AA^2: Things to do within 4 hours of Frederick, MD

Washington, D.C. - Christmas tree, National Mall, Good Stuff Eatery
Baltimore - Inner Harbor, Baltimore National Aquarium, Ravens, Malls
Harpers Ferry - Historical, shops, where 3 states meet.
Hershey Park - Christmas Lights, Hershey World tour,
Philadelphia - Liberty Bell
Ocean City - Boardwalk, Ocean
New York City - too much to list
Intercourse - Amish/Dutch town, shops
Annapolis - Harbor, shops, crabs, Naval Academy
Charlestown Races - Horse races, slot machines
Cunningham Falls - State Park, waterfalls, lake, kayaking, hiking


Bank of America card holders recieve discounts to the following museums:

Roanoke:
Taubman Museum of Art
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 12pm-5pm

Baltimore: 
The American Visionary Art Museum
Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 10am-6pm

AA^2: Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Moutains

Stella and I are very excited to stay in the Great Smoky Mountains!  We will be staying in a KOA cabin one night in the Smokies.  We've decided to skip Nashville so we can have more time to explore the Smokies. 

Our Great Smokies Campground:

Townsend/Great Smokies KOA  

Townsend KOA Campground Map

 

We've reserved a 2 room cabin facing the river.  When I saw 2 room, I mean literally 2 rooms, not 2 bedrooms.  But still, it will be bigger than the other cabins we have stayed in. 














I'm hoping that we will still be able to make a Tie Dye T-shirt while we are there.  I know it's winter so I'm not sure what will be open.



This campground is dog friendly, although they may have restrictions on which dog breeds are allowed so call ahead of time.  I'm excited because they have a leash-free dog run area.  Kobi will love this!!

A little blurb about the town of Townsend from the KOA website.

This small town's history goes back hundreds of years. First called Tuckaleechee Cove by the Cherokee, white settlers began arriving in the late 1700s. Around 1900, there was a logging boom and the town was named after the Little River Lumber Company president, W.B. Townsend. Since the 1930s, when the national park was created, Townsend has been a major portal into the park. Enjoy the rich Appalachian culture, beautiful scenery and wonderful people of Tennessee.



Some information that could be helpful if you are planning a trip to the Smoky Mountains:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is open 365 days a year.

Pet rules at the national park: Pets

• Pets are allowed in campgrounds, picnic areas, and along roads, but must be kept on a leash at all times.
• The leash must not exceed 6 feet in length.
• Dogs are only allowed on two short walking paths—the Gatlinburg Trail and the Oconaluftee River Trail. Pets are not allowed on any other park trails.
• Pet excrement must be immediately collected by the pet handler and disposed of in a trash receptacle.
• Pets should not be left unattended in vehicles or RVs.

These are rules for the safety of your pet and the animals in the wild.  Your dog could scare and carry diseases that aren't known the animals in the wild.  Your dog could also become prey for larger animals out there in the wild.  So I'm perfectly okay following the rules of the park.  I wanna make sure we all come home safe.

History and Culture

"Great Smoky Mountains National Park preserves a rich cultural tapestry of Southern Appalachian history. The mountains have had a long human history spanning thousands of years-from the prehistoric Paleo Indians to early European settlement in the 1800s to loggers and Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees in the 20th century.
The park strives to protect the historic structures, landscapes, and artifacts that tell the varied stories of people who once called these mountains home" NPS.gov

The mountains get there name from a natural haze. Hydrocarbons produced by the trees and vast vegetation combined with the high humidity and rainfall produce a bluish/smoky cast. Thus the Great "Smoky" Mountains.

AA^2: KOA Kamping Kabins & Updated Route

5 weeks until we leave on our next awesome adventure! 

Stella and I met last night at Amazon Grill last night to plan some more of our trip.  I love Amazon Grill.  They make a delicious Tres Leches with a marshmallow like topping.  Yum!  I had the PUNTAS JALAPEÑA dish minus the beans and rice, sub grilled veggies.  I wasn't a huge fan of the creamy jalapeña sauce but I easily ate around it.  Delicious.  Stella had the Skinny Fish Tacos.  I assume they were VERY tasty since she didn't have any leftovers.  They also have FREE WIFI so it made planning so much easier. 

My Macroeconomics professor is allowing me to take my final sooner, which is awesome!!  Although we still may or may not leave until after 3pm because Stella's family has a christmas get together that she wants to go to to see some family that will be here from out of town.

