Caves, Storms, and a Surprise Best Friend

This episode of Middle School Miles is exactly what happens when school, travel, and life collide—in the most chaotic way possible.

After wrapping up a conference in Richmond, the journey turns into a whirlwind of long drives, wild weather (including snow and a midnight tornado), and unexpected moments along the way. But the highlight? Meeting a new friend and instantly becoming inseparable—complete with a sleepover full of late-night laughs and just enough trouble to make it memorable.

From exploring Colonial Williamsburg (and accidentally sitting on a cookie) to getting chased off a Walmart parking lot, the road trip continues through rest stops, food halls, and new destinations like Elizabethtown and Mammoth Cave—aka the “sketchy cave.”

Along the way, Sharlotte shares what it’s like balancing online school with life on the road, where schedules shift, mornings start late, and every day brings something completely new.

It’s a funny, honest snapshot of growing up while constantly moving—where learning doesn’t just happen on a screen, but everywhere in between.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, my name is Charlotte. This is my uncle.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hi, I'm Steve.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

And this is Middle School Miles.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Which is a podcast about being at an online school.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Traveling all over North America.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

And all kinds of fun and interesting experiences that we have along the way. Right, now you say that.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

What?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Huh? You.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

No. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Alright. It's been a really busy week and a half since our last episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Chaotic.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

What makes it chaotic?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

There's been a lot of driving.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

A lot of driving.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

And like crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Crazy stuff? Like what?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

It's like crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

There was some crazy weather.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

There was a lot of crazy weather. There was like snow. And then there was like a tornado at like a midnight. And then more snow.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

And cold weather.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

It's like the cold weather is following us.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So we started out in Richmond, Virginia, which was the host city for the Larn Tourism Conference.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah. It's a host city.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Host city? Yes, with the not a host city. The host city is the city where the event is happening.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

If you host people, you're inviting them over your house.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

But I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I didn't say you wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Alright. So in Richmond, we kind of had a cool experience because we got to stay in the RV.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Okay, I got to stay in the RV, which was parked next to the hotel where the conference was happening. But you say you didn't, so where were you?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

I met one of your friends' daughters. And I was kind of nervous because I can talk to people. I just don't like talking to people. So when we got there, I was sitting and we were waiting for people to get down because you're gonna go do bowling. Yeah, I was bowling. And so we're waiting. And then her and her daughter walk up, and instantly we were sisters, we were taking photos, we were hanging out. She doesn't really like watch stuff that I watch because I watch more like mature stuff. We like the same food, we like the same stuff, we like the same candy, we like the same drinks, like we're the same exact person.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

You study at the same school.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah. We do math together. We use Chat GPT for something.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Do you both have other activities aside from school that you participate in? She's a dancer, you're a traveler.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah. I wanna it's kind of different, but because dancing is a she travels for dance too. We like clip dance.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

And you had a sleepover.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yeah, we had a sleepover. We were told to go to bed at like 11.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

And probably 12 30, 1 o'clock.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

And her name is Sophie. And we were like sharing a bed round in like every five minutes. I would be like, like look over and see if I was awake. And then but she'd like how she would look over. Would she like look over? She'd be like looking down at like she'd be like, how would you explain it like this? Hovering over me. Hovering over me. That's not good. So funny. Trying not to laugh because her mom was right there. And she'll told us multiple times, if you wake me up, you're not gonna be very happy. So we're trying not to laugh, and we're just like cackling, and then her mom wakes up and then we got in trouble. And then the next morning, will I interest you? You're like, did you have fun last night? Did you cause any mayhem?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

And you just started cackling.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

And Sophie just started cackling. It was so funny.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

So we left Richmond after the conference.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

And we drove.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

No, this is late on. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Where did we stop? We got gas. We got lots of gas, lots of diesel, which was very expensive. But we stopped at the rest stop on the highway and we slept. And today we are in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, which is super charming.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I know we did. Because we drove. And then we stopped at that one campsite. And then we went to do the Williamsburg stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Big bang.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

