My Road Trip Up the East Coast and Back Down the Other Side of the Appalachians
In October 2016 I took a road trip up the East Coast of the US and back down the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. I was unemployed at the time, so while I had little money I had lots of time. A gift of money from my grandmother made the trip possible, and I was encouraged to go by my parents. They were concerned I was becoming depressed and thought the trip would do me good.
Planning
I started planning the trip. Part of the reason for the trip, besides getting away for a while, was that a cousin of my mother’s, who lived in Baltimore at the time, was getting married, and we were invited to the wedding. She flew with my grandmother while I would make Baltimore and the wedding one of my stops.
The idea was to travel as low-budget as I could. I drove my grandmother’s car, because mine was older by that point and not as good quality, and there was some concern it wouldn’t survive the trip. I took a cooler with food purchased at the grocery store. This would cut down on dining out, though I did still do some of that. And other than two hostels, I did not pay for any lodging. My parents contacted friends of theirs living in other cities to see who would be willing and able to host me for a night or two at a time, and ultimately I stayed with a friend of my mother’s in Portland, Maine, and a friend of my father’s in Buffalo, New York.
Among other things, I found an online trip planner, called Furkot. This site enables you to plan out your routes with stops, including lodging, dining, gas, and activities. I used this to plan my routes, but for lodging I used a couple different sites to look for the lowest-cost lodging I could find. The first was Couchsurfing.com, and the other was Hostelworld.com. Both couch-surfing and youth hostels are a means of saving money on lodging, which can be one of the most expensive aspects of travel.
Where I Went
My road trip took me up the East Coast and down the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. And along the way I drove through twenty-seven states. Ultimately I stayed in cities where I could find one of three things: a family friend, a Couch-Surfing host, or a hostel.
Couch-Surfing
Through the Couch-Surfing website, you match up with a host in your destination city by selecting certain criteria. They put you up for a time for free in whatever guest accommodation they have available. This can be anything from literally just a couch to a spare bedroom to a sleeping bag on the floor. Since the lodging is free, it’s common for guests and hosts to agree on other ways for the guest to contribute. You might help cook meals or do other chores like laundry or dishes.
One obvious concern when staying with other people is safety. I only went through the Couch-Surfing website, as it’s run by a specific organization. There are rules both hosts and guests have to follow, and it’s easy to filter hosts and guests based on certain criteria. For example, you can choose to look at only hosts or guests of the same gender as yourself. Or you can choose to stay with families, or people who allow guests who are traveling with pets. Or you can choose hosts that are pet-free or non-smoking. You can also choose only experienced hosts that are well-rated by other guests who have stayed with them before.
One of the caveats of Couch-Surfing is that often hosts can’t take requests more than a few days in advance. This can be both a pro and a con depending on how far in advance you like to plan. Often they don’t know far enough ahead of time what their schedules will be like. So they don’t know whether or not they will be too busy to accommodate guests who need assistance with transportation. And lodging is one thing I as a traveler don’t like to leave to the last minute. I need to have a Plan B or even C to fall back on if Plan A doesn’t work out. So hosts that can only take requests at the last minute don’t work for me.
Hostels
Baltimore was the only place where I stayed in an actual hotel – my stay was paid for. Ideally I would have couch-surfed for the entire trip but there were a couple of cities where I couldn’t find a Couch-Surfing host. So there were two cities where I ended up staying in a hostel instead of with a Couch-surfing host. The first was Charleston, South Carolina, my second stop of the trip. The other was St. Louis, my eighth stop.
What I like most about hostels is the chance to meet people from other places. In my various hostel stays I have often met a number of Australians. This seems oddly specific, but apparently it’s because it’s so common for Australians to take a gap year between graduation and starting work.
Pensacola, Florida
I drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to get to my first stop in Pensacola, Florida. New Orleans, Louisiana would have been my first choice, but I hadn’t been able to find a Couch-Surfer able to host me. I was able to find one in Pensacola, however, which worked out well in the end because I am still friends with my Pensacola host.
My host showed me around the Pensacola area, taking me to the beach and the boardwalk nearby, though we didn’t really go swimming. We also went to a couple of bars there, and later that evening we went to a neat little complex of bars and restaurants all within the same space.
