2022 December – Days 1-3 MA to FL

Gribble the goblin is going on a roadtrip

Let’s get started on this epic road trip! On this leg, we are going down the eastern states from Massachusetts to Florida!

I’ll also post more pics on my Instagram (adventures_by_anne), so follow along there too.

Day 1

Since our daughter can’t come with us on this trip, she sent her little buddy, Gribble the Goblin. She adopted Gribble last summer on a trip to the Jersey shore, so Gribble is continuing her adventures with hubby and I on this road trip. Yay!

Unfortunately, this first day started out rainy and dreary, with lots of crazy traffic along the way. It was also dark already for most of the drive, so it didn’t make for good picture taking, but we did make it down the Northeast from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania so far. You’ll just have to take my word on it. It’s normally a very scenic drive. What’s up with getting dark at 4:30pm nowadays?!? Hate it!

Gribble in traffic — Gribble was basically looking at rain and cars for most of the drive.

Spooky skies between Massachusetts and New York.

We made it down to Pennsylvania for the night. The storm finally passed and the skies cleared up with nicer clouds at least.

Day 2

Today is a much better day for a road trip. It’s nice and sunny, so hopefully, no traffic issues like yesterday. Gribble is excited to get going again!

We flew right through Philadelphia, Delaware, and Maryland pretty quickly, straight down I-95, no issues. Gribble went through her first underwater tunnel and saw Baltimore in the distance.

Baltimore is one of our favorite cities. We didn’t stop this time but we went to the Inner Harbor area a bunch of times when the kids were younger, for the Baltimore Aquarium and Science Center, and we love the Fells Point area now. It’s a foodie paradise with so many restaurants! Check it out if you’ve never been there!

After going around DC, we finally entered Virginia and figured it was a good time for a little lunch break. We just went to Chick-fil-A for a light lunch because we have something extra yummy in mind for dinner and didn’t want to fill up too much.

Amazingly, some trees along the way still had their colorful leaves! I love Fall colors. Gribble liked looking at them too!

Not long after, the sun began to set already. It was only a little after 4pm! What the heck?!? But it sure was gorgeous!

Once we crossed over into North Carolina, we had to stop at what I’ve dubbed “the good exit”, exit 173 off I-95, Roanoke Rapids. Pin it in your Google Maps incase you’re ever passing through. There are tons of stores and restaurants right there off the exit for anything you might need.

We even found a really good, authentic all-you-can-eat North Carolina barbecue place, that we ate at during the past two road trips through this area. We didn’t stop there this time, but we had to go to Sheetz to get gas and Dole Whip. It’s one of the few Sheetz that I’ve come across with a 99-cent Dole Whip machine! Yum! Gribble had her first Dole Whip! I love Dole Whips! If you don’t know, they’re like pineapple flavored soft serve ice cream. So tangy and refreshing!

Then, we finally crossed over to South Carolina and drove past South of the Border, a spot with several kitchy Mexican themed stores and restaurants. We didn’t stop here either since we have gone there in the past, and at this point, we were only half an hour from our final destination, so we wanted to keep truckin’.

We’re finally at Buc-ees!!! We’ve been holding out all day for the Buc-ees brisket! OMG, sooooo tender and flavorful! They slice the brisket right there in the middle of the store, and the sandwiches are snatched up so quickly that there’s always a fresh batch for you. Get the sliced brisket sandwich if you’re ever passing thru. No, get several, cause you’ll just find yourself turning around to get more later if you don’t.

It’s such a cool place! It has all sorts of fresh and packaged foods, clothes, household decor and supplies, outdoor gear, tons of gas pumps, and the cleanest and fanciest bathrooms of any store. To call this a gas station or convenience store is an understatement. It’s huge and has everything! Just check out these pics.

As you can see, it has everything you can imagine, and I didn’t even take pics of everything! You’ll just have to see for yourself and try all the foods. They’re all good, but that brisket sandwich, YUUUUM!

We love Buc-ees! Can you tell? We purposefully picked this area as our stopping point for the night to be near the Buc-ees. LoL! We’re staying at a Holiday Inn just 5 minutes down the road. Time to go to the room and dig into those sandwiches! That’s it for today. Good night!

Can you guess where we’ll end up on day 3?

Day 3

We’re up bright n early, excited to get to our destination for today! Clue: There will be tons of attractions there!

Bye, Buc-ee! Til the next one…

We brought some of your snacks with us.

Luckily, it was smooth sailing down 95 South the rest of the way through South Carolina and into Georgia.

I think we came upon our first roadside attraction in a rest stop in the middle of Georgia, near Brunswick-Golden Isles. It was a cauldron at the site of the first Brunswick Stew! Those of you from the south can probably attest to the truth behind this iconic dish, but we’re gonna count this as our first roadside attraction. LoL

Finally, we entered Florida!

Soon, we hit our next Buc-ees in St Augustine, so we had to make another pit stop. Did you know that they make XXL brisket sandwiches?!? This is a first for us, so of course, we had to get one – for science! There must’ve been a whole inch of meat in that thing! We split that between us. So good!

This is also where mini Buc-ee joined our roadtrip! We’re going to pass so many Buc-ees stores on this trip, so he might as well join us! Gribble has a new buddy along for the ride now! Welcome, mini Buc-ee!

We turn southwest thru Florida now. Did you figure it out yet?

We’re going to Disney World!

Our first stop is for dinner at the Boma restaurant in the Animal Kingdom Lodge! It’s one of our favorites for it’s tasty buffet and also for sentimental reasons – memories of our first ever Disney trip.

The African inspired decor is amazing and we’ll always love the image of the huge Christmas tree in the lobby, which is our first memory of this place around the same time 12 years ago.

As usual, the food is delicious too. In fact, we think it got even better after the reopening. Give it a try if you haven’t been recently.

The decor is also really neat, with an African inspired design.

After dinner, we walked around the lobby some more and out to the savannah in the back. We didn’t see many animals out this late, but we’ve seen them there in the past. It’s still a neat area back there.

By now, it was too late to go to the parks, most were closed already or about to close soon, so we stopped by Disney Springs instead – just did some window shopping. We were too full for anymore food but there are a ton of good restaurants there now too.