Our Cross-Country Road Trip: Part 1
Hello from California! We finally arrived early Saturday evening and have been exploring our new neighborhood ever since. After a full summer of Rob traveling, it was a little surreal to go to bed on Sunday night knowing we were together again for a "regular" week (what even is regular anymore, though, you know?).
The movers will be here today and I'm so excited to see all of our stuff in our new place! Moving is rough in so many ways but I always love unpacking and getting settled. But until then, and because we obviously succeeded in driving across the country, I thought I'd do a quick recap while it's still on my mind.
Day One
We left Charlotte around 10:30 on Sunday morning and headed for Nashville, Tennessee. We knew ahead of time that we wanted to stop in Asheville, North Carolina because we had only been once before. Looking back this was definitely the easiest day of driving, even though Ender didn't really know what was going on.
Asheville: High Five Coffee for two cappuccinos to go. I walked Ender around the neighborhood while Rob ordered and waited. We thought we might go to lunch at Wicked Weed Brewing but it was Sunday afternoon and really crowded (Ender's nightmare, or I guess I should say our nightmare with Ender). This is the first time we realize traveling with a dog comes with challenges, and we're not even three hours in.
Nashville: Right away we go to Centennial Dog Park, and I'm so glad we did. Ender usually starts playing right away when he sees other dogs but this time he hesitantly followed other pups around and then would run away like a shy little kid at a playground. After a while he made a couple friends and got good and muddy in a wrestling match with a black lab and a golden retriever.
After checking into our hotel we met our friend Daniel for drinks and a late dinner at Silo. I had a great glass of rosé and Rob and I split a bunch of small plates that were super delicious.
Day Two
The next morning we walked to Crema for iced coffees with Ender and then packed up the car and grabbed donuts at Five Daughters Bakery. They have a small but impressive selection of Paleo donuts so I got the orange honey pistachio and Rob got some regular ones (except they weren't regular at all, more like a cronut) that were seriously amazing. We later agreed that the salted chocolate was the best donut either of us have ever eaten.
After we'd stuffed ourselves with donuts, we got back in the car and made our way to New Orleans. I'm really glad we made time for this stop because neither of us had ever been, but driving this far south kind of messed with us, because we were very literally going completely out of our way for it.
We stopped in Tuscaloosa to walk Ender around the University of Alabama. The Riverwalk provided a nice, traffic-free path to stretch our legs and take in some beautiful views.
We had made tentative dinner plans in New Orleans, but when we finally arrived we were so wiped out that we just stayed in and called it a night early.
Day Three
New Orleans: We woke up early and walked Ender around the Garden District, which is where our hotel was. There were so many gorgeous houses and everyone we encountered was super friendly. New Orleans really feels like a different world--it's old and dreamy in a way that's almost spooky. We went to District for a breakfast taco and a croque-madame served on--you guessed it--a donut. It was so good. I ordered a Vietnamese iced coffee and was pretty much on a sugar high all morning.
A quick note about our hotels: We pretty much stuck to Best Western, Motel 6, and Ramadas for this trip. Finding dog-friendly spots wasn't as difficult as we thought it would be, and getting garden-style (ie with our own door that opened to the parking lot or street instead of an inside hallway) made it so much easier to have a dog.
The hotel we booked in New Orleans allowed dogs but definitely wasn't dog-friendly--it was a high-rise building and we had a room on the 4th floor. It was the second full day of travel and Ender was anxious and we ended up feeling so stressed about taking him out that we ended up getting room service instead of exploring that night.
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Okay, this post is getting long and I'm only halfway done, so I'm going to cut it short and finish the rest in another post tomorrow! Thanks so much for reading--if you've done a big road trip like this before I'd love to hear where you stopped!