Road Trip USA part 1

Thursday July 5^th I packed and embarked on my All American Road Trip, to visit great friends, family and to rediscover the good ole American Way. Traveling the world and living in Spain has shown me the wonderful things that the world has to offer, but actually I rediscovered the excitement of the USA from my students this year. Everyone asking me questions about the US and me having to teach about my own culture has made the US exciting for me again. 

Like Fireworks, you just have to light more!!!

I couldn’t wait to embark on this great journey.

Almost as exciting as these Confetti Shooting guns! Way better than dart guns for sure!

What day to start a road trip better than the day after the great celebration of the wonderful Independence Day of our country!?!?! 

Oh yeah these Confetti Guns are super festive!!!

When I got home from the crazy fireworks celebration at my grandparents house that consisted of painting the “famous” storm drain with colored smoke bombs, sparkler dances, popper baseball, traditional sky fireworks, and a new pop gun that shoots confetti war that ended in a car chasing Audrey down the street to perform a “drive by confetti shooting” I had to pack for an All American Road Trip!!! How could I represent and celebrate our country better than driving around it and seeing the wonders it had to offer?

The infamous storm drain! We made it pretty, then blew up the inside with fireworks and strobes. So mature :P

July 5^th was the beginning of our journey. I woke up late which is what you should do on vacation (sleep in), picked up my cousin Audrey (who was actually ready before me), and we made great time to Indiana where we had great food at the SlipperyNoodle Inn. I wanted to eat at Slippery Noodle Inn because it is a cultural monument in Indianapolis. It was a hiding place during the Underground Railroad, a speakeasy during the prohibition, and now one of the top live music venues in this part of the country! The food was good and the building and décor definitely met its expectations. Definitely the highlight stop of the day!!!

We were only sad we had to leave before the live music started!

Indianapolis out the drivers window. The architecture was really pretty!

And then- oh and then - we hit Ohio. Where there was a cop every speed limit change, and finally by the fifth one they decided I didn’t change speeds fast enough and they pulled me over to give me a ticket. After that we just wanted to get out of Ohio so we drove to Erie PA, where it was quite eerie. We witnessed something go down in a parking lot of a place we were driving by looking for a hotel because EVERY hotel was booked (because I forgot that it was the day after the biggest holiday (other than Thanksgiving) in the US). We also witnessed a ton of cops arresting people in front of a McDonalds, and then FINALLY we found a group of hotels after we decided to just get back on the highway, which were all taken (but we kept stopping at each one and asking just to make sure before we slept in our cars) and by 4am we found a Microtel to stay in!!! Thankful to have somewhere to sleep, we stopped. 

Now I know why we passed so many of these guys on the road!!! They knew the hotels were booked!

To be honest, the first day was AWESOME. My cousin Audrey couldn’t have been better company, we drove 16 of our 21 hours, made it to Pennsylvania from Missouri in one day, say Indiana and discovered a new route to NY. The second day however did not include a Pennsylvania ghetto or a speeding ticket, so we have to say it was better; also we made it to our first destination - Spring Valley NY. Sadly I will leave my cousin Audrey with her boyfriend and his family here in Spring Valley and I will continue solo tomorrow to my yearly family party in Albany NY.

She was soooo excited to finally be here!!!!

I am so excited to see my family tomorrow; this year’s theme - Silly Hats - pictures to follow with the next blog entry!

It is always great to see family!!! Can't wait to see more tomorrow!

So far the beginning has been rocky - I forgot to mention that I am driving a rental and have to return to KC on July 16^th to pick up my car because it is in the shop due to a suicide deer running in front of it and destroying the passenger side- but I have high hopes for the rest of the trip, and actually this returning to the US gives me an extra day in a few places due to some changes that had to be made due to this slight inconvenience of fixing my car - again. 

I get to drive through more beautiful New York tomorrow!

I hope to keep you updated as much as possible about my adventure across the country, and as always, thanks for reading!!