This started simple enough... I was offered a plane ticket to New York to visit my friend Joe for Spring Break courtesy of my mom. She had extra airline miles to use in a short period of time and wanted to know if there was anywhere I wanted to go (within a limited budget).

Well, again, Joe had offered the Summer beforehand to host anyone who wanted to see New York and crash at his place. I had never seen New York. And I was the only person to ever take him up on that offer.

Plans were made for me to arrive on a Saturday evening. See, I was being kicked out of my dorms that Saturday and they were to be closed the entire Spring Break. Which meant that I was screwed as far as options on where to stay until the following Sunday. I made sure to make it clear to Joe that I needed a place to crash for over a week. He was more than happy to have company.

Day 1

Well, that Saturday I drove down to Flint, tried to figure out where to park (since it's across one of the main roads from the airport) and went to my gate. After my flights I landed in Jersey, called Joe, and headed out to the curb to wait. I met a gentleman who had just finished traveling all around the US on business, including California, which I talked to him about. He said I would love New York and hopefully the weather would improve a bit. It was only in the 30s or 40s maybe, definitely warmer than the 20 degree freeze we were having back at school.
Joe picked me up in his old Dodge Daytona - he laughed on the phone saying I wouldn't be able to miss it when he pulled up. On the way back towards his place we laughed and joked as we caught up on the last six months since we had seen each other. Filled each other in with what everyone else from Florida was up to, and we also managed to get a bit lost. Joe rarely goes to that airport and when you're chattin away it's pretty easy to miss your exit. We hit up this small diner at around 2am. It was our Jersey version of the tradional outting-to-IHOP that we have on each Florida trip.
We got back to Joe's later, I got the grand tour, and we crashed for the night.

Day 2

The next day we got up. I met Joe's family, and we decided to figure out what to do for the day. Merri, from Boston, was going to be heading down on Wednesday to hang out for the second half of the week. And Beau and Biggs were going to see about trying to come up from Maryland to visit, too.
That evening we drove out to PA to visit Ryan Williams. He was at the firehouse washing his new Jeep. We got to wander around the firehouse a bit and see where he worked. Afterward we headed to his house. I then got to see Ryan's place and meet his family as well. Ryan made the comment that it was pretty weird to be all hanging out together in his hometown. I agreed.
We spent a while talking and catching up with Ryan about various things. He got a firecall at one point so we all jumped his Jeep and sped through traffic, lights flashing and all. Ryan flew out of the car, into the firehouse, and they took off in one of the engines. Apparently it was just a chemical spill and nothing too serious. So we headed to dinner.

Now dinner that night is when things got really interesting. We went to Macaroni Grill and were just having a great time being able to hang out again. Seriously, I would never have thought I'd miss these guys as much as I do some times. We were sitting at the bar giving Ryan crap for parking on the complete opposite end of the lot when it was near empty (he babies his new car). After getting seated we talked about various things, one of them was Ryan's trip to Florida that Wednesday. He joked and said "You guys should just get in the car, and start driving. You'll make it there the same time I do..."
Joe just looked at me. I looked at him. "I'm down if you're down." I said. "Well, Florida IS only a car ride away... and we got a car..." said Joe. After that we looked at what it would take. Joe had class on Monday, Merri was coming down Wednesday, and we were all on a limited budget. I called Merri and left a message saying "how would feel about skipping New York on Thursday and road tripping all the way to Orlando?". She called me back, very excited, and said call her as soon as we were certain so she could pack summer clothes instead of winter. We decided to wait on it, and figure it out completely the next day. After the Grill we went to Fridays for a bit longer, talked a little more about the possibility of Florida, said goodbye to Ryan, and drove back to Jersey.

