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6 States in 2 Days

“Ako na nový rok, tak po celý rok,” is an old Slovak saying that is translated to: How you meet the new year is how you will spend it.

After our 2021 New Year’s modest celebrations with friends, Mia and I did not know what to do for the next few days. We woke up on New Year’s Day, January 1st, and started thinking. NYC was cold and we wished to see the sun and experience warm air. Let’s visit Virginia Beach!

In fact we wanted to go as south as possible within 2 days. Since the pandemic did not allow free movement across states, we decided to sleep in our car. We packed sleeping bags, few clothes and left the apartment around 6 PM.



The weather was cold and rainy. And it was dark. Driving was not that great. We listened to music, Slovak language lessons and entertained ourselves by talking about this crazy trip.



We spent our first night in a Walmart Supercenter parking lot in Pocomoke City, Maryland. Surprisingly, sleeping in the car was not that bad at all. We used our warm sleeping bags and eye masks.



Finally we made it to Saturday, grateful for no rain and no driving at night! The next highlight of our trip was to cross Chesapeake Bay via Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and visit Virginia for the first time! Burt first, breakfast and COFFEE (Sage Diner, MD)!





As we entered Virginia Beach and crossed the tunnel, we were impressed with the serene nature, sunny weather and the overall vibe. By accident, Sygic navigated us to a military base: Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story. We politely apologize to the officer and make a u-turn.

We found a cul-du-sac to park our car and ventured to the beach. We walked along the beach, hand in hand, and talked about all the things we were looking forward to in 2021.



We spent our second night in Fredericksburg, VA. And again,in a Walmart parking lot.



Our final day, Sunday, was cold and rainy. We needed to stay strong so we got a generous breakfast at Bob Evans.



Coffee was our friend the whole day.



Our drive home went through Gettysburg in Pennsylvania and Lancaster county. It was beautiful and we spotted an Amish horse and buggy!



The weather during the drive home was not ideal though. It was still raining and the last couple of hours were dark. On top of that, we had issues with our windshield which was a bit greasy and difficult to see through. We stopped at Home Depot, bought the best cleaning supplies and cleaned the windshield as best as we could.

We arrived in Manhattan, exhausted, around 9 PM. We felt grateful to be home safely.

We visited a total of 6 states: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania!

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