We had booked an SUV for this part of the trip - a drive from Orlando to New York. Steve was very excited about driving it as we had seen the same model at the Racing Ride yesterday and it was huge! Early, we headed over to the Hilton to pick it up.
The valet drives out in a soccer mum van called a Dodge Caravan.
It's massive inside - so at least the kids have a row of seats to themselves but Steve was spewing! He really wanted to drive on of those big cars we had been seeing on the streets. Oh well.
One last meal at the Pepper Market and we were on the road for 6 hours of fun filled Driving time and hoping like hell that Mavis the GPS gets us there.
As drives went it wasn't too bad. Steve drove all the way while I navigated with the help of Mavis. We only took one wrong turn but it was sweet - we made it back onto the right path. At about 4pm we took a left and finally arrived at our hotel in Charleston.
There was a free shuttle to downtown Charleston at 6 so after checking out our room (Jackson was excited because there was a sofa bed so no sharing with Shaye) and making use of the facilities, we squeezed into two different buses and hoped like hell we met up at the same place.
Charleston is really pretty. It reminds me of New Orleans without the grime. I am kinda spewing we ended up going downtown because now I knew about Charleston I wanted to stay and check it out but Washington was more important.
We had dinner at a pub called Henry's Restaurant. Really nice food which was scoffed down really quickly. The a quick walk around the streets and back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
Sunday 19th May
After scoffing down our free breakfast (our next meal was going to be 8 hours away) and dragging our luggage back to the Caravan, I took the wheel and we headed north to Washington DC.
As drives go it was pretty uneventful. I had passed the mantel of photographer to Jackson while I was driving and I hope he got all the pictures of the stuff I was game enough to point out when I took my eyes of the road for 2 seconds.
Driving on the freeways is full on here. Don't even think about leaving a car space between you and the guy in front, someone will fill it really quickly. It also doesn't help when halfway through the trip - Torrential Rain starts pouring down! We got caught in this massive rain storm that slowed everyone down to 40 miles, hazard lights were going off, people were pulled over on the side of the road and my hands got sore from gripping the steering wheel so hard. Very scary and really glad when it stopped.
So apart from the rain and the really nice country side we arrived in Washington DC safe and sound. Found the local McDonalds for dinner (two buildings down) and stayed indoors till tomorrow - lots of walking to do tomorrow.
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