On The Road To Florence, South Carolina That Is

Spectacular View From Our Hampton Inn

More New Friends, At FATZ, in Florence, South Carolina

A restless night for me, so I am now up, sitting at the Hampton Breakfast Buffet and it's 6:15, quite a few people up this early actually, ready to hit the road like us, either north or south.  We have around a 6 hour drive today, to visit daughter Jill and family.  We want to get there before #95 gets the Friday afternoon traffic.

Yesterday's drive was a cakewalk compared to or trip down.  No wrong turns, no 'long cuts this time, just straight highway driving, with heavy traffic occasionally but that's to be expected, and no accidents or stops along the way.  We made it out of Florida in just over six hours, which is what I hoped for, then arrived in Florence, just before 5:00.  Not much to say about a ten hour drive.  We did notice lots of pine trees down along the highway in South Carolina; the same thing coming down, a result we assume of heavy winds or snow fall.

We relaxed in our room till about 6:00, not sure where to go for dinner.  The gal at the desk suggested a restaurant literally across the street called FATZ.  It was a local place so we decided what the heck. Maybe we would end up striking up a conversation at the bar with some locals or travelers, as usual. We hit the jackpot again, and ended up talking with a really neat couple from Florence, Debbie and Gary McCall-Smith.  Both are from Florence, and like us, were sitting at the bar at FATZ, enjoying a beer and dinner.  They were fun to talk to, live on a nearby lake, and Gary travels quite a bit, so he knows where Chautauqua is, unlike most people.  They are dog lovers, board various kinds of foster dogs, and were picking one up that night to take care of for friends.  I also struck up a conversation with  fellow sitting next to me, very talkative and outgoing, from just outside of Albany.  He's a Syracuse grad so we commiserated over our teams, Ohio State and Syracuse, being beaten by Dayton.  A good guy, he lives in what seems to be a small valley in Upstate New York , with a very different temperate zone from the rest of the New York state, so spring starts early.  We talked basketball and football because he played it in college.  If you can somehow open the conversation with others at a bar, we find most people like to talk, especially those who are on the road like us.  Debbie and Gary were a little different since they live in Florence, but they, too, were friendly and we enjoyed getting to know them, even exchanged emails.

We got back to the room about 8:30 and I watched Dayton beat Stanford, surprising most people but I have to admit I liked seeing Stanford get beat by Dayton and fairly easily.  The game seemed to last forever, either a foul or timeout every two or three minutes made it seem interminable.  I wanted to watch the UCLA/Florida game scheduled for 9:30, but it did not start till 10:15, so I just went to sleep.

It's about 6:45, I am still in the breakfast room, with about thirty five other travelers, a busy place this early in the morning.  We should be off by 7:30 or 8:00, arrive in Bristow around 2:00 if traffic is decent.  We cannot wait to see our granddaughters, Hayden and Halle.

The Bar