Heading North

July 26

We stayed a little later with Amanda in the morning, enjoying sharing stories about the “old days” of youth group. Ian had been called in to the hospital so it was a girls-only affair. Amanda whipped out a game called Bananas Grams for us to play – it was basically speed Scrabble without a board. Though Amanda did put us all in our places, K followed up with a strong finish for “First Place Loser”, though we expected nothing less from our Scrabble Queen.

As it neared noon, we finally decided it was time to pack up and get on the road. Amanda lined up the huskies for a proper goodbye and we pulled out of the driveway wishing we could take our friends with us. (We’re pretty sure that Jasper wanted to go with us too – she seemed to know we were headed for the cooler Cooperstown climate as she chased us down the driveway.)

We soon realized how hungry we were and found a Publix grocery store to browse for food. As is often the case when anyone decides to shop on an empty stomach, we ended up with our arms brimming with unnecessary but delicious items that would probably be consumed at a faster-than-normal rate. We climbed back in the car trying to find a place for all our new purchases and set out for Savannah, the most haunted city in the U.S.

We didn’t know anyone who lived in Savannah to spend the night with, so our options were either to camp or to stay in a hotel. We quickly made an executive decision (democracy!) that we had enough of camping and would rather spend the night in a hotel than cramped and hot inside the tent. We picked up some hotel coupon booklets at Georgia’s Visitor Center and began calling around with our hotel prerequisites: continental breakfast, Wi-Fi, and – after Creepy Towns 1 & Dos – indoor hallways, Luckily, we found a place that fit all of our requirements.

We rolled into Savannah and stared, wide-eyed, at the glamorous Sleep Inn, which was far superior to any other motel we had stayed at on our trip. The receptionist at the front desk had told us that if we flashed our room keycards at the Applebee’s Restaurant around the corner we would get a 10% discount on our meal. B, trying to emulate K’s frugalness, lobbied heavily for the savings and led us to the Applebee’s. K tried to remind everyone that a 10% discount really isn’t a lot, but B wasn’t to be swayed. Though the restaurant did have air-conditioning and free refills, in the end, the food was terrible and we only ended up saving a few meager pennies –a grand total of $2.25!

As we left, all we could think about was the ball of food sitting in each of our stomachs and we could hardly appreciate the harvest moon rising just above the horizon in the distance. We quickly popped some Tums and climbed into bed, praying for a better food day tomorrow.

States visited: Florida, Georgia

Yellow car count:

C – 312

B – 337

K – 369

Highs and Lows:

Group high – the “ritzy” Sleep Inn Hotel

Group low – Leaving A&I and Applebee’s

C high – No more camping!

C low – Won Ton Tacos

B high – Saving 75¢!

B low – Only saving 75¢.

K high – No more camping!

K low – Eating an entire package of fudge cookies – both because it made her feel ill and also because there were none for the next day.