Road Trip: Massachusetts to the Outer Banks

In May of 2014 I graduated from high school. I had switched high schools after my freshman year, so my friends from my hometown decided it's be fun to go down to my friend Kate's grandma's house. It would be an eleven to thirteen hour road trip, and we were determined to make good time and make the most of our time in the Outer Banks so we left promptly at three-o-clock in the morning. There were six of us, so we took two separate cars since it would be impossible to fit all of our luggage into one car. But Kate's mom wrote us directions so that we wouldn't hit the George Washington Bridge.

Last year, our first year, we left on a Monday and hit much more traffic and we stopped way too many times and honestly, were just way to uptight about everything. We made sure we could always see each other at all times and to make sure we hit every rest stop. We made good time, but all of us were so cranky. On the way back home, we drove for 7 hours and then stayed at a hotel over night and then drove the rest of the way around 7 am the next day. 

This year, our second year, we left Sunday at three-o-clock in the morning and hit almost no traffic at all. We only stopped when we needed to and weren't so crazy about staying together, we just made sure the co-pilot called the other car every once in a while with an update. We made awesome time, like 11 1/2 hours and everybody got to nap and drive. 

TO DO: Since the house we stay in is a 3 minute walk away from the beach we spend around three to four hours a day there, we go out to one "fancy" dinner once while we are there. There is a beautiful boardwalk along the sound that has souvenir shops, restaurants, clothing stores, bars, donut shops, toy shops, and randomly decorated horses, etc. and it seems to go on forever. Definitely go to Duck Donuts if you have a chance if you're ever down there (but only if a warm, fresh donut sounds good to you).

It is incredibly relaxing. On the low road which is up the main road in Duck there are mostly houses on stilts along with a couple restaurants. Then on the high road there are thrift stores, coffee shops, drive-thru convenience stores, breakfast places, etc. A 20 minute drive away is jockey's ridge which is a giant sand dune that is super hot but actually so amazing to walk on. Then a little further (maybe a lot further) is the Bodie Island Light house which has around 215 shaky steps that me and my five friends ran up and got to watch a wedding photo shoot happen from the top of the light house. 

 The Outer Banks is such a welcoming place that is full of beach houses, trucks lifted to the max, and a thicker accent than I expected.There's just something about a peanut butter and jelly assembly line in the kitchen that makes everything in your life feel like it's all in place. Packing the cooler with plenty of water, carrots, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches actually sort of makes you feel like a mother.  I would recommend it to anyone, it'll be fun as long as you make yourself busy and visit cool places and attractions. We stopped at a monster truck place before we made it to Duck the first time we drove down and it would've been super awesome if we hadn't been in the car for ten hours already.