Road Trip New York-Washington

On Saturday 16th in April we started our epic road trip down the east coast of America towards Florida. Our little hairy baby Dexter was dropped off first thing in the morning at the Vets for boarding. I feel so bad, because he looks at us with those poor doggy eyes not understanding why we’re walking out the door and he’s not coming with us. Then we went back home and loaded up the two cars. It was a miserable cold and damp morning in New York so I couldn’t wait to get on the road and enter more sunny climates. The first couple of hours on the road went quickly and we had a quick stop before getting onto the New Jersey Turnpike. It was still dark, cold and feeling of rain was in the air. We passed NYC and Newark with the sky getting darker and darker until finally the heavens opened and the rains came. This coincided with heavy congestion that seemed to have no reason to it.

Left: Us at the start. Right: NYC on a grey day

Below: Stuck in traffic but we see a British car with NY plates over the British ones.

We took the opportunity to stop again even though we hadn’t travelled that far since the last stop, but we had been in the car in traffic for ages. I also took over the driving to give my husband a break. It was as if the fates knew and decided that my leg of the trip would mean I had to go through torrential rain and thunderstorms. It was quite a sight going over the Delaware Bridge with lightning dancing around you. My parents who were in front of us some way, called to say the I-95 was heavy with traffic again and coming to a stop, they suggested that we get off and take another route. It was at this time that it really pelted it down. I had the wipers going as fast as they could but you could hardly see anything and I had to reduce my speed down to 20 mph. We parked and swapped drivers again and the thunder shook the car it was that loud. The skies looked evil.

We got back on the 95 which was clearer now and passed Baltimore, then the skies cleared and the sun came out. It was now I noticed that the trees were green and in full bloom, the trees back in New York were still bare and dead looking. Our plan was to stop overnight on the outskirts of Washington DC for the night and then get the Metro into the city first thing in the morning to go sight-seeing before continuing on to our second overnight stop in Raleigh NC with a friend of my parents. Just before 7pm we stumbled onto our motel opposite Andrews Air force Base.

I was shattered, hungry and gasping for a cup of tea. We thought we’d drive down the road for a place to eat, but our drive turned into an hours drive around some unsavoury areas. In the end we came back to the McDonalds that was next to our Motel and that had to do for the night. When we got into our room and switched the TV on I turned to the weather channel. That when we saw the news of the terrible storms that had passed up the east coast that day, the storms we had driven through were part of that system, it also turned out that a tornado had hit parts of North Carolina including around Raleigh.

The next morning we were all up bright and early to go into Washington DC. It was amazing, a really beautiful city. It was a gorgeous day, sunny but breezy. We did all the normal tourist sights, such as the White House, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery and the Smithsonian as you do and walked miles. Below are some photos of the first leg. Hope you enjoy.

In these pictures are Hubby, mum, dad, sister, brother and Me

The second leg of the trip is to follow.