Road Trip USA

I went on my very first long road trip last week. I had the time of my life.
My long time friend Alex has been in Florida selling security systems over the summer and needed to drive home. He didnt want to drive alone, and anyone who knows me knows I will leave at the drop of a hat to travel...so the trip began.
I flew into Orlando Fl around 10 at night, so just went to bed from there.
If you know Alex, you know he is a goof ball, and that he is not afraid to talk to anyone. He met an old guy named Ray, and found out Ray was retired from DisneyWorld. Alex, not being shy asked if he could hook us up :)
Apparently Ray can get up to 3 people a day into Disneyworld for free. But, Ray is a smart man and likes to make money, so he charges $50 which he just pockets.
So we went to Walgreens to pick up Ray. I was slightly scared because It was kind of random to pick up a stranger and drive to Disneyworld.
Also, the car looked like this, and I didnt know how we were going to fit ol Ray in.

We get to Walgreens, and Ray is on his little scooter. We unpack the car, put me in the back and then pack it around me. I couldnt move and the only thing that wasnt covered was my face.

We loaded up Ray(even he was covered in stuff) and headed off to Disneyworld! While we were driving Ray announes to us that he is legally blind. And driving a scooter??
Ray pulled through and got us right in, free parking and a pass to all 4 parks for $50 total. So $25 a person. After he gets you in, he takes the bus back to Walgreens :)

And so the first day of an awesome Road trip begins.

We started off at Disneyworld doing all the Disneyworld things...Splash Mtn, parades, food, rides..

And then rode the rail over to Epcot.

I had never been before so I was really excited! It was so great! I wish I would have had more time. We spent the rest of the day there and wasnt able to make it to any of the other parks, but I wont complain! It was so great!
We tasted delicious drinks

Hung out in all the different countries areas

And closed the park down. What a fun time.
After that, even tho it was really late we decided to start our drive. We drove 2 hours and made our first stop..somewhere still in FL.
The next morning we woke up and had a big breakfast!
I wanted to see an aligator SO bad..but it just didnt happen. On one of our stops I did see this big stuffed one.

And we of course induldged in a yummy Fl orange.

We were basically on the border of FL/Georgia at this point so soon after we passed into Georgia. I was so excited to see Georgia. I wanted to sit down and have a nice meal and meet some Georgians with their southern hosipitality, and make life long friends...nope. They werent having it, and I never felt the southern hospitality. But their state was really beautiful.
Every 5 ft I swear we saw signs for PEACHES. We stopped at a million exits and they were no where to be found. Finally, after a couple hours of driving we stop at one last stand...ta da!

I think my exact words were "Finally, a fresh peach from Georgia". Then the man behind the counters says "These aint Georgia peaches! We all out of Georgia peaches, these are from South Carolina." That will do I thought. I only bought one tho.
Onward we went! I have never, ever sang so loud, and so proud before in my life. I am not afraid to say that I have the WORST singing voice in history, but a combo of comfort with my best bud sitting next to me and 2,400 miles ahead I didnt care. I sang Celine Dion, Salt & Peppa, and Moulon Rouge at the very top of my lungs.
Then we rang across this cute little town. We had no plans at all, just stopped where we wanted and when we needed to use a restroom. I have always loved the name Dalton so we stopped in Dalton, Georgia.
I Loved, loved loved Dalton Georgia. There wasnt a soul in sight.
This is the new house I picked out for myself..

I was there taking pictures for quite awhile when I noticed no one had even driven by, and there were stop lights all over.
So I had a Notebook feeling run over me.

Look at this cute little coffee shop that no one was at.

Words cant express how I feel about this little town.
After taking a lot of photos we had dinner at a little burger place and hit the road!
On to Tennesse!

We found signs all over the place pointing us towards Ruby Falls! For as much hype as they made it I thought it had to be good. So we stopped. And it was SO amazing.
Its this little castle on top of the mountain. The ride in makes you feel like you are in Hawaii, its so tropical and green and beautiful. When you get to the top there is this awesome building

Basically you go to the top of this building...

And start a hike. It goes into a cave that had a huge water fall falling into it. It is so beautiful. We missed the last hike by minutes, but the brochures were great :)
It had an awesome view of some city in Tennessee..

We stayed the night there in Tennessee and same story, new state the next morning.
We drove through Kentucky

By this time Alex gently told me we couldnt stop as much. So we drove all the way through Kentucky and it was so so pretty...but no stops.
We went through Illinois, same story, but I didnt even get ONE photo. We had no idea where we were or what direction we were going (Thank you GPS) so we actually thought we would go through Chicago and have pizza. Ha, Chicago was the opposite direction but its ok. So no pictures of Illinois.
Next up, Missouri! I have never had any desires to go to Missouri. Shame on me. It was so great! I loved it. We drove by the St. Louis Arch and river and had to stop.

We stopped at this cute little place that was playing the best old fashion music. I wanted to dance like a grandma on the boardwalk.

We got lunch and sat under the arch for a picnic!

I just found out today that you can actually go up into the arch. If only I had done any kind of research on these places! It was still such a great stop. After lunch we took a long walk to stretch our legs down the river and back in the car we went!
On our way out of Missouri from like a hundred miles away you could see this HUGE roller coaster. It was the biggest roller coaster I have ever seen. 400 Ft. I love crazy rides and told Alex I didnt care how much it cost, I would pay for both of us if he made one more stop. So we drove up...it had just closed.

So, to Iowa we went!

We stopped in Iowa, and it was pitch black. No lights no towns that we could see and then comes Craig, Iowa. It was tiny and we had to drive down a long scary road to get to a gas station. For some reason I was scared, I thought for sure we were going to get murdered and never found. We pull up to this TINY gas station, with a lady with no teeth working the counter. She didnt even acknowledge us when we went in. Well on the radio the song Mambo #5 came on and Alex started singing it to me across the gas station and for some reason I was inspired to say "Dance party!" and me and Al started dancing...sure enough, the scary gas station lady started dancing behind the counter. It was great fun. All the sudden Craig Iowa was a blast!
I dont know why I wanted to make friends so bad on this trip, but right after we stopped in another part of Iowa for dinner. There wasnt a lot to chose from, and it was like 10 PM so we stopped at another gas station that had a Subway that was still open. There was a MEAN gas station worker there, and she wanted no part of us. So that made me want to be her friend even more. Alex went to the rest room after so I thought it would be a great time to get to know her since there was no one around. She yelled at me, so we left :(
We drove on and crossed over into the....uh....nice state of Nebraska.

Here we stayed the night and caught some sleep for the long drive ahead.
Nebraska was nice and flat, but we ran into some great thunderstorms!


We had some great times on this trip.
We saw some amazing sun rises and sun sets!


And we would not have been able to make it through without my trusty blow pops( we had like 5 a day)and Funyons.
Thanks Al for a super fun trip!