Day one was a great start to the trip – beautiful day, no traffic, good music, and excitement. It was obviously hard to say goodbye to the family with lots of tears but once we got on the road it was exciting to think about the trip ahead.
We stopped at a rest stop in Maryland to get something out of the car and decided it was time to give away our first post card! We got out and looked around and found 3 potential post card recipients. We decided on this one woman who seemed nice (she was taking pictures of a scenic view). We were a little nervous, so we practiced what we were going to say, and then decided that to break the ice we were going to ask her to take a picture of us first. After doing that, we told her about our post card idea only to have her say “I don’t speak English. I’m German. Wait for my husband.” Of course we would pick a German lady who didn’t speak English for the first person to give a postcard to. Her husband was also confused (we’re not sure he knew much English either…) but said he would send the postcard back. We even told them to write us a note in German! We aren’t sure if they ended up really understanding anything but we really hope we get a post card from them because we know it would be hilarious.
So we went back to the car cracking up about how of course the first people we give a post card to would be an international couple – but that’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes, and at least we got a good story out of it!
We then ventured into “wild and wonderful” West Virginia and couldn’t help but stop at WVU, deciding it would be another place that would probably have some interesting people to meet. We found this massive building that looked like a huge indoor stadium of sorts and it seemed as though there was some event going on with all the people and there were hundreds of cars and no parking anywhere. We pulled up to this stadium-looking place, and Mer jumped out of the car to try to find a student to give a postcard to. She asked this one guy what was going on and he said “I have no idea”. So she went up to another guy and asked him what the big event was, and he told her that in fact nothing unusual was happening, and that the commotion was just students going to class. So I guess they have class in stadiums in West Virginia… Anyway, she gave the second guy a post card who gave her a really weird look and skeptically said, “ok.” We are thinking we will never see that post card again.
On the way back to the highway, we stopped to get gas and Ashley went to give out another post card at Sheetz (best gas station ever, in our opinion). She wanted to give it to someone in the gas station but as she was walking in, she saw this guy who looked like a character and decided he could be a good option. Ashley asked him if he would write to us and he said, “No, I’m not really good at that type of thing.” Feeling dejected, she then waited in line at the register and asked the girl at the counter if she would do one. She seemed weirded out, said maybe she’d give it to someone else, and then said, “actually, no but you can ask someone else.” Feeling doubly dejected and wondering why no one wanted her post card, Ashley found a third guy who was getting a slurpee-esqu drink and was dressed like a firefighter and he laughed and said that he would do it. Finally a taker!
Some observations and events from the day:
We sadly killed several butterflies (WHAM windshield).
1. Ashley’s car does not like driving up hill.
2. The GPS’s speedometer is about 4 miles per hour slower than the one in the car. We wonder which one is accurate. Don’t worry mom, we won’t drive that fast to even get a ticket…). Mer drives like a Grandma anyway.
3. Justin Beiber’s “Eenie Menie” did not get nearly enough airtime during its short-lived peak on the Top 40 list. It is certainly making up for its lack of airtime on our car trip…
4. There are some places in America that literally have no radio stations.
5. To get to Columbus, you go from VA to MD to WV to PA BACK to WV then OH. Weird.
Miles to go: 3,504
Post Cards Given Out: 3
Post Cards Received: 0
States Traveled: VA, MD, WV, PA, OH
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