CLT-OKC Road Trip: Day 1

AM: 15 mins. core
51 mins.
7 miles
PM: 7 hours in the car
3 states (SC, GA, AL)

Jordan flew in late last night to help me load up the car and start the epic road trip to Oklahoma. We had a rather lopsided itinerary on tap, planning to only drive ~6-7 hours in Sunday which would leave us with almost 12 hours in the car on Monday. However, structuring the trip this way meant we would have the chance to hang out and spend the night with Brookelet in Birmingham on Sunday, which for both of us made the disparity well worth it.

As for the run, we got out the door fairly early and hit up a standard route past campus, through Freedom Park, and down the bike path and back. As expected, my legs were pretty stiff and tired from yesterday's "long" run, but Jordan was feeling unusually beneficent and didn't push the pace too much. I must admit I felt a twinge of sadness knowing this would be our last few miles in Charlotte for a while, but these brief feelings were overshadowed by my excitement about the great summer we have ahead of us.


Ready to hit the road

Once we were back at the prison we had a fairly intese mission ahead of us: somehow cramming the remainder of my belongings into the Mini. To put it mildly, I don't drive the largest car on the road. Despite my certainty that I'd pared down my superfluous crap to a manageable amount, Jordan remained less than confident that it was all going to fit. After working some serious magic we managed to wedge almost everything in, leaving only a few casualties behind, and without further ado we were on the road.


Giant peach on the side of the road. Pretty sweet.


The downtown Atlanta skyline as seen through our windshield wipers.

Our relatively brief drive on Sunday took us through South Carolina and Georgia before sending us west on I-20 into Alabama. We saw all the sights that the greater southeast region had to offer, including but not limited to a giant peach (statue? water tower? monument?) on the side of the road in Gaffney, SC, the Talladega Motor Speedway and a plethora of "world's largest" fireworks stands. We stopped for a quick treat at Arby's outside Atlanta (and learned that they have apparently made the egregious error of eliminating the "5 for $5.95" deal from their menu...sorry Jeff). By the time we arrived at Brooke's it was just past 5pm Central time and we were ready for a much-needed break. Day 1 was successfully in the books.

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Dinner with Brooke...the perfect way to cap off Day 1