i don't think we're in l.a. anymore, toto

believe it or not, i've actually had some folks ask me if i'm ever going to recap the rest of the east coast road trip extravaganza.  and since my posts have been pretty much photo-free for the last couple of weeks, i think i'll oblige.  plus, it'll be nice to relive vacay again, as i prepare to return to the courtroom for jury duty again tomorrow.  yahoo.

so we left off in washington d.c. right after the 4th of july fireworks spectacular.  after we checked out of the hotel, we headed down to virginia to do a little bit of drive-by historical sightseeing.

we bypassed the cheese shop (i'm told this was a bad move, but there was a seriously long line for sandwiches in there).

in favor of aromas coffeehouse, across the street.  it was so hot and humid and gross that i didn't get a shot of the joint, but we enjoyed our lunch.

the bean decided to pull turkey out of her sandwich and make "beds" for her goldfish crackers.

we walked around a little and didn't find much that caught our attention, aside from this:

so we hopped back in the car and headed off in search of pocahontas.

sadly, since much of the town was burned down during various wars, there wasn't much to see.  the only thing to do was a self-guided driving tour, with signs like this placed randomly throughout the path:

the girls were excited to see that we had to board an auto ferry to cross the river and continue our road trip.  okay, i was a little stoked too, since it earned me the "i'm on a boat!" badge on foursquare.  ha!

and then we were surrounded by a gazillion trees again as we hopped back onto the 95.

i might've turned on the drama queen in me to get the hub to turn around so i could get a picture of this:

and pretty much everyone in the car (except me) echoed this sentiment.

as we moseyed on down the highway, these signs started popping up every, oh, about five minutes or so.

this one caught the hub's attention:

and then i was finally swayed by this one.

heh.

so of course, we had to stop.  the place was giant.

the store inside was pretty much what you would get if walmart, dollar tree and big lots had a threesome and produced offspring.

before the three-toothed, 75-year-old security guard spied my camera and warned me that there were "no photos" signs posted throughout the store (which i never did see, btw), i managed to get this last shot.

at least the hub was a happy camper as we stepped back out into the heat and then into the air-conditioned comfort of our hoopdie.

but then it was my turn to get excited as we came upon the first of about 84709581730485 of these:

we'd never been to a cracker barrel before, and i successfully lobbied to change that.  i thoroughly enjoyed my "cracker barrel sampler," which was a platter of meatloaf (gave to the hub, meatloaf is yucky), chicken and dumplings (dee-lish), and hash brown casserole (nothing like my beloved tater tot casserole, but damn tasty in its own way).  the others weren't quite as stoked about their meals, but the hub was pleased to note that we'd managed to fill up for dinner on about $30.  happiness all around!

and then we browsed around the general store just outside the restaurant.  look at all this fun stuff!

we left with a bag full of snacks and treats, and the bean was over the moon when we handed her this gigantor sucker:

we drove for a few more hours towards our destination for the night, down the highway and through some majorly rural areas.  we sped through some scary ass looking corn fields, half expecting dead zombie children to come out at us, and were happy to pull into myrtle beach somewhere after 10.

priceline had come through again, booking us a room at the sheraton for under $100.  after doing a quick drive-by to see where we were staying, we decided to cruise down the main road to see what there was to see.

and let me tell you, there wasn't much.  there were about eleventy billion miniature golf courses (i think we counted at least twenty from the highway to our hotel), a lot of sleazy looking clubs, some cheesy souvenir shops, and a whole strip of gross-looking motels and inns.  ick.  there were lots of slovenly, drunken folks sauntering up and down the street, and we were happy to be in the car instead of being amongst them on the sidewalks.  ew.

this, however, was amusing to the teen and me:

"did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?"  brittany, glee