Pennsylvania: Philadelphia

We drove through Connecticut, NY (Bronx), then got to Philly at 3pm. We parked in a safe outdoor lot with cameras with close walking distance to all the action. First stop was the visitor's center to try and find our car sticker. Honestly the hardest souvenirs to find are matching city stickers. They didn't have them so we took a few silly photos and walked around the park outside the entrance to the liberty bell.

The bell wasn't as big as I thought it would be to be honest but again nothing historic really has been (i.e Mt. Rushmore). Then we walked outside to a park and planned out where we would eat our Philly cheesesteak.

We landed at Sonny's Steaks where we would split our first and only philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia.

We asked the chef how we should order it and he said without a doubt--get the cheese whiz. Chris doesn't usually like cheese whiz because he's only had the fake kind from the store.

Chris stood corrected after the first bite. It was so delicious that he went up and asked for more whiz lol. It tasted like MAC and cheese cheese. They said it was melted cheddar. Hands down the best philly we've had!

After our Philly it was back on the road to head to D.C.  We drove through Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia which made 7 states in one day! We tried to stop at a truck stop with showers in Baltimore but it was too confusing to figure out how to drive into. We kept going until the next one in Jessup Maryland.

We paid $13 each to use the shower and it felt so good! After the shower we decided we shouldn't sleep there as we drove right past a prison on our way out. Yikes!

Chris kept driving until we got to D.C. As soon as we got off the freeway, we knew instantly we were on the wrong side of town. We were hungry so we stopped at the first Checkers (east coast Rally's) for some grub. In the 20 mins we were standing at the walk up window, we witnessed a drug deal, and two cops showed up also to "get food." We played it cool got our food and booked it as fast as we could!

We found a truck stop down the road after grabbing food, but after our Checkers experience we decided it was not safe and we needed to find somewhere else.  So we had to keep driving. I looked up the safe neighborhoods around D.C. and found a 24 hr Walmart in Vienna Va. When we got there, it was permit parking only in a private lot. Are you kidding me? So we drove around the Walmart and found street parking under a tree in front of a parking garage between a BMW and an Audi. Yeah we were definitely in a more affluent part of town.

Seriously the hardest part about this trip is finding safe places to sleep. Tomorrow we will explore D.C.!