MY GOOGLE de MILO

I planned our most recent road trip to the Outer Banks using only Google Maps, AirBnB and Hotels.com; and I was generally surprised at how much effort and research it actually took.

Suffice it to say, my husband was so disconnected from the party planning process that his only action item was to type the address of where we were spending our first night into the GPS the morning we left. That said, our ten-day trip, like all our adventures was a whirlwind. 

The first day was a very long one, especially for my Annie and her anxiety. So much so, that by the time we pulled into the parking lot in the Hampton Inn in Hagerstown Maryland, she bolted out of the car. Good thing we’d finally arrived... Because she was NOT getting back in!!

Next day we travelled to where we anchored with food and fixings at our house in Nags Head North Carolina.  The pups settled in much better there, and their first trip along the ocean beach was truly a sight to see. Definitely worth the headache of taking longer to arrive than it would have, had we left them at home. 

The one thing I will admit is that because we could only get the house within our budget for four nights, I decided to extend our coastal stay by heading up to Ocean City (via the 28.4km Chesapeake bridge and tunnels) for that Friday night and then heading to Mansfield Pennsylvania the next morning. 

In hindsight, this was a tad too ambitious and far more costly than originally expected. Changing our original intent almost doubled the cost of our trip, and that path saw us hit with a whopping $400+ for the only pet friendly room I could find on the interstate; on a Saturday night. 

Our only saving grace was that the pups were so exhausted from their ‘Outer Banks Shenanigans’ that they literally slept those two days home - allowing us to zoom zoom north and stop less frequently.

Once home, my husband was having trouble visualizing the trip I had planned, and what geography we'd actually covered. So, I poured us a glass of wine and we sat down at my home office computer.

With all of my receipts containing proper addresses, I produced this killer 'Google de Milo' map offering him a visual, which perfectly illustrated the many more than two thousand miles we travelled.

What a ride!

If travel is truly art, then my Google deMilo road map proves it!
TAKEN: OCTOBER 2022