Location: Salem, VA

Time: 12:21 AM 

Distance: 650 mi 

Even though I'm pretty sure Anton Chigurh is about to blow through the door of this hotel room any moment, I actually kind of like this ecnolodge.  Free internet man.  

Like all great stories ours starts with half a dozen old-fashioned donuts in Milford, CT.  Eighteen hours later, here we are at the end of the first day of this journey across America.  

We hit six states today - Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia & Virginia.  In PA we stopped at one of my favorite old school locations -Hershey's Chocolate World -  took the free tour, got some free candy and acted no older then I did when I used to frequent the place as a kid.  It's nice to know that some things never change.  

From there we stopped at a local gas station where I picked up a magnet that reads "I Love Intercourse....PA" get it, it's a play on words.  Magnet collecting, by the way is something that I plan to do quite a lot of on this trip especially if I can continue to find ones as sophisticated and mature as that one.

After the quick pit stop we headed for Harrisburg where we went to the Civil War museum.  Besides getting my hands on a pretty sweet Abraham Lincoln magnet, I really was fascinated by the whole experience.  The exhibit is really extensive and you can't help but kind of get chills walking through there.  It manages to be so real and so far away at the same time.  If you ever get the chance, I would totally recommend it.  

After Harrisburg it was time to make a 200 mile beline towards Roanoke, VA and a Buffalo Wild Wings for Tuesday night wings.  We got caught in the middle of a seriously crazy thunderstorm where the sky was turning pink and the highway visibility was next to nothing and your four young heroes had no choice but to pull off the freeway and wait the storm out behind some sort of Tobacco Outlet.   We finally ended up making it to the restaurant around 9:30 for our weekly feast - which was of course so worth it - before finding this fine place to crash at.  In all seriousness though, I have stayed in a lot more sketchy places then this one and we get a free breakfast. For the price, really not to bad.  

Tomorrow we try and hit Knoxville, Chattanooga & Birmingham before seeing how close we can get to the New Orleans, LA.  It's about 850 miles to the Big Easy so we might not make it all the way there until Thursday but we'll see how it goes.  I can't wait to see what ridiculousness tomorrow brings.  

I should really try and get some sleep right now but with each passing night I am turning more and more into a full-fledged insomniac.  Let's just say that sleeping is no longer one of the primary objectives in my daily life.  None the less, it's time to see if I can grab a few hours before starting the trek tomorrow.  

Thanks for reading everybody and don't forget to check out the photo blog (link is on the side) for some more fun photos of our first day on the road.