The Longest Surprise

Set alarm for 6am CST. Go to bed at 9pm in Gulfport, MS. Too many thoughts on the mind, constantly rolling around in bed. When I finally do fall asleep I’m woken up every 30 minutes by the train that’s only a couple hundred feet behind my bed and shakes the entire camping trailer. It’s like trying to sleep in an earthquake. Before I know it’s 2am with hardly any sleep. At this point I say, “FORGET IT! I’m going to pack up and hit the road at 2:30 rather than 6:30.” Packed up and ready to I’m all set to get revenge on my parents. After they surprised me in NYC on national television it was time to surprise them in Gatlinburg, TN.

Now it’s 2:30am with an estimated 10+ hours and 609 miles of driving in front of me with only a couple hours of sleep. But I’m my own boss, I had my own place, I wanted to do something crazy! And it was. There have been many long days trips from state to state in the last half-year. I have driven into a number of sunsets. This time around I drove into the sunrise an entirely new experience. Actually, I recommend it to everyone. It’s much more refreshing to see the beginning of the day and the sun coming up than it going down.

I made it to the MountainLoft Lodge at approximately12:30pm CST (1:30 EST). That included three stops for gas (not full tanks) and one stop at a Barnes and Noble to get some caffeine. While at Barnes and Noble a man comes up to me and says, “Is that your car in the parking lot? I figured it had to belong to someone young.” Turns out he was born in Lansing and his father was an assistant basketball coach for Michigan State years ago. It’s a small world. The trip up I-75 was full of Michigan license plates as it heads straight into Michigan. When all was said and done it was EXACTLY 600 miles to my final resting point. Sorry Google, your maps were off by 10 miles.

Those 600 miles mark the longest single-day drive of the trip. I didn’t think I would break the 550-mile record from Helena to Boise. Now I’m pretty sure this one will be the longest. It’s a little easier to drive a long distance when you know there is a familiar face on the other end and you haven’t seen anything familiar in months.