7,000 miles driven, 25 states visited, 0 speeding tickets. Not bad. I'll admit, that the last 6 weeks were much more fun than I anticipated. I thought I would be really sick of the car, gas station bathrooms and probably Jed. However, I really missed the trusty Honda when we walked from the airport to our hostel this morning upon arriving in Johannesburg, South Africa. Now, as the international portion of our journey begins, we first wanted to make a list of some Bests/Worsts of our cross-country trip:



The Roadies – Jaitlin's road trip awards:

Best Cheap Motel: tie between Motel 6 and Microtel

Worst Motel: Super 8 Austin. Never a good sign to have 5 cop cars and several people handcuffed when you show up to your motel.

Most Essential Motel Amenity: Free Wifi

Least Essential Motel Amenity: Free breakfast (since we slept through it every time)

Top 3 Cities for Tourists: New Orleans, Savannah, and New York City

Favorite Ice Cream: Fielder's Choice - Sabbatus, ME

Best Gas Station - General Category: Love's (best magnet selection)

Best Gas Station - Bathroom Category: Pilot (big, thick walls between stalls is key)

Scariest Moment: Caitlin woke up in the middle of the night and thought a stranger was sleeping in the other bed at our motel in New Orleans. Only after waking Jed (and a brief heart attack), did we realize it was luggage, shadows, and paranoia playing a cruel trick.

The Hangover Award: Big Red Margarita, College Station, Texas

Best Spontaneous Celeb Spotting: Geraldo in full wizard gear at Harry Potter World (Jon Stewart was a close second, but loses out since it was not spontaneous)

Best Beard: 3-way tie for Eli, Dave, and Craig because beards are a pre-requisite of living in Maine

Best Catchphrase: “That would never happen in Chatham.” Refers to the idyllic life in Chatham, New Jersey

The "We Owe You Big Time" Award, You are Amazing: All of those who let us crash at their homes: Monika and Patrick Redmill, Mamie, Grandpa Harvey, Kerry Beckman, the Kasarjian Family (Chris, Kristina, Dylan and Avery), The Staff Family (Renata, Mike and Logan), Jimmy Foster, The NJ branch of the Johnson Family, Eli Leveston, Brad Wilson and our wonderful families.  Thank you all SO, SO much.

Lastly, it was so great to see all our family and friends on our road trip.  Here is a photo gallery of all those we got to see. We miss you all already!

Pizza.  I love it.  It would probably be the one thing I would bring with me on a deserted island.  Thus, I was quite happy to be in NYC, one of the pizza capitals of the world.  Caitlin and I decided that for one of our dinners in NYC, we would just eat pizza...lots of pizza.  Since there are literally pizza places on every block of NYC (sometimes multiple pizza places), we just strolled around and went into any place that looked halfway decent.  Here is our Pizza review.  Do not read if you are hungry.  

What is so cool about New York City? It's regarded as one of the best cities in the world and I wanted to know why. I lived in a pretty awesome city for a few years (Chicago shout-out) so how different could NYC be? At the end of our trip I'll feel more informed to offer an opinion on the best cities, but I can say we fantasized about how cool it would be to live in the Big Apple as we strolled through the city streets. 

My only regret is that I didn't meet Beyoncé.

Asheville, North Carolina's nickname is "Beer City, USA", or at least that's what they signs tell us.  Apparently it's named this because it has more breweries per capita than anywhere else in America.  My only memory of Asheville was going to Crestridge Summer Camp outside of Asheville after begging my parents to let me go to sleep away camp at the age of 12, to which I attribute my knowledge of many beloved "Worship" songs and a love of the Appalachian Mountains.  The mountains and Asheville's rep as an artsy, hippie, brewery-loving town sealed it in the itinerary.  

We arrived on the heels of Moogfest, which left some interesting characters loitering around town that we assumed were all just part of the hippy-vagrant vibe, but maybe they were just visitors.  We never figured it out.  

We tried our best to soak it all in by hiking in the mountains, perusing all the beautiful crafts and pottery and of course, by drinking the beer of Beer City, USA 

We dedicated ourselves to the beer on one night in particular and here are our conclusions: 

Also, Jed had some amazing ribs (or so he tells me) at 12 Bones, fave BBQ hangout of POTUS and the First Lady.

