), the Capitol, the Mall, the Monument. Pretty interesting but somehow this city just looked plain - if you know what I mean by that.

In the afternoon, we went to the Spy Museum. That was really really great though it was absolutely packed with people. And for Germans, it was especially interesting because our country (esp. the eastern part) played a major role in the cold war and thus played a major role in spying.

I'll continue later on, I have to go to a lecture now...

[PNW Judy]

Although I'm a bit surprised you find Wash DC plain. I think it's a stunningly beautiful city. Different strokes I guess, LOL.

It is a shame that we have to be so paranoid to do searches like that these days, isn't it?

Waiting for the next installment.

[Jasmin83]

Heck, I just completed my previous entry and wrote a long note but it wouldn't let me save it...so please, be patient :-)

And the hotel wasn't in Delaware, it was Virginia. Messed that up.