Day 1 of 2019 Florida Spring Break, Race to South Carolina

by admin

Spring break of 2019. In line with how most college students in Eastern US spent their spring break, my friends and I were heading to Florida. This is day one of the trip, a not-so-interesting part where I did the marathon driving from Washington DC to Yemassee, South Carolina.

At the beginning of 2019, some of my friends were planning a roadtrip to Florida over the spring break. And since I just got my car at the end of 2018 and was in need to transfer my driving skills from years of video games to the real world, I gladly joined them.

With more than 1200 miles between Washington DC and the southern tip of Key West, the driving part would span a few days. For some scheduling issues, I would be leaving on Thursday March 14, a day earlier than my friends. I planned to spend the night in Yemassee, South Carolina, a small village just beyond the outskirt of Savannah, which was 8 hours from Washington DC by Google Maps.

I set off from home at 8:30am, hoping morning rush hour around Washington DC should have largely passed.

Interstate 495 around Washington DC
Typical morning rush hour traffic. Or marginally better than that as it’s past 8:30am.

Then unlike what Google Maps would otherwise suggest, I switched onto Route 301 to cross Potomac River.
A lesson learned the hard way: when traffic was bad along I95 in Northern Virginia, Route 301 could be a pretty useful detour. Otherwise, it’s the combination of agony from navigating through too many traffic lights around Waldorf, Maryland, and also pleasure of Virginia’s beautiful country roads around a lot of scenery but not much traffic.

Route 301 in Maryland
This part of Route 301, crossing towns of Waldorf and La Plata, was pretty developed. As a result, the many traffic lights didn’t make the best driving experience.

Oh yes, Harry W Nice Bridge had toll in the direction leaving Maryland.
But on a good note, it meant the beginning of an enjoyable ride through Virginia’s countryside.

Route 301 in Virginia
A mixture of suburban and countryside.

Route 301 in Virginia

Route 301 in Virginia
This part of the route cut through Fort A.P. Hill, which was military training ground. Thus the roadside forest was largely undeveloped with few intersections, leading to a perfect driving experience.

At 11am, I was approaching the outskirts of Richmond, and somehow I was already hungry. So I found a Subway restaurant near an interstate exit for my lunch.
Half an hour later, I got back on the move, this time right into some heavy traffic on the highway.

Interstate 95 North of Richmond
Traffic was heavy approaching Richmond.

Interstate 95 North of Richmond
So I moved to the left-most lanes where things seemed to be moving faster. What I didn’t know was that this would lead me off I95 onto a detour around the city of Richmond.

Despite the detour of I295 around Richmond adding a few miles to the journey, I was hardly worse off as there was much less traffic.

Interstate 295 around Richmond
But once onto I295, things smoothed up greatly.

Interstate 295 around Richmond
Even more, once past the intersection of I64, I was having an entire highway to myself.

Unfortunately, that’s when my photo recorder stopped working for the day. But for the remaining part of I95, things were running perfectly smooth.
Except that it’s my first road trip, and I learned the hard way that bugs would keep hitting onto the windscreen, and they were a nuisance to clean off.

North Carolina Welcome Center

And I took some time off in this lovely North Carolina Welcome Center. Somehow, once in the Carolinas, I found I had crossed from the world of lifeless trunks of DC area, to full vigor of spring with rolling hills and high trees, in no shortage of the color green, decorated with wild flowers and sprouting bushes.
That’s when I began to understand why people in the North had spring break in the first place.

Truck Stop
I was feeling sort of tired with still 150 miles to go, so I filled up and had some rest at the car’s part of this “Pilot” fuel station. This is the truck’s part, with huge parking lots.

While planning this trip, I thought Savannah was as far as I would drive for the first day, so ideally I should find some place to spend the night in its Northern suburb, for a tour of the city the next day.
And somehow, I found a town called Yemassee less than an hour from Savannah, where a bunch of hotels were located off I95. One of them was this “Knights Inn”, where rooms cost 40 dollars per night with taxes included. Sort of bewildered, I decided to stay with them, partially in an adventurous spirit.

And it turned out, probably just like any other motel.
Apart from the fact that its water had a strange smell, which I cleverly addressed with the box of bottled waters in my trunk.