We went to Williamsburg, Virginia.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

And there somebody from the local Convention of Visitors Bureau came and met us. That was really cool because we had a nice coffee and a nice chat, and it was really sweet. And then we went to Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg. How would you describe it?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Old.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

It's like you're stepping back in time into 1774.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Smells kind of like feet. Like if you could describe like old things, probably like it didn't smell like feet. Oh, and noise. I came on throwing snow at you.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Because you got to see snow.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah, and then I came on throwing at him. And then I made my hands like freeze, and they were like really cold. And um, and then I was told not to pick up any. We just looked at each other, and me already knew what I was thinking about. When we went there, kids were like walking, everybody was doing the tours. Like middle schools and like high school were doing like those school tours, and there were like so many kids around. Like there were so many kids.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

How was the ginger cake from old school bakery?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Which one? The one that I sat on?

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Oh, the one that you ate.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

The one that I oh, he did not like it, but it was really good. And then I got another one, and then I sat on it, and I forgot that it was in my pocket. And I went to my pocket to get my phone to take a picture of something. And I ate it. Then it was very good.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

And after Williamsburg, we drove some more.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Wait, before that, this person over here, it doesn't have any name. She doesn't even have a name anymore. Because he told me to look up a maps of Walmart.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

And of course, we picked the one Walmart that has no overnight parkour, a very aggressive security guard.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, he was like driving around, and he was like, You can't park here overnight.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

It was a little more aggressive than that, but yes. So that's fine. So we found a different place. We stopped at a rest stop, we got our sleep, and we continued on in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

And then here at Elizabeth Town, we went to the food hall, which had like four different restaurants inside it.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

That had three.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

And the bar.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah, it's three.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

And they had bowling in there, and they had pinball machines, big TVs.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

What's that called? Oh, they had a root beer.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

And they had root beer.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

They like different drinks. And they like burgers, pizza, Japanese food. Japanese food.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

So our next stop is going to be at the Mammoth Cave.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Sketchy Cave.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Why is it sketchy? Why would a cave be sketchy?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Because it's sketchy.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

But it's this is much bigger than the caves we went in.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Sketchy. The one that you made me go on, it was narrow.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

It's quite huge.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

It looked like where kidnappers take children.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

This one you can let drive.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Oh, you're gonna drive in it?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

No, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

No, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

No, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Why no?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Why no?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Why no?

SPEAKER_01 7:27

So we're gonna do the Mammoth Caves, and then we're going to go to Memphis, Tennessee, which is where our cousin used to live. We'll do Memphis, Tennessee, which is the home of Elvis.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Music studio. It's where they recorded some of the best music of the last century.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Like what?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Listen, we'll go we'll talk about it. And then they've got a fantastic zoo in Memphis. They got a really cool zoo. And we're gonna see some friends while we're there.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Okay. Ask me this.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

So what do you like most about your online school? What time does school start?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Like 11 o'clock. Okay, sorry at 11 o'clock because I slept in because I was up until 1 a.m. last night because of the storm. But usually it starts at like 8 o'clock. But technically you said we could probably change that. Yeah. So then technically it starts at like 11 o'clock? Because that's when I started. I started at 11 o'clock today.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

We can probably start at 10.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

11 o'clock?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Let's let's focus on that.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Let's start at 10.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Glad we agree. Alright. So this has been Middle School Miles. I'm Steve.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

I'm Charlotte.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Stay tuned. Subscribe.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Subs what does that mean? It means like we're not on YouTube, but we're on Apple Music. You just subscribe on Apple Music.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

You can subscribe to a podcast so you get automatic updates.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Oh, I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Now you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Now I know.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Now you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

You learn to make every day.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

I hope. Otherwise you'd be just as dumb today as you were yesterday. I'd rather be smarter today than I was yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Great talk, bud.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Good talk.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Okay.

unknown 9:09

Alright.