Across the South

Ariel and I had the grand goal of waking up to be able to see the sun rise over the ocean instead of always seeing it set over water back home. We got up in time, drove to the beach, and found that the sky was too cloudy to actually see the sun. A little disappointed, we went for a run down the beach, came back and packed up, and headed for Atlanta. The Outer Banks were a lot of fun, even for just a night, and I'm sure I'll make it back here for longer to have fun with their many recreational opportunities like kayaking, surfing, parasailing, and just swimming in the relatively warm waters of the Atlantic.

The driving was scenic and we couldn't believe just how lush and green the scenery was in the Carolinas. Just before exiting the freeway we got pulled over again and got the same response. You can't drive without registration. Wow that's an amazing story. Expect to get pulled over again. At this point I started a contest with friends on Facebook, the prize being a beer on me, to correctly guess how many time I get pulled over on the 4000 miles of driving back to home. I got some good guesses and now I won't be blogging about being pulled over until I get back.

We stopped for lunch with a friend in Raleigh, South Carolina where we had some really delicious BBQ. Liz is a friend of Steph's that Ariel knew as well so it was fun to meet her. Raleigh also seemed like a cool town but we wanted to reach Atlanta so we hopped back on the road and pushed on to Georgia.

We arrived at our friend Amanda's place just outside Atlanta and it was great to catch up with her after several years and have a couple beers. It was also awesome of her to wait up so late and have an air mattress ready! To top it off, her boyfriend James made us breakfast in the morning! This trip has been full of nice people, strangers and friends alike, and it's never lost on me when someone helps me out so much. Thanks guys!

After breakfast and goodbyes Ariel and I drove into town and stopped at the Coca Cola museum. I'm not much of a soda drinker, let alone Coke, but we wanted to see it after hearing it was interesting. After videos, a little bit of history, and tons of lights, cheery people, and visual/audio stimulation we left completely overwhelmed. The entire thing was like a giant ad to buy more Coke, which I shouldn't have been surprised about since their main strength as a company is their marketing. Some of the old ads and merchandise they had were interesting, and it was fun to taste some of the international soda brands they own and some different flavors like apple soda from Mexico and pineapple kiwi soda from South America, but overall it was kinda crazy to have all these exhibits and features and entertainment for just a soda.

We continued on with New Orleans as the destination for the night. Alabama and Mississippi went by quickly and we only stopped for gas and a bite to eat before entering Louisiana and finally NOLA where we would be staying at a friend of my sister's for the next three nights before Ariel flies back and I finish this journey.