Day 3

Today Joe had to go to school, haha. So, I went with him to wander campus before heading to the City. I still wanted to do New York since that's what I came out originally for. After Joe's class we headed to the train station and took it across the water into New York. I got to see the touristy stuff like the remains of the World Trade Center, Times Square, and Rockefeller Plaza (which is smaller than it looks). We walked down to the Empire State Building, but for some reason didn't go to the top... hahaha. And then headed to 5th Avenue and Central Park.
The Gates were still up in the park when we were there. They were supposed to be taken down at the that point, but weren't. It was a huge art display where most every path was lined with bright orange gates that had matching orange banners hanging from them.
After the park we walked to Grey's Papaya for hot dogs. On the way back we passed a Krispy Kreme which I took Joe into since he had never been in one. Night fell, which was awesome because I got to see Times Square at night, all lit up.
The only thing we missed was the Statue of Liberty unfortunately. I'll have to make sure and see that next time.
A long train ride back, and very long walk back to the car we were back on the road. Tonight for dinner we were going to hit up White Castle, not because it's great food, but because I had never been to one. We made it there quite easily, more so than the movie Harold & Kumar would have you believe (and we were in the same city on the same highway, hahaha). The food was so so, nothing special. But now I can say that I've tried it.

Day 4

We woke Tuesday to a blizzard... a sure fire sign that we were meant to drive to Orlando the next day. We had already decided that if we got pretty much all New York done the day before that we would go. So, Tuesday was errand day. We couldn't let Joe's Mom know we were about to drive all the way to Florida... you don't do that to Moms... it freaks them out. You especially don't do that after she makes you both a really nice breakfast either. The plan was that were going to be spending the weekend with Beau and Biggs, you know, our friends from Maryland. See, that's not a lie, it's just not the whole truth since we didn't specify where we would be hanging out.

Anyway, as part of errand day we went to the mall. Joe told me about how Edison, New Jersey is named after Thomas Edison... inventor of the light bulb. I, honestly, probably would not have guessed; Joe said most people who live there don't even know that either.
We spent a good portion of the afternoon at the mall shopping, and just wandering around to kill time. Unfortunately Merri didn't get in til the next morning, so we had to wait a whole day before we could leave. While at the mall Joe decided to get his hair cut... The place was full so they sent him upstairs to "Kidz Kuts" where they had an open chair. He made sure to ask many times that the lady knew how to do men's haircuts and not just kids.

When we finally left the mall, around six or so, we walked out to 20 degree weather (approximately) and what appeared to be an ice storm that blew over in the couple hours we were inside. Joe's car door was frozen shut... Not just in the normal cracks-the-ice-away-when-you-open-it fashion. No, it was more the frozen-so-bad-we-thought-we'd-never-get-in type fashion. Well after using all his weight and finally opening the door, the handle wouldn't go down. Basically, it was now frozen in the open position. So I had Joe push my door open from the inside rather than do the same thing to the passenger door as well. We must have sat there for 15 minutes trying to figure out how we were going to make the 20 minute drive home when his door wouldn't close. It was to the point where I was pretty sure I was going to have to reach across and hold it while he drove. Well, Joe tried closing it one more time (since the heaters were going full force while we sat there) and it closed. He gave it a little push to see if it was latched. It held. Good enough, we agreed, better just drive and not try to open til we're home.

We got back that night, and prepped to leave the next day for Florida. We'd need a lot of sleep if were going to drive for 19 hours straight.

Day 5

The Trip Down

We picked up Merri at 11 when her bus arrived from Boston; she had already been sitting in a moving vehicle for five hours, but she ready for the next 19. We stopped off at the grocery store to get snack food and drinks. We sprung for the case of bottled water, various candy, and even a box of Stitch Cereal for Beau.
Beau had to clear the weekend ahead of work with his father, not the easiest task. But, after a couple phone calls, and pointing out that he'd never missed a trip, he called back and said "When you pass through Maryland come pick my ass up".
So, now all that was left was to convince Biggs. Biggs was a little more difficult to get ahold of, I had only been able to leave him voicemails since he never answered his phone the previous couple days.
We made it Beau's house and were given the grand tour there. We saw he car, which he was in the middle of completely modifying, and met his dad. After an hour (that flew by) we realized that we really needed to get back on the road. Once on the highway I tried Biggs one more time. He answered. "Biggs, What are you doing?!?" I asked. "I'M PACKING!!!" he laughed. Biggs decided to cut school that Friday and took the weekend off work. We got directions to his place and made our way down.
Finding Biggs' apartment was a tad difficult, but we managed. He actually has a pretty cool setup. And, most memorable, was a small shadow box he had on the wall of all his Lifeguard stuff (whistle, name tag, id, etc.).
So Biggs grabbed his things, we all used to bathroom, and we headed to car. We had told him to bring a small, crushable, duffle bag since there wasn't much room. We packed five people and all their things into this little TWO-DOOR Dodge Daytona hatchback.
During the drive we watched Finding Nemo on Joe's laptop (Joe got to listen, since he was driving). Around 10? I don't even remember, but we stopped off at McDonalds for dinner. Just the five of us sitting together in this McDonalds, in the middle of nowhere somewhere in the borders of South Carolina, was so much fun.

