Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York!

We’re here we’re here! After a long day of driving, through often craptastic conditions, we’ve arrived in NYC!

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We met in Moncton on Thursday morning at 11:30 after Leah drove up from Halifax with Ali, Dunc & Grace. We tossed her bags into the car, took a few pictures and hopped in to exchange pre-roadtrip Christmas presents! We set off and Leah was quickly introduced to our new Korean roadtrip companion, Park Gar Min. AKA Gillian had reconfigured our GPS to speak Korean to us throughout our trip.

We hit a bit of snow on our way to the border and throughout northern Maine but nothing that Gill, Gar Min and Leah couldn’t handle! We ate some delicious Christmas leftovers and sweets supplied by Gillian’s east coast mom, Susan! While that brightened our trip through northern Maine, we can’t say we warmed to it and we were SO happy to eventually cross the border into New Hampshire! Gillian says the only good parts of Maine are Katahdin, Acadia NP and the sweet Starbucks employee who was the recipient of our first name/blog card and who gave us some NYC advice! Our friendship almost ended twice when I asked Gill if she liked “Rent” and “Glee”…. She replied she likes “Rent” and is fond of ALL cheeses…. Ummm Glee Gillian, not Brie! Regardless, crises averted!

When we were driving through Massachusetts, singing along to “How Bizarre” and started harmonizing without realizing it, I knew this was the beginning of a beautiful trip!! We finally reached Mo’s apartment in New York’s Upper West Side by around 1:30 in the morning. The drive was great from Boston on, pretty much, and while we’d like to report very exciting stories, in fact, we can’t tell you much except for the toll booth employees were very friendly, Park Gar Min is to be trusted, and without fail, every time we pulled off the road to try and find a washroom and/or coffee and/or gas station, there would end up being a rest plaza just a mile down the road when we got back on the highway. Shoulda kept going…..

Cross all your fingers and toes that we don’t have our car broken into and with that, we are off to sleep for a well-deserved rest!!

LOVES!

G&L

T-9 DAYS!

Well, we are headed off in just 9 days from now. We are DEFINITELY more excited about our trip than Christmas and we cannot wait to meet everyone along the way. We have our GPS and US phone prepared, all my stuff fits in the car, and there’s even space for Leah. I have a raft of new CDs and Leah has compiled an 18hr playlist of the 80’s and 90’s. Things are looking very positive!  

We successfully finished up our final preceptorships, me in the ER, Leah in pediatrics. We both loved our respective areas and can’t wait to start our first “real” jobs – anyone have a hook up for me in an ER in BC?! Let me know!

The itinerary has been modified slightly. I realized that Chincoteague and Assateague wild pony tours are closed in the winter, so that dream will have to wait. We also decided to go straight from St. Louis to Denver and spend a bit more time exploring the national parks in Utah and Arizona. 

We’re now looking at: NYC->Philly->Baltimore->DC->? (NC or Atlanta, GA)->Knoxville->Nashville->Louisville->St. Louis->Denver->Page->Flagstaff->Las Vegas->LA->San Fran->Portland->Vancouver!

Our travels will see us hitting the following states:

States Covered:

Maine

New Hampshire

Massachusetts

New York

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Maryland

DC

Delaware

Virginia

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia

Tennessee

Illinois

Indiana

Kentucky

Missouri

Kansas

Colorado

Utah

Arizona

Nevada

California

Oregon

Washington

So, if you have any ideas of things for us to do or eat or see and so on, hit us up with some suggestions!

Quote of the Day

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

Itinerary of the Itinerant wanderers – subject to side routes and meanderings, of course

Here’s the synopsis of our travels so far. Hopefully we’ll pretty much keep on track…but you know what they say about the best laid plans! Please let us know if there is anywhere we MUST eat, anything we MUST see or do, or any other awesome recommendations. We are planning on couchsurfing in: St. Louis, Kansas City, and Las Vegas, if anyone out there has a super comfy couch, or better yet, spare bed for us to crash on. We are super fun and will have heaps of good stories – promise!

Also! If anyone has tips for the best routes to take….we LOVE scenery! Whatever scenery you can get in the dead of winter that is…

December 26th: Depart Moncton, NB. Arr New York City

December 27-29th: Livin it up in NYC

Dec 30th: NYC to Germantown, MD via Philly and Baltimore. Cousins reunion!

Dec 31st: DC New Years! Touring the Pentagon, National Mall, the Whitest of Houses, Smithsonian… HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

January 1st, 2014: Chincoteague, Assateague … Wild Ponies!

Jan 2nd: Knoxville – Smokey Mountains, Grandfather Mountain

Jan 3rd: Nashville – Grand Ol Opry, here we come! Korea reunion numero 1 with Alex!

Jan 4th: Louisville via Mammoth Caves. Korea reunion numero 2 with Brian-san.

Jan 5th: St. Louis and Cahokia Mounds

Jan 6th: Kansas City

Jan 7th-8th: Denver. Korea reunion numero 3 with Miss Lija.

Jan 9th-10th: Grand Canyon

Jan 11th: Las Vegas

Jan 12th-16th: LA!!! Disney, Rodeo, Hollywood, and the Fam Jam. Planning on tickets to Ellen and maybe a little POP Pilates with Cassey?!

Jan 17th-19th: San Francisco. Another Korean reunion with Erica from America herself.

Jan 20th: Depart for Portland, OR

Jan 21st: Vancouver, BC – Back to the Homeland!

That’ll be it for a bit…..must make it through this last few weeks of school before heading out. Keep watching from Dec 26th for photos, stories, travel quotes, and daily musings.