Charleston, South Carolina
After Pensacola, I drove through the Florida Panhandle until I reached Jacksonville, where I then turned north. I drove all the way through Georgia and into South Carolina where I stopped in Charleston. My second stop was a toss-up between Atlanta, Georgia; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina. I couldn’t find a Couch-surfing host in any of them, so I looked at hostels. Whether the hostels in Savannah and Charleston were cheaper, better-rated, more secure, or just more available, I don’t remember, but I eliminated Atlanta as an option. I don’t remember the reason I settled on a hostel in Charleston over Savannah – it could be as simple as the one in Charleston was the only one that had room.
I stayed in Charleston for two nights. That first morning I woke up before dawn and went to do some sunrise photography at the waterfront. I also explored downtown Charleston and visited the old City Market. The City Market has also been informally known as the Slave’s Market, as historically slaves and free blacks would sell their goods there. It’s important to note that the City Market was never a place where slaves were bought and sold – there were other places in Charleston where that was true.
Wilmington, North Carolina
After Charleston I continued up to Wilmington, North Carolina. I stayed with a couple from Couch-Surfing who were self-proclaimed minimalists who lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Both had jobs where they could work remotely, so they could move around periodically. They would settle in one place for a few weeks to months at a time before moving on. They were also vegans, and that first night I was there we made vegan pizza that was really good. Even the vegan cheese was pretty good for what it was. We also walked to a nearby shop that had an entire section of different beers and picked up a few to take home. The only one I still remember was one made with jalapeños that was really good.
Unfortunately, I have no photos from my time in Wilmington. I remember taking some, but they were among the bulk of photos from that whole trip that I lost.
Baltimore, Maryland
My mother’s younger cousin Leslie was getting married in Baltimore, Maryland, so that was the next stop on my trip. My route naturally took me through Washington, DC.
One thing I need to clarify is that I used Apple Maps on my phone to navigate with. Also, I tried to plan my routes to avoid driving through major cities, especially at rush hour. I like enjoying the drive more than getting from Point A to Point B as fast as possible.
I wanted to skirt around the central part of the city, not wanting to deal with the bad traffic. Instead I ended up going straight through the middle, because Siri hadn’t accounted for a road closure ahead of me. So I ended up having to turn instead of going straight. And it was rush hour. That’s how I learned that despite Houston being 10 times bigger, DC’s traffic is so much worse. Siri has come a long way in the years since this trip but at the time I wished I hadn’t relied on her so much.
In Baltimore, we stayed in the same hotel the wedding party was staying in. I remember going that first evening to Leslie’s brother Eric’s house before we went to the rehearsal dinner. The next day, several of us drove into Washington D.C. to do some sight-seeing, and the wedding was the following day.
Portland, Maine
I continued from Baltimore to Portland, Maine, where a college friend of my mother’s lived. My route took me through the very northernmost tip of Delaware into Wilmington, where I branched off onto the I-295 and took the New Jersey Turnpike through Newark, New Jersey. After Newark I crossed the Hudson via the George Washington Bridge into New York City. This took me past the worst of Manhattan, so the drive through NYC wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, even at rush hour.
I stayed on the I-95 along the coast of Connecticut and then up through Rhode Island and into Massachusetts. Again I skirted around Boston by getting onto the I-495 and following it around the city. I returned to the I-95 in Amesbury, just before the border with New Hampshire. I did get lost driving through Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It was night time by this point, and it was a more rural area where the roads weren’t as well-lit. It ended up being around 1 a.m. when I finally arrived, but my mom’s friend was very gracious.
I spent two full days in Portland. One of the most memorable parts of the trip was my visit to the Portland Head Light, sometimes called the most photographed lighthouse in the US. I did also “do the Maine thing” as my mom’s friend called it: ate lobster. I went to a waterfront restaurant in the old port and ordered a whole lobster plate for about $20. It came with a little dish of melted butter, a plastic bib, and a plastic shellfish cracker, and I went to town on it. Well worth the $20.
Buffalo, New York
After Portland, Maine, I drove through New Hampshire and Vermont and into New York. I spent one night in Buffalo with a friend and former colleague of my dad’s. I did absolutely spend a few hours the next morning at Niagara Falls. Unfortunately those photos again were among the ones I lost.
