Road tripping from Providence RI to Tampa FL - Slightly extended weekend. THE UPDATE

Sup folks!

I made it back to Tampa and thought you all deserved an update after the help you previously provided.

6AM This past Friday - Left Tampa on Southwest with the Wife using points. Landed in Providence around 9:30 am into a decent little airport with some neat sailboats/boats to look at. Once the rental car was acquired ($25) we left for Newport. What a cool little town! Started at Fort Adams for a quick little walk and then drove down Ocean Dr to explore the coast. Wrapped up by looking at the mansions and then off to get some food. The restaurant was called Mid Town Oyster Bar and it was pretty good. We had a cod chowder, mussels and lobster rolls. We walked to Empire Tea/Coffee for a couple of cappuccinos and then made a run for beautiful Groton CT. Newport to Groton was actually a very pleasant drive.

Once in Groton, we had about an hour to burn so we found a park south of the airport and went for a walk. I guess the park is used for mollusk fisherman and it was a nice stroll. Then we dropped off the rental and took Uber to the guys house. Had a beer with him, shot the E36 M3 and then hopped in the Blueberry (2013 Ford Focus SE) and hit the road!

Had to make a quick pitstop in New Haven for dinner:

We made it to Philly at around 11 pm and crashed at a friends house.

Next morning we had a great little breakfast at Little Pete's followed by a tour by my local friend.

Wrapped it up with lunch here:

Then we headed south to Charleston. Traffic was pretty mild and we made it around midnight and had dinner at Butcher and Bee :

Slept at the Marriott Renaissance that I booked with points and then slept in the next morning.

Then we went to brunch here which may have been the best meal of the trip:

Then we strolled around Charleston until about 2. Second Sunday market was going on and quite entertaining:

Overall a really great trip and we had a lot of fun. Special thanks to you all for the tips, Uber, Waze and the internet for making all this happen. Newport, Philly and Charleston are all awesome cities and I wouldnt mind spending more time in all of them.

How do you like the focus? Which engine?

Enjoy the Focus. They can be fun to drive.

Which route south did you take?

OHSCrifle wrote: How do you like the focus? Which engine?

So far so good. It's incredibly smooth and jumping to this from a 2000 Jetta feels like jumping from a horse and buggy to a rocketship. Lots of technology...maybe too much.

It's the 2.0 with a 5 speed.

Hal wrote: Enjoy the Focus. They can be fun to drive. Which route south did you take?

We stuck with mostly 95 with a quick detour around DC which worked out well (695?). We tried 301 but traffic was awful so we hopped back onto 95.

When you were in the Newport/Groton area, you missed Mystic Sea Port. Another neat place to spend some time.

Glad to hear your adventure went well.