Our U.S. road trip is already about halfway done =( At the halfway mark, we have covered: 
-4,500 miles
-13 States
-Spotted 48 state license plates (guess the two we are still missing?  There is a hint at the end of the post)
-Only 5 fast food places (not too bad!)
-Lodging at a potpourri of 2 star motels: Motel 6, Super 8, Red Roof Inn, Microtel, Holiday Inn, Regency Inn and Sleep Inn, to name a few 
-1 Klezmer band

Some people have asked us why our road trip didn't take us out west. We both really wanted to see more of the Western half of the US but ultimately prioritized visiting some friends and family east of the Mississippi.  The Honda also begged us to go easy in its old age.  

Despite all the time in our car,  we are surprisingly not sick of driving. The car has become our new home.  In the beginning, we even had trouble relaxing when we arrived at our destination, especially in Florida where the day's agenda might just be hitting the beach (for about 20 minutes before we burned).  As someone who really values a routine, and when the car is the most routine thing in our lives right now, it is actually somewhat disorienting to be in one place. But as we are spending more time on our trip with friends and family instead of $40 hotels, we are feeling much more at home. 

4 more weeks until we fly out of here and begin our 10+ months as ex-pats!  

We begin our trip with a six week road trip across the southern and eastern parts of the U.S.   With our odometer topping in just under 100,000, we are hoping to make it until mid-May without a call to AAA.  


We are looking forward to seeing our family and friends across the U.S. over the next few weeks, but we 
are already missing all of our Chicago friends. 

Now that we are off, our blog will be continually updated so be sure to check back often. And by the way, Motel 6 is charming!

Who: Caitlin and Jed!

Caitlin is from Kentucky and fell in love with traveling when she studied abroad in Belfast.  That love was one of many reasons she joined the Peace Corps and shipped off to Zambia, home of Victoria Falls, following college.  Traveling and living in Africa for two years was the adventure of a lifetime and only whet her appetite to experience as many cultures as she could. 

Jed is from the Albany, New York area and is an attorney/former rock band member/Shark Tank fan.  He was bitten by the travel bug when he first heard Toto's "Africa" at age six.  25 years later, he is following through on that dream to visit the continent.  

What: We quit our jobs (I repeat: WE QUIT OUR JOBS) and will be traveling first around America to see family and friends. Just our first six weeks will be as diverse as the Clinton Presidential Library, Bourbon Street, Harry Potter World, two weddings and Caitlin’s friends’ brand new baby!! Hopefully, the trusty Honda Accord will make it through the end of May when we ship out for our first International leg…Johannesburg, South Africa.

When:  April 1: Adios, Chicago…

            May 21st: South Africa!

            We plan on being gone for a year!  

Where: The ultimate Question!! I’m literally interested in going EVERYWHERE, so this was quite the difficult task. Afghanistan? Sounds beautiful minus the whole Taliban thing. We won’t make it there, for obvious reasons. However, we have a pretty great itinerary lined up and you can view it here.  We are keeping it open though and will add or remove places as we go.  To make it feasible, we’re trying to stick to more budget-friendly countries.

We would love love love to see any and all of you around the world! Let us know if you can make it happen and we’ll do what we can to meet you there! After spending 24/7 together, I have a feeling we would love some fresh conversation. ;-)

Why: Why not?? (amirite?) Insert your choice of many reasons here. All of those.

How: So much planning has gone into this.  Admittedly, Jed’s the planner and spent a lot of time crunching the numbers and maps and seeing how we could make it work. 

Deciding to quit my job was a major decision.  Probably the biggest decision of my life.  Most forks-in-the-road so far have been pretty lopsided; this is like chugging along at a solid 60 mph and throwing it in reverse.  Considering that, it wasn’t really the most difficult decision.  From the time I started my job, I started a savings account specifically for travel, fantasizing about the day I would be able to do exactly this.  I’m not sure I ever expected it to happen but here we are, unemployed with a one way ticket. 


-Caitlin