Check out Part 1 in Adventures in PCSing Across the Country HERE!
At 0600 on Tuesday, May 30, 2017, we loaded the remaining items into our Uhaul, made another walk through of our house, loaded our dogs and said good-bye to the home and neighborhood we called home for the past 21 months. The time had come for us to start our trek across our great nation to our new duty station, Naval Hospital Bremerton in Washington state. After months of planning, the day had finally arrived and we were excited!
We had been looking forward to this day ever since we found out our new duty station! We picked a route, figured out how many days we wanted to take driving there, planned our stops, which included where we would stay, where we would eat, where we would workout in the morning, you know, the important things. After making some final changes and an occasional adjustment here and there we were ready to go! We named our journey CrossFitting Across America!
Day one was from our home in Middleburg, Fla., to Asheville, N.C., 465 miles.
We left early, stopped for breakfast one last time at the Urban Bean and then headed north. It took us about 10 hours and that included some stops along the way. After arriving, we met up with some family members for dinner then we made our way to our AirBnb, Bread & Roses, that I had booked a couple months earlier. It was the lower level of a house in Black Mountain, N.C., and it was just what we needed after a day of driving! We had real beds, a small kitchen, WiFi, full size washer and dryer, full bathroom and if we wanted to, there was an area were we could build a fire and sit around it while admiring the scenery. The owner was very helpful and accommodating and she let us know what to do upon check out. It ended up raining that night so we sat on the porch and listened to it rain while having an adult beverage. The perfect way to relax!
Day two was from Asheville to Nashville, Tenn., but with a stop in Cookeville, Tenn., 296 miles.
We were on the road around 0900 after having a wonderful breakfast at the Over Easy Cafe in Asheville. We pulled into Cookeville around 1300 and since we were CrossFitting across America, this was our first stop, CrossFit Mayhem! CrossFit Mayhem is the mecca when it comes to CrossFitting! It is the home of Rich Froning and we were surprised to see that he was there that day! We worked out and then as we were leaving, we were able to get a picture with him before getting back onto the road to make it to our next stop for the night, Nashville. We got to our AirBnb, Kingston Place, around 1700 and we met the owner and he showed us around and also where we could park our car and the trailer we were towing. After we got settled, we caught an Uber to the place we picked out for dinner, Pepperfire Hot Chicken, and got it to go and headed back to our place for the night. Our place was very nice, quiet, two bedrooms, WiFi, full size washer and dryer and a kitchen. It also had the most comfortable bed we have slept in! Bonus!