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Day one, lots of miles

Currently sitting in a very toasty van while Joe tries to muster up the energy to get a shower.

Pre-organization
Left the house at 9 this morning. Made it about 1/4 mile down the road before we had to turn around to shut off the water pump. The roads were a bit snowy until we hit Columbus, but smooth sailing from there on out. Well, almost. The washer fluid must have frozen, so had a gross windshield until that thawed out. Made a stop before Cincinnati for fuel and to grab the sandwiches I had made the night before. Stopped again at a rest stop halfway through Kentucky. Tough to make this day sound exciting, we were really just trying to get through some miles so we can be done with the interstate. Joe beat me at the alphabet game, pretty impressive for the driver.

Tonight we are at Montgomery Bell State Park, just west of Nashville. The sun was just setting when we got here (5p central), so we took a short walk down one of the trails and around the campground. Looks like less than 10 sites are taken tonight, out of probably 100 sites or so total. We threw everything in pretty haphazardly this more, so did some organizing.

Made a pretty fancy dinner of chicken nuggets (heated in a skillet, need a mini toaster oven) and bagged salad. We don't have a table, but the drawer under the bed is the perfect place for me to set up my laptop for typing. We both agreed to get up early so we can enjoy as much sunlight as we can. Days are short when the sun sets at 5.

546 miles
$95.66 spent
  • 5.39 M&Ms & lotto (so we can daydream about a nicer van & not having to be back to work!)
  • 33.61 Fuel 
  • 35ish Campsite 
  • 21.66 grocery store

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Totals

  We spent around $110/day, which is pretty close to what we were expecting based on past travels.  We did start with groceries and fuel, but will end with some food and maybe some fuel, not a full tank though.   Fuel $517.62 Grocery $432.68 Campsite $390.00 Restaurant $80.00 Stuff $71.98 Tolls $25.50 Firewood $20.00 Park fee $13.00 Laundry $8.00 Van wash $2.50 Trip total $1,561.28