First it was Miami..but we decided to rein in our sense of adventure for something more prudent--something more doable for a weekend get away on a college kid budget. Not always the destination, but the journey. In this case..i lucked out on both and had one of the best weekends in recent history.

_Seven A.M. wakeup. I'd had an unexpected few more drinks the night prior but fortunately my travel anxiety intensified my internal alarm clock. After waking up at 4:49a and then again frantically at 5:16a thinking i'd overslept, i settled in to a nice hour and a half-ish nap until seven. The idea was to leave 'around eight,' and so we did. I'm only mentioning that because the timing of that day was impeccable, the whole day long.

_Hop on US-199..and some other numbered routes, not really important. But the gritty paving made the ride just a little less than comfortable for about twenty miles. Sure, it's not a big deal, but when you're dealing with two not-so-morning-people, this can strain the patience in the car. It's a gloomy day..flip of a coin whether or not the skies would open up or retain their buckets for another afternoon.

_The first (and only) gas station of the 260 mile trip..we pulled in, and honestly i'm not used to 'Full Service' pumps where people offer to do this that and the other for you. "Oh...sure.. but no thanks on the windshield wash.. thanks! Buscuits inside? Okay, sure." And i really was hungry, so buscuits sounded fantastic. None for her; grape jelly on mine with a bottle of O.J.

_Snaked our way through the trees and found the smoother pavement of 280. From here it was pretty much a straight shot to Birmingham. (I'm singing..."let's drive to Brighton on the wee-eekend"~a la Bloc Party) The 3G iPod is giving us a symphony of Death Cab for Cutie, Arctic Monkeys, Portishead, The Academy is... yes. She didn't want to DJ just yet, but shuffle did just fine.

((i'm leaving so much out, and realizing that fact is killing my energy))

_After discussing the Loft apartments of our futures and other niche items, my Verizon GPS guided us into a switchbacking 15-20mph hill-climb...and spat us out neatly in front of Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum..

I'll cover the second half of the day later. Cheers.