My Louisiana Adventure - Day 1

Beep. Beep. Beep. A piercing noise shattered the silence in my room. My eyes flickered for a bit. It was the alarm on my cell phone. I opened it up and looked at the time. It was 4:55 am. I barely got two hours of sleep the night before.

I had no time to waste. Before I knew it, I was out of the shower, dressed and ready to go. About an hour later, a van rolled into my driveway. A short man, in his mid-50's opened the door and said, "Good Morning!". His name was George Lorifice. He was a retired worker from Manlius. He was our driver. Before we hit the road, we picked up another passenger in Tully. Her name was Marianne. She too, was in her 50's. Both she and George volunteered with the local chapter of habitat for humanity. "So, this is it?", Marianne said. "Yep, the four of us," George responded.
The fourth passenger was my housemate Phil. He's a web-producer at NewsChannel 9. We brought a bunch of gear with us to put together a few sweep's pieces for February. Our van was pretty comfy. There was plenty of room. Last year, when I traveled with another group of volunteers to Gulfport, MS - the van was packed. There were at least seven people in it!I tried napping for a bit, but it was useless. I couldn't sleep. I was too excited. I reached for my backpack and pulled out my i-pod and a new book I had bought the day before. It's called, Reality Show. All I needed was a good book and a play list of country songs and I was set.
Our first stop was in West Virginia. The four of us were hungry. Our stomachs made that apparent, with constant rumbling. "There's an exit up ahead," George said. We saw a sign for a Wendy's.After a brief search, we couldn't find it - and settled for Burger King, instead. A half-hour later, we were on the road.
We made a few more stops once we made our way to Virginia. That's where this picture was taken.
I took a deep breathe, and stretched; my legs were soar. In the distance, I saw a small stretch of mountains. I stared for a few minutes.
I love driving through different states. There's nothing quite like it. Especially when the sun starts to set.

Our group decided to stay overnight in Bristol, VA. The drive to Belle Chasse, LA was too long to drive in one day. We spent the night in a church. It was rather nice. The next morning, we woke up and hit the road again. By six o'clock that evening, we would be in Belle Chasse, LA.