Day 2

We woke up around 7am in DC, and made our way to one of the many Starbucks in the city. We were the only people in the long line not in business suits; it felt great :) Once we had our caffeine for the day, we got on the road towards Atlanta, GA. We saw on the map that there was a scenic route through Shenandoah National Park via Skyline Drive and then it leads into the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's supposedly one of the nicest drives in the East, and we were so excited to see the views! Little did we know that after hours of widing through the mountains, we were still in the park ... first mistake of amateur road-trippers. A straight line on a state map may not actually be straight. The view was beautiful though, we were over 3,000 feet above sea level, at some points, the clouds seemed almost within reach. However, the 'fear-of-heights' in me took over when I drove along roads that did not have railing on the side, when all you see to your right is blue sky and clouds, I somehow instinctively ended up driving completely on the left side of the double yellow line. So after hours of winding on the 45 mph road, we realized that we needed to get onto an interstate (otherwise we'd get stuck in the mountains after dark). And out comes the GPS - only Day 2, haha. We finally found the interstate where we made real progress towards our destination. Around 10:30pm we got stuck in some heavy traffic and Elena realized that the low-fuel light was on (we weren't sure for how long), and we were in the most-left lane in a 5 lane highway with trucks everywhere, not moving. We were half in a panic and half laughing hysterically. Good thing the other drivers let us change lanes and get off the highway to a gas station. Finally, at about 11:30pm, we arrived at Amy (Elena's sister) and Scott's apartment. Ah, it was a long day of adventurous driving.