Sometimes When You Take A Road Trip....

So, I've finally made it over to Dublin, Ireland! It's my second day here! My best friend Bridget is here with me for about two weeks helping me get settled and do all the little things I need to do so I don't have a panic attack over buying toothpaste(more on that in the next post...)

How did we get here? Let's start from the beginning....When we bought our tickets, it was SUBSTANTIALLY  cheaper to fly out of Chicago instead of Raleigh. We decided that a last road trip before the big move would be fun so we went for it and purchased the tickets to fly out of O'Hare. Flash forward a few months to this past Sunday and we're loading up the rental car at 6 am with our luggage(well, mostly mine) and hitting the road! The first few hours were smooth and we got to take in some beautiful scenery in the North Carolina and West Virginia mountains. While we were in West Virginia we needed gas, so we stopped at an OLD SCHOOL gas station complete with old fashioned rotary pumps and had to pay inside before any gas could be pumped. I walked inside with cash in hand to pay the attendant, and was very surprised when I saw a rather elderly woman smoking a cigarette and doing some sewing. "Hey there honey, how can I help you today?", she said with a ciggy hanging out of the corner of her mouth. Feeling like I was in an old Country Western film I smiled and paid the kind woman for our gas, thanking her and hoping that she wouldn't soon have emphysema. As I walked back out to the car, I told Bridget about this sweet yet unexpected encounter. While we were standing there pumping gas I saw something out of the corner of my eye...and then this appeared.

A chicken...at a gas station 

Yes, that is a chicken. It came strutting by casually like these things happen everyday. Maybe they do in West Virginia, but it was a first for me. As we both stood there with our mouths gaping, the world seemed to move around us like nothing was wrong. 

After the Chicken Incident, we continued driving and made good time for the next few hours. We decided to stop for lunch in Dayton, Ohio since Bridget went to college there. After a delicious lunch at Skyline Chili we got back on the road. We were rolling down some highway that turned into a country road but Bridget assured me that it was normal. All of a sudden, there was a road block and a sign that said, "Bridge Out. Locals Only." Locals only?? No fair! So of course we decided to pretend to be locals and went around the road block anyway. About a half a mile down we realized that "Bridge Out" was no exaggeration and the bridge was quite literally out--as in non existent. (How exactly would a local cross that body of water in a car? Do they have floating cars? This is still a mystery to me.) Clearly seeing no way around this, we turned around and turned on the GPS which quickly told us it could pick up no signal. I wasn't surprised considering we were smack dab in the middle of about a million corn fields. After driving around for awhile the GPS found us! Yay! Following the directions, we turned down a small country road and figured it was an alternate route. Unfortunately, it was the route to a farmer's home. Not wanting to bother anyone, or get chased off his property, we hightailed it out of there. FINALLY the GPS gave us correct directions and we made it out of Corn Field, Ohio(obviously not a real name, but I think it should be). After that the trip went really smooth. After driving for about 12 hours we briefly lost our minds and had a highway dance party to My Body by Young the Giant, but quickly realized we needed to get it together since we still had 3 hours ahead of us. We rolled into Chicago, dropped off the rental car and spent the night with my Aunt and Uncle. 

The next day we got to go into the city and do some sightseeing which was really fun. Chicago is a gorgeous city! We spent some time with Bridget's family there for a couple of days and then got on the plane to Ireland. And now here I am! 

I miss and love everyone at home SO MUCH but I'm really excited to see what life has to offer here! 

Love,

Erin