Day 6

Still Driving

Around 130 or so we stopped at South of the Border, this cheap mexican style amusement tourist trap place to get gas. Everyone was still fairly awake. Ryan called and said that his flight was cancelled due to snow and that he'd head to Jersey the next morning and meet up with us. We weren't sure if he was bullshiting or telling the truth. Bottom line, Laurel can't keep a great secret from Ryan and she spilled about our trip down to surprise him. However, neither of them knew we had picked up Beau and Biggs.
Anyway, I took over driving for a bit so Joe could get some sleep. Actually for the next two or three hours I was the only one awake while everyone was passed out.
Sometime around 4am Joe took over driving again and I slept for a few hours. The sun started to come up and the other woke up and fell asleep at various times. We were in the state of Florida, and were slowly closing in on Orlando.
We made some calls to our friends there, Aaron, Kelly, Akiele and others. We headed to Celebration to meet Laurel at her place. We pulled up, Ryan was standing in the doorway with a huge grin on his face. I got out and Laurel ran up and gave me a huge hug. But you should have heard heard scream when she saw Beau and Biggs in the back seat.
Total Driving Time: 19 hours
We got out, stretched, everyone said hello to everyone else, and we started to unpack. Joe was concerned about his car. We lost fifth gear when we were inside Florida borders - basically we could only go as high as forth. We all took turns using the shower since we'd been in the car all day, and started to make breakfast.

We took Joe's car to two different shops to have them look at it. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but that didn't matter. We were all in Orlando together, it was warm and sunny, and that was more than enough for us. We stopped off at Wendy's after the car shop for some lunch (screw buying lunch at Disney, way too expensive).
We decided to hit up MGM Studios, Mr. Norton was able to sign us in because he's awesome like that. Akiele met up with us at the parks since it was his day off. And Kate was working, so we decided to wave to her while she was in the parade. She didn't know Beau and Biggs were coming either; you should have seen Minny jumping around during the parade when she saw us...
The eight of us wandered around the park goofing off and taking pictures. Joe and I got a picture in front of the New York cityscape since I figured that'd be appropriate having just been there three days before.

After the parks that night we headed to Downtown Disney. We met up with Aaron, Naidymar, and Chris (who I hadn't seen since we backpacked Europe, we split up in the Netherlands). Unfortunately they had us at two tables for dinner which split the group in two... not always a lot of fun. And when we left (probably around 1am) Kyle DuBose had just arrived from Texas. He heard we were all coming out and left for his trip two days earlier just to be able to see us. We were all going to hit up Perkins and chill, but then realized how tired we were and went home to crash instead.

Day 7

Today we were going to hit up Magic Kingdom. Kyle was meeting us there, and so was Kelly who had the day off. Akiele had to work, so we planned on visiting him too. At the entry gates though Kyle's ID wasn't working so they wouldn't let him in. They had to call it in or something. Apparently even if you're Prince Charming at Magic you don't get any special treatment, haha.
We met up with a friend of Kyle's too. She had something to do with the College Program and was worried that her name and picture was goign to end up on my site, lol. Anyway, we rode the rides and hung out. Took pictures of the same stuff we usually do, and had fun. Most importantly though is that Biggs and I had some of the Pineapple softserve... damn good stuff.
we also met up with Akiele and took pictures. Well, we took pictures with Woody and Jessy.
Kelly, Biggs and I all wandered away from the group at one point to talk and do our own thing. No one really noticed though since they were all busy talking about the College Program stuff with these other girls.
We made plans to eat at Ohanas that night and see the fireworks from there. Well, it was March 12... which meant that it was Kelly's birthday, that Kyle and mine were the the next day, and Kate's was three days after that.
We managed to get ahold of Amanda, who we hadn't seen since the College Program back in 2003. She headed over with her boyfriend who she was down visiting for her Spring Break. We all ate dinner caught up. They brought out cupcakes for me and Kate... then when we pointed out that Kelly's and Kyle's birthday were coming up too the waiter just looked at us. He was kind of rude the whole night, and I think he thought we were lying to get two more cupcakes. Whatever. I split mine with Kelly and Kate did hers with Kyle. An icing fight, sorta, broke out with Kate Kyle.

Later that night we all headed to Ale House and met up with Shana, who I also hadn't seen since August '03. Working was Amanda, who I last saw on our Christmas trip in '03. So it was a great night. Everyone had drinks and laughed about new and old things. We were really sad that our time was pretty much up and we had to leave the next day. The main reason was that I had a plane (out of Jersey) to catch, Merri had a bus, and Joe had to work.
We all said goodbye, took one last photo with everyone, and headed out.

Day 8

It was going to be another full day in the car. However at at the end of this trip were planes, busses, jobs, and school for us all... not fun.

We got up, got ready, packed the car,and headed out. Unfortunately we hit traffic. There was a huge motorcycle even that had just ended in Orlando and there were hundreds of people on the road that were leaving. This added three hours or so to our trip. It sucked.
At one point we stopped off for gas at a pretty dingy gas station. It was gross, that's all I can say about it. I swapped out with Joe again to drive. We were being careful of the transmission though. Joe said all we needed was for it to last to Jersey... that's it... it could up and die once we're there if it wanted to, but not before then.
We did McDonalds for lunch again since it seemed appropriate after having stopped on the way down too. It was the second to last group meal we were going to have <sniffle>

That evening we stopped off at Subway for dinner. We were now about halfway home. It was really depressing to know we'd have to drop off Biggs and Beau in a few hours. While at the gas station Merri, Biggs, and Beau ran in and bought Hostess cupcakes and a lighter, unfortunately they couldn't find candles. My 22nd birthday was in an hour or so and they wanted to do something for me. Honestly, at midnight when my friends reached from the back seat with some cupcakes, holding a lighter (lit) and all sang Happy Birthday to me while on the highway in the middle of who-knows-where... it was one of the most thoughtful birthday ideas anyone every had for me. I love my friends, seriously.

We stopped off for gas one more time. We had all paid for two tanks the whole trip so far, so we all chipped in on this one. Though when we got out the of the car we quickly had to grab our coats. We were much further north and it was in the 30s.

After filling the tank and buying some sodas we were back on the road. Arriving at Biggs complex was sad cuz he was the first one to leave. We said goodbye, thanked him for being able to make it. He thanked us for making sure to get him. And we were back on the road

A bit later we dropped off Beau, again, said goodbye. He thanked us for making him go. However I doubt I would have let him get away with not going.

I remember it cost $5 to take the highway out of Maryland... kind of ripoff if you ask me.

Day 9

The three of us made it back to Joe's house. The car was still holding together, even though fifth gear was gone and fourth was starting to act up too. I took a shower to get ready for even more travel, and Merri got the grand tour of Joe's place.
Total Driving Time: 23 hours

Joe woke his mom up with a picture (on the camera) of us in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom. "No mom, LOOK where we are..." he said. She was shocked, but also not, that we drove to Florida for the weekend. Joe's sister was mad cuz she would have wanted him to pick her up something from the parks... though I don't think it would have fit in the car.
Joe's mom made us all breakfast before we headed out to drop me at the airport, Merri at the bus station, and Joe had to go to work.

At the airport we said goodbye, joked about how amazing the last week was, and that was it. Merri was dropped at the station a bit early were she chilled til her bus arrived. Joe had to go into work, he made it on time, and fell asleep on his desk.

My day was far from over though. I had to fly to Chicago, then catch a plane back to Michigan. Once there I had to drive from Flint back to school... which is about 90 minutes. when I finally got back to school I relaxed the rest of the evening. I didn't have to do anything for my birthday since the last week was more than enough. I ended up just hanging out with my roommate Matt, and Teri came over from down the hall.

It was an amazing trip, Jersey, New York, and Florida.

And it was an incredible four day roadtrip that none of us will ever forget.