Solo Cross-Country road trip [Part 2]
{Journey begins}
Let’s rock and roll! Cleaned up the apartment, bid adieu to my lovely apartment in Virginia, and started on a Monday morning @ 9 am.
Rather than going straight, I took a quick detour in Michigan to visit a bunch of my friends and also had a quick work errand to run. If I had not taken the detour and if I had pushed the gas a little harder, I could have completed the trip within 4 days easily, glad I did not do it!
Day 1: Herndon, Virginia to Romulus, Michigan (505 miles)
My first stop was to Costco to fill up the gas and get some nuts (Pistachio and Walnuts)to munch on the road. For the first time, I had to set a 500 mile route on my mobile. Since I already downloaded the maps, it wasn’t consuming much internet data.
At around 10:30 am I started from Costco and around 11:30 am, I’m already on I-70 West and it was interesting to see Google maps telling me to go straight 400+ miles. With all the excitement to drive, set the auto-drive, and started driving straight and steady, and the maps mentioned I will be reaching the destination by 6:30 pm.
At around 1:00 pm ( 90 minutes of driving), I just started feeling a little hungry and realized the first thing which I haven’t planned — where to eat. Unlike me, if you aren’t a picky for food, it's way easier. There were no signs of rest areas, I took a random detour parked my car, searched for restaurants, drove 15 miles to the restaurant, had my lunch, and I was back on road at 2:30 pm. Almost 90 minutes wasted! When I resumed the maps, it said I will reach around 8 pm which still isn’t bad?
Next mistake, DO NOT eat a lot of food while traveling, especially if you are the one driving! I woke up at 6 am and had been constantly on the move, after the heavy lunch, along with complete silence in the car, started to feel the most comfortable position to sleep. At around 3:30 pm, found a rest area which I have been looking for almost 125 miles, and in fact, it was the right timing.
Took a nice nap for almost 30 minutes and after refreshing and doing some quick exercises, I resumed my trip! Now, the map said 9 pm, which is still okay. I was fresh, active, and rejuvenated! Decided not to stop until the destination ( I realized I only drove 200 miles, since morning and it's already 3:30 pm :D )!
By now, you would realize how relaxed my trip is and I haven’t been stressing myself, rather relaxing it all through the way. Since I have visited Pittsburg and PA, just a few months back along with my parents, there wasn’t much on my list of places to visit anyway.
I haven’t stopped the car, had podcast on for some time, then youtube, and there was still half a tank of gas on my car, so I kept going. Since it was November, it got pretty dark already and I drove straight until 8 pm. Just 100 miles before the hotel, I stopped to fill in the gas. I used an app called Gasbuddy (random find), which tells if there is any cheap gas nearby. I know you can get that in Google maps, but this app also gives you points if you share the prices at gas stations, while you upload the receipts, and also for sharing safety information about the gas station.
Just in the interest of time, I was searching for restaurants for dinner. The worst thing is, all these apps will tell you if there are any good restaurants nearby and luckily you are in the middle of nowhere in a gas station. I felt it was important to plan ahead of time where you can approximately stop to have good food. Contrary to this, I’m a well-planned person, just to give you an idea — I had a 4-page guide planned for a 5-day trip which included places to visit, things to cover and where to eat. However, this time I wanted to see how an unplanned trip turns out. I found a decent Mexican restaurant, since I was close to the hotel, I decided to order a heavy dinner. This time rather than eating it completely, I split it into two parts and resumed my trip at 8:30 pm.
It was very obvious that when I initially started from Costco, it said I will reach Romulus, Michigan(MI) around 6 pm and now the new arrival time is 10:30 pm. I checked in to my hotel, finished off the remaining chicken enchilada, and dozed off at 11:30 pm.
What a day! Even before I started from Virginia, I decided that whatever it takes, I wanted to rest for a solid 7–8 hours, that way I’m not hurting my body too much. Set my alarm for 7:00 am and 💤 …
Glad you made it this far, check out my Part 3 for a thrilling ride... 😃
