Wilson, who recently took an art history course, opted for an intellectual experience, as he and Hughes embarked on a "museum spree."
After a day in Philadelphia, which included a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the couple departed for the nation's culturally-rich capital where they traversed the many halls of the Smithsonian.
"It was a lot of fun and an intellectual experience going to the museums in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.," Wilson says.
The same problem with the trip's first day again haunted the couple on Monday while traveling to visit a friend at the Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island. For the second time in four days, they found themselves "lost in the worst part of Queens--for two hours," Hughes says.
"When we finally stopped and called our friend to come find us, even he was a bit frightened to drive out where we were because he had never been in that area," Wilson says.
Wilson and Hughes returned to Harvard on Friday after a few days of leisurely travel through Rhode Island's beaches. But the road-warriors still had one day left on their itinerary.
Perhaps the most bizarre part of their week turned out to be the only planned segment--attendance at Saturday's Commencement proceedings of the Rhode Island School of Design, where Wilson's mother was graduating.
"I'm sure my graduation on Thursday will be quite different," Wilson says. "While we'll be wearing the traditional robes here, students at that ceremony created their own decorative gowns."
Wilson says that while one of the more interesting outfits consisted of a student's parking tickets from the past four years stuck all over his body, another student's costume, or lack thereof, will stick in his mind for years to come.
"Some guy approached the stage, took off his robe and accepted his degree while he was stark naked," Wilson says. "He shook hands with the dean and walked passed Liz Claiborne and Senator [Claiborne] Pell [(D-R.I.)] without wearing anything--and no one even blinked an eyelid at the whole thing. I thought it was hilarious."
The couple says that while the week's accommodations at a number of Days Inns were more than adequate, as "it's very hard to find cheap motels when you don't plan a trip," they saved their money by dining exclusively at Taco Bells--whose Yankee "Mexican" food did the trick for the Southerners.
"How can you beat 69-cent tacos, 50-cent frozen yogurt and Diet Coke? We lived off it," Wilson says. "That way we could buy more beer or more expensive beer."
And the couple's spur-of-the-moment approach, Wilson says, didn't prevent them from enjoying their vacation--even with a few wrong turns along the way.
"It was perfect. We never would have planned something like this," Wilson says. "And, best of all, we didn't even get into any fights during all those hours on the road."