On To Sanibel Island, Florida, For A Week...The Good Life

Enjoying Applebee's, Columbia, South Carolina

It's 6:15 and I am one of four down in the dining room of our Hampton Inn, enjoying the free breakfast buffet, especially the coffee and omelet.  I took a couple of coffees up to Evie, so she could relax in our room, take a shower, before we take off for part two of our drive, to Sanibel Island, roughly ten hours from here depending on traffic in the Ft. Myers area.  We are anxious for the sun, the beach, the warm weather, the green.

Not much to say about yesterday's long drive, other than the weather cooperated, no snow or ice, some sun, but mostly overcast, and it took us, as predicted, 12 hours from the lake to Columbia, South Carolina.  We left at 6:00, stopped briefly three or four times, arrived at the Hampton Inn at 6:00.  It was a nostalgic drive in some ways, because we used to drive parts of it when we lived in Ohio and every Spring Break, would head somewhere south in Florida.  West Virgina and Virginia are spectacular at all times of the year.  Yesterday, fortunately, only the hills and mountains were covered with white, as snow and ice coated trees, like something out of the movie Doctor Zhivago, the roads were fine. Traffic was always busy, the worst towards Charlotte, not bad around Columbia, though we were going against the rush hour; the other side of the road was backed up with cars.

Evie' Favorite

We weren't sure where to eat but about 6:30, we drove off a couple of miles and like anywhere in a US city, the chains restaurants appeared, from BW3, to Ruby Tuesdays, to Applebees, which was on our side of the street, so we went in for dinner.  We sat at the bar, par usual, and the restaurant was busy but not crowded.  A different crowd from Chautauqua, lots