AA^2 Road trip Route
So we've decided to go with route option #2. 
Houston, TX > Baton Rouge, LA > Toomsuba, MS > Birmingham, AL > Nashville, TN > Townsend, TN > Blacksburg, VA > Frederick, MD

 

While planning our road trip, we asked ourselves a few questions:

• What cities are we interested in driving through/visiting?
• How long will it take us to get to that city?
• Do we want to drive through the night or find a place to stay along the way?
• If we stay somewhere along the way, what time we would arrive?  How long will it take us to get to the next point on our trip? Is it worth it to stay the night? Do they accept pets?
• Should we skip Nashville all together?  It's out of the way and adds a few hours to our trip.

Through trial and error, we decided that we would like to stop and sleep instead of driving through the night because we were exhausted last time after doing that.  We also decided that it would be fun to stay in a KOA Kabin again.  It's a different experience than a hotel room, they have heated cabins and some are pet friendly.  They are also about half the price of hotel rooms.

 

AA^2 KOA Kampgrounds:

• Meridian East/Toomsuba, MS KOA

We plan on leaving Houston by 3pm (hopefully earlier) and we will be staying in Toomsuba, MS.  I have no idea how to pronounce that.  We will have to ask once we get there.  This stop is more about getting a good nights rest than sightseeing although the pictures make it look like a nice place to stay.  It's about 8.5 hours away from Houston and they have pet friendly cabins for only $50/night.  We will be staying in a one room cabin like the one we stayed in at Black Canyon City KOA on our last trip.

• Townsend/Great Smokies KOA

We will be staying in the Great Smoky Mountains night #2.  I'm very excited about that.  I've never seen the Smokies.  I've heard it's named the Smoky Mountains because of a blue gray haze that is sometimes over the mountains.  The only thing I am a little worried about it snow.  I love snow, I'm just hoping that it won't be on the roads to get to this KOA.  This KOA has a dog run, and you can make your own souvenir tie dye t-shirt. 

All the one room cabins were taken so we snatched up a 2 room cabin overlooking a river for only $65/night.  I can't wait and it sounds like Kobi will have fun here too!  Should I get Kobi a doggie jacket??  I'm making sure to keep his hair longer for the winter, but he is use to warm weather.  Do dogs get that cold?

We won't have any more nights out on the road until my trip back to Houston.  Townsend is close enough to Frederick that we can make it there in a day even if we stop in Blacksburg, VA along the way. 

 

Is it December yet??

 

 

AA^2: Roadtrip Route - Part I

HOUSTON TO NASHVILLE:
We need to figure out which route we should take to get to Nashville. The route doesn't necessarily mean we will stop in those cities, just what we will see from the car and how long we will be in the car. Here are the options:

We have three ways to get to Nashville.   Which should we take?

OPTION 1:  788 miles.  13 hours & 30 minutes

 

OPTION 2: 866 miles.  13 hours & 59 minutes

 

OPTION 3:  867 miles.  14 hours & 7 minutes.

 

 

I'm in favor of Option 2 because I love driving over the swamps on I-10 in Louisiana and I wanna see Birmingham, AL.  Although we may see it in the dark, so if most of the trip is in the dark, then maybe Option 1 would be good.  Something to think about.

 

We also need to figure out if we are driving through the night, which we know is possible since we did it twice on our first Awesome Adventure.  OR do we drive about 6 or 7 hours, stay the night at a hotel, then drink another 6 or 7 hours to get to Nashville.  I'm kind of leaning towards driving through the night because then we would get to Nashville around lunchtime on Sunday.  Enough time to rest, sight-see, Sunday Funday and then get a good nights sleep before heading to Frederick.  I still need to talk to Stella about this though.

 

As far as Kobi is concerned, we will need to find a pet-friendly hotel in Nashville.  Some don't like it if you leave the dog in the hotel room when you aren't there, I hope to find one that doesn't have that type of pet policy.  But if that's all we find, then I was going to drop Kobi off at a Pet Daycare or at Petco or Petsmart to get his haircut while we are out sightseeing.  He needs a little vacation and run around time too.  Depending on how cold it is outside, I would like to take him to a dog park in Nashville for some play time.

 

OMG, 6 weeks until our road trip. It will be here before we know it.