Bloggers Daniella Maney, ‘20 and Mark McPhillips, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. This is the final post in a series of pieces about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)
It was tough waking up with an achy back again but even tougher realizing that this was the final day of our road trip. All of our planning, saving, spending, and hanging out together was coming to an end. David had a shift at the vegan restaurant in the morning so we all thanked him and said goodbye. Then we got ready to leave mainly because it’s weird being in someone’s house when they're not there but also because we had to get a move on if we were going to experience our last taste of Nashville. It takes an estimated eight hours to drive from Nashville to Charlottesville, Virginia. After driving for twelve days you understand that Google Maps can’t account for all of the stops and traffic that you will hit so we knew it would take longer than that. We decided to go down to the tourist section of Nashville called Broadway Street before departing.
I already bought my niece souvenirs from Dallas and New Orleans and I knew that she would love something from Nashville too because she is starting to play instruments at school. We went around to a couple gift shops but nothing seemed to be a good gift for her. Mark was really hungry at this point so I told him I would only check one more shop. In the last shop, I found the perfect gift for my niece, a bucket hat that says “Nashville: Music City.” My niece enjoys watersports but she burns very easily. I picked the hat so she could wear it out on the water.
Next, it was time to tackle Mark’s hunger. We did not want to go to a restaurant that would take a lot of time so we walked away from Broadway Street to the side street where we had parked. On the way to the car, we bought sandwiches and got ready to head home.
My favorite part about Tennessee was not actually Nashville, which I expected to love the most. I really loved driving through Tennessee and the drive back to Virginia was beautiful as we passed through tunnels of trees. We made it close to Charlottesville and ate our last meal together — Wendy’s. After our final fast-food experience of the trip, we drove the rest of the way to Samuel’s house. When we arrived, Samuel’s family was asleep so we did not get to meet them but they left us a nice note on the fridge telling us to make ourselves at home. We decided to watch a funny movie before going to sleep. The next day I woke up early to catch a flight back to Boston to make it back home in time for my cousin’s wedding in Vermont.