Day 1638 – Adventures On Our Drive To California

Posted on January 4, 2014 by 365 days of marriage

We left a little later than I originally planned, but it worked out since we missed most of the traffic in Maryland and Virginia. We also caught a great sunset as we left!

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I had a silly idea of wearing my Raven’s jersey until we checked into our hotel…which was about 2 days later…it apparently didn’t work for the Patriots game. 😦

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Here’s Bret enjoying the bed in the backseat. Note, this was taken at a stop and he adjusted his seat belt after. 🙂

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I started reading a pretty neat book…didn’t get too far through it because I spent most of my non-driving time sleeping…or playing Candy Crush, tee hee.

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This guy kept me company in the backseat.

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One of the states that’s harder for me to drive through is Oklahoma. If I remember right, it is just fields and a lot of the same scenery for miles and miles. Texas is somewhat the same. This year was a totally different experience. There was an ice storm and everything was coated with ice. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my life. It was like driving through a winter wonderland. I kept looking around saying, “WOW, WOW…..WOW!” Bret had been sleeping and I had to wake him up because it was just so amazing. I never would’ve expected to see something like that in Oklahoma! The photo only does it about 10% justice.

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Then, we got to Texas and that’s when the fun started! Bret started to drive about an hour or so outside of Amarillo, Texas. I woke up when he pulled over in Amarillo to grab some gas. There was SO much ice on the road and he’d been driving about 30 miles an hour. I asked if he thought we should stop or not and he’s like, well, there are still a number of people on the road…I think we’re ok for now. Well, about 50 miles outside of Amarillo, we hit a little traffic….then the traffic was bumper to bumper…..then it stopped. Dead stop. After about an hour of being stopped, Bret said, well, shoot, I’m going to get in the back seat and go to sleep! We tried to lie down and sleep, but I kept thinking, what if the traffic starts up again? So I couldn’t sleep. I moved to the front seat, wrapped up in a blanket and watched for a while. After about an hour or so, I fell asleep. Another hour or so, sleep. We were stopped there for about 5 hours. Finally started again and I drove for about 30 minutes and we were stopped again. We stopped for about an hour at that point. Drove a little more and then were stopped another hour or so. All told, I think we were stuck for about 10 hours. It took us 10 hours to go about 30-50 miles. What’s crazy about the situation is that we were going to stop at our favorite rest stop that was only about 30 miles from where we were stopped. We were even going to stop and sleep in the car for a bit. Craziness! At least it was pretty in the morning.

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I found this sign in a gas station….great advice!

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We finally stopped in Flagstaff, AZ at a hotel. After we showered we headed across the street to the Galaxy Dinner. It was SOOO cool! There was a ton of 50’s memorabilia on the walls, oldie’s playing on the radio and nice greasy foods AND beers to relax with. It was a GREAT night!

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Day 1637 – The Cheap Way (Under $500) To Drive Across The Country (Maryland To California)

Posted on January 3, 2014 by 365 days of marriage

A few days before Christmas, we drove out to California to visit Bret’s family. We’ve done this a few times and I think this year was the cheapest so far.

Here are a few tips we learned this year.

Get a rewards credit card to use while you travel AND to build up points before you leave. We use the Capital One Venture card, the lower point one that gives you 1.25 points per dollar spent. We accumulated points to get a $100 ExxonMobile gift card.
Take a fuel efficient car. We drove a Honda Civic. It gets about 30-35 miles per gallon.
Take refillable coffee mugs, at least 2. You can get cheap coffee refills and you can also get hot water for free. You can use the hot water for tea and cup of noodles.
Purchase food and drinks in a grocery store. It’s good to know what you normally get on the road. We purchased energy drinks, sodas and bottled water. For food we got bread and stuff for sandwiches, cup of noodles, sunflower seeds and crackers. We put the drinks and lunch meat in a cooler on the front seat. Then you have easy access to everything when you’re driving.
In the back seat, set up a bed. It’s good to put some bags in the foot room spaces to make the seat a little wider. Backpacks are best in our car. One person sleeps while the other drives.
We only stopped at a hotel once.

Here’s the numbers breakdown:
Gas – $267.68
Mileage – 2,896
Food – $145.76 (note: Some of the food we bought at the grocery store will last us through the return trip home. So I’d say one way would be about $110.00. We also splurged on a sit down dinner when we checked in to the hotel and that was about $40.)
Hotel – $57.98
Total cost to drive from Northern Central Maryland to Central California – $471.42
If we didn’t stop at a hotel and took out a few food splurges our total would have been – $322.78

What have you found that helps to make the trip more inexpensive?

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Day 1624 – Tips For An Awesome Cross Country Road Trip

Posted on December 21, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

Right now, we’re probably about half way across the country. I’m writing this a few days in advance because I’m not sure when I’ll be able to update this lovely blog again! Follow us on Instagram for quicker updates!

I wanted to give some tips we’ve learned while driving cross country.

1. Take refillable coffee mugs, like 4 of them. Coffee refills are typically a dollar and sometimes less.
2. Take a bunch of cup of noodles and foods that just need hot water. Use 1-2 of your refillable coffee mugs to get hot water at a gas station. Most of the time, this is free.
3. If there are two drivers, use the back seat for a bed. On the front passenger seat, keep a cooler and easy access to snacks. This way one driver can sleep while the other is driving. Using this method, we drove from California to Maryland in about 51ish hours.
4. Take many books on tape. They have to keep your interest. One year, I listened to the Hunger Games series. I think I did an 8 hour stretch it kept me so awake.
5. Buy all of your snacks and drinks before you leave…at a grocery store. Use coupons if you can. Pack the drinks in your cooler.
6. Have a blast! This is a beautiful country, enjoy it!!!

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Day 1623 – Leavin’ On A Jet Plane, Don’t Know When I’ll Be Back Again….Wait….Scratch That

Posted on December 20, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

Most of you know that Bret’s family lives in California. Well, we’re able to visit them again this year! Sadly, we just couldn’t make it last year. 😦 Since air fare is pretty steep this time of year, we’re driving again! We’ve made the drive twice and it’s SO much fun!

See ya in 2014!!! 🙂

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Day 1561 – Camping With Clients At The Best Campground Ever

Posted on October 19, 2013 by 365 days of marriage

What a great overnight trip with our friends and previous clients! I had NO idea what I was in for when we were invited!! We stayed at Granite Hill Camping Resort in Gettysburg, PA.

This morning was filled with bacon. Obviously.

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Bret got a nice nap.

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Now, here’s where it got REALLY cool. This campground has a costume contest/parade, trick or treating and a haunted house!

The Fredericks were one of the winners of the costume contest! Isn’t it great???

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One thing they do is a big ol’ pot of goodness. Everyone brings a can of food and tosses it in a pot. Some of the fun things included in this pot….Ramen noodles, cup-o-noodles, Chunky soups, cans of various veggies and a can of crushed pineapple.

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