As planned, we left directly from my class this afternoon (in Arlington, Virginia) so we could get a few hours of driving behind us. We’re heading towards our first destination of Traverse City, Michigan, recommended to us by the best dentist in DC the universe. Our journey today took us through a bit of Arlington, so we got to enjoy some DC-area sights, including the Pentagon!!

We took the GW Parkway to the beltway. I was really glad Garmin took us this way because something about the GW Parkway really feels very Virginia to me. I guess it’s all the trees.

We stopped at some scenic overlooks along the way.

When we were here I commented that before we come back, all these leaves will have turned for autumn! Crazy.

Then, Maryland!

Our journey took us up through Frederick, Maryland, where there is another scenic overlook that feels really Maryland-ish to me, or at least Western Maryland-ish:

We also came close to Brian’s hometown:

By the time we reached PA, it was dark.

We enjoyed an excellent stop in the unincorporated town of Breezewood, Pennsylvania:

Unfortunately, none of the photos we took really convey the intensity of Breezewood, but please trust me: it is very intense.

Now we’re in the Super 8 motel in Somerset, Pennsylvania, and it’s one of the nicest inexpensive just-off-the-highway motels I’ve ever seen (which is saying something). Bonus points for free wi-fi; well done, Super 8.

Tomorrow the plan is to get as close to Traverse City as we can. We really wanted to get some miles behind us these first couple of days, but I hope I can have some more interesting photos (beyond state signs) to share soon. We have some pretty exciting places on our list for Michigan. Woo hoo!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 11:35 pm and is filed under 2008 USA Road Trip.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.