The Experience

Sep 22, 2017 - The Experience, Daniella Maney ’20 

Bloggers Daniella Maney, ‘20 and Mark McPhillips, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

Sleeping in places you're not accustomed to is always a little strange and sometimes scary because you're stepping out of your comfort zone. Being woken up by the sound of a loud fire alarm in one of those strange places is even more frightening. The hotel staff did a great job getting everyone to evacuate their rooms and told us that the source of the alarm was some severely burned toast made by a guest. I found this hysterical and laughed about it for a while but also, as my friends and my family know, I am not a morning person. If I’m going to wake up early I usually prefer a more gentle approach. The fire department arrived and found the burnt toast story funny, and we were let back into our room. We decided that since we were already up we might as well get ready to go to our next destination, which was one of our big ones, Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville was Samuel’s choice because of his love of music (ask him about Patti Smith). We were set up to stay with Mark’s friend David, who he met at summer camp. On the way to Nashville we experienced another downpour. This time Mark was driving and I was backseat driving trying to make sure he didn't hydroplane because that's one of my driving fears.

Sep 22, 2017 - The Experience, Mark McPhillips '20 

Bloggers Mark McPhillips, ‘20 and Daniella Maney, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

It was the most abrupt beginning to a day on our road trip yet: the three of us were startled awake by the Fairfield Inn & Suites’ fire alarm. Dani, Samuel and I got dressed as quickly as possible and made our way outside. We overheard hotel staff discussing the cause of the commotion and discovered that a guest had merely burned their toast. It was a pretty comical incident but rather frustrating for the three of us as well as the other hotel guests.

Sep 20, 2017 - The Experience, Daniella Maney ’20 

Bloggers Daniella Maney, ‘20 and Mark McPhillips, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

I drove from Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee, in the morning. It was another quick drive, and arguably the prettiest. I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road because we were driving through valleys with open fields and hundreds of bulls walking around, eating grass, and laying under canopies of trees. We arrived in Memphis at around 3 p.m., the earliest we have ever arrived at a hotel. I was wiped out from a bout of insomnia the night before so I decided to take a quick nap... that happened to be two-hours-long. I woke up hungry, like always, so I looked up barbecue places in Memphis. A restaurant called Central BBQ in downtown caught my eye. It was 20 minutes from our hotel and we decided it was worth the drive because we needed to get authentic barbeque while in the south. The restaurant was great. They made their own ghost pepper hot sauce. We decided to get a slab of ribs which comes with four sides. We got green beans, homemade pork rinds, mac ‘n cheese, and onion rings. Mark said, "That was the quickest meal of my whole life," because we wolfed down the meal in probably seven minutes.

Sep 19, 2017 - The Experience, Mark McPhillips '20 

Bloggers Mark McPhillips, ‘20 and Daniella Maney, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

We awoke to the sound of people knocking on our hotel room door.

Sep 14, 2017 - The Experience, Daniella Maney ’20 

Bloggers Daniella Maney, ‘20 and Mark McPhillips, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

Our second day in New Orleans managed to be even crazier than the first. When we arrived back in the French Quarter, we immediately realized that there was a big event happening on account of the many people parading around the streets in red dresses. Coincidentally, our visit happened to be on the same day as the Red Dress Run. The Red Dress Run, according to New Orleans Online, is organized by a group that is a "self-proclaimed drinking club with a running problem." It was definitely a hilarious sight to see hundreds of tipsy men and women running around in red dresses through the streets of New Orleans for charity. This event was awesome to see and really brought the New Orleans energy that I had missed our first day exploring the city. We danced through the streets to songs blasting from the huge portable speakers of runners. Our soundtrack of the day consisted of songs like "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard and "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls. We wove our way through the crowd back to Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo for Mark to buy a box of Tarot Cards, which he decided was worth it (he says he's going to use them at Connecticut College all of the time) and I bought a sticker for my fridge at school.

Sep 14, 2017 - The Experience, Mark McPhillips '20 

Bloggers Mark McPhillips, ‘20 and Daniella Maney, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1) 

The first moments of today were a little bit hectic.

Sep 14, 2017 - The Experience, Daniella Maney ’20 

Bloggers Daniella Maney, ‘20 and Mark McPhillips, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

Day seven was my day for sure. We finally arrived at my choice of destination: New Orleans. As I mentioned in this previous blog post, I picked New Orleans for a lot of reasons like its history with Voodoo and Haitian culture. I wrote my first essay in college about colonialism and its influence on Louisiana Voodoo culture for my Natives and Newcomers ConnCourse. I had some difficulty finding sources to fuel my research for the paper so I hoped to learn more about Voodoo and its history from our visit to the city. I also wanted to visit New Orleans for the food. With creole seafood and delicious desserts, I knew that this place was meant for me to experience. I have always found the energy around New Orleans enticing, stemming from the excitement around Mardi Gras and all of the stories I have heard from family members. Lastly, one of my favorite seasons of the show “American Horror Story: Coven” was filmed in New Orleans. Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates star in Coven alongside my idol Stevie Nicks.

Sep 14, 2017 - The Experience, Mark McPhillips '20 

Bloggers Mark McPhillips, ‘20 and Daniella Maney, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

This morning was similar to yesterday’s in that it was a bit of a disappointment...Dani, Samuel and I did not rise until noon!

Sep 12, 2017 - The Experience, Daniella Maney ’20 

Bloggers Daniella Maney, ‘20 and Mark McPhillips, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

Day six was one of the longest drives of my life. It was comparable to my spring break return trip with the Conn Club Ultimate Frisbee team from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Acton, Massachusetts, which took 12 hours and 40 minutes. Leaving from Oklahoma City, we had a 10 1/2-hour-long drive ahead of us, a tough feat after driving consistently for a week. However, it was a trip we were excited to embark on because we had our eyes set on the prize destinations of Dallas and New Orleans. This was definitely the longest drive of our trip so far. The second longest was from Neptune, New Jersey, to Columbus, Ohio, which took a total of nine hours. Many of these times are projected by Google. It's hard to remember how long our drives actually were because when you account for gas, bathroom, and food you add at least an hour or two to each trip.

Sep 12, 2017 - The Experience, Mark McPhillips '20 

Bloggers Mark McPhillips, ‘20 and Daniella Maney, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1) 

This morning was a bit of a disappointment…

When we first planned the road trip I said that I would make an itinerary for our trip and that we would stick to it as best we could. Unbeknownst to me, the schedule for today had us leaving Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at 8 a.m. (not getting up at 8 a.m., leaving at 8 a.m.).