Indianapolis, IN
After Buffalo, I drove along the I-90 along Lake Erie. This took me through New York and the northwestern tip of Pennsylvania that touches Lake Erie. When I reached Cleveland, Ohio, I turned southwest toward Columbus. I had considered it as an acceptable halfway point between Buffalo, New York and St. Louis, Missouri. But instead I passed through Columbus and headed for Indianapolis, Indiana. I stayed with another Couch-Surfing host there, who put me up on her couch. I didn’t do anything in Indianapolis, as I was short on time. So it was just a place to rest along the eleven-hour drive between Buffalo and St. Louis. Had I not stopped at Niagara Falls I could probably have made it all the way in one day with brief and very intentional stops, but it would have been a rough journey.
St. Louis, Missouri
I finally reached St. Louis, Missouri. My mother attempted to contact a friend of hers to see if she’d be willing to host me. She never managed to get hold of her, so I stayed at another hostel.
One thing I did in St. Louis was take a ride up to the top of the Gateway Arch. Overall it was enjoyable, and the elevator ride to the top was definitely interesting. Unfortunately the views of the city from the top of the Arch were a little lacking. The windows at the top of the arch are long but narrow, and the glass is quite thick. Not surprising given the height of the arch and the force of the wind at that elevation, but that meant the views of the city weren’t as clear. Given all the views-from-the-top-of-a-tall-structure of cities I’ve seen in my travels, I have to say the best so far have been Paris, France from Montparnasse Tower, followed by Seattle, Washington from the Space Needle. Those are discussions for other pages, however.
On the same day that I visited the Gateway Arch (afterwards, I think) I also took a three-hour steamboat ride. St. Louis is, after all, right on the Mississippi River. And once again, those are photos I no longer have.
I also stopped at the St. Louis Zoo, which, at the time at least, was free. This was great for unemployed me- I was all about saving money and doing as much for free as possible.
Memphis, Tennessee
My last stop was Memphis, Tennessee. I took the I-55 south and drove along the border of Missouri with Illinois. The I-55 took me across the southeastern tip of Missouri, which meant that I didn’t make it into Kentucky. It took me into Arkansas and down to West Memphis, where I then crossed the Mississippi into Tennessee and Memphis.
I stayed with another Couch-Surfing host, and again spent another enjoyable couple of evenings helping to cook. During the day I went to Beale Street for a “Walking in Memphis” moment (for those of you who aren’t familiar, Google the song, it’s a good one). I wanted to go to Graceland, Elvis’s home, but tickets were so expensive. To get into the mansion as well as the Elvis Presley’s Memphis experience was something like $75, and I just couldn’t afford that.
I did, however, visit the Sun Studio, originally called the Memphis Recording Service. Some of the greats recorded there, like B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis himself. I also visited the Peabody Hotel where I watched the internationally famous Peabody Ducks march to the lobby fountain every day. My key-ring still holds the Peabody Ducks keychain I bought there.
I also visited the Memphis Zoo, where I got to see a white tiger for the first time. And on the last day, on my way out of Memphis, I stopped at the Mud Island Park on Mud Island. In those days there was a museum called the Mississippi River Museum which was dedicated to the history of the Mississippi River. Apparently it has since closed and they relocated everything in it to the Museum of Science and History. I’m glad I was able to enjoy it before it closed. There is also (and this is still there, I understand) a scale model of the Lower Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. It stretches the length of about 5 city blocks, and you can step into the water and walk the whole thing. So I did.
End of the Trip But Not the Journey
I have learned a few things about myself on my travels. Each trip is a journey, in more than one way. On this trip I learned that as much as I enjoy trips with people I care about, I also enjoy long hours alone on the road, listening to an audio book or to music and watching the scenery slowly change around me. I think the changing scenery is a bit of a metaphor, representing the way I change with each journey. Though unlike the scenery on the return trip, by the time the trip is over I am not the same as when it began.
I also learned that stepping out of your comfort zone is a good thing. Growing up I was always kind of shy, and as a teenager I never would have been comfortable with the idea of staying with strangers in their house or in a dormitory. And while I sometimes still have trouble pulling a conversation with a stranger out of nowhere without some commonality to set it off, my travels have made me better at meeting people. And that’s the best thing about travel – you can’t help but connect with the world around you.