So last week, K gets a call from a friend who lives 250 miles north of us and asks us to come over for the weekend. After some negotiation between K and I, we settle on a day trip. Drive four hours, hang out for 6 and then drive four back. At least that was the plan.

The day got off well enough, we followed our road trip pattern. We fueled up caffeine style at starbucks, hit the gas station to fill up gasoline style and then hit the road. This is probably a good time to tell you that we have the same philosophy of periodic stopping when on a trip. The idea of driving 4 hours non-stop isn’t appealing in the least. So a 15 minute break at a rest stop or other non-driving activity is the norm after a few hours on the road.

Our break came after about two hours on the road at a waffle house. Waffle house by the way, is probably my favorite road trip restaurant, for many reasons.

  1. it’s fast (we were in and out in 20 minutes)
  2. it’s cheap (2 people cost us $15 including a $4 tip)
  3. the waffles and hash browns are fantastic

After a quick stop at the next-door 7-11, we were back on the road. The rest of the drive up was pretty uneventful. GPS devices on a cell phone coupled with google maps mobile is a wonderful tool for going somewhere you have no idea how to get to.

We finally arrive at BFE Florida after 4 hours on I-95. We spend the day with K’s friend and finally leave at 6. I had chose 6 as our departure time so that we wouldn’t have to drive past 10-10:30 at night.

Right around Ft. Pierce, literally 1 mile from the exit we were planning on taking to get some dinner, one of our 2 month old tires explodes.

Of course, this happens right when we don’t have a jack in the car. We end up having to call the FHP roadside assistance and wait for a Trooper to come by. After about a half hour, Trooper Wallace came out, lent us a jack and i had the donut on the car. This of course caused us to have to drive the next 100 miles of our trip at an average speed of 35 MPH.

We got home at 1:30 am after a colorful 3 hour / 35 mph detour through the most seedy parts of riviera beach. Apparently the sex trade is alive and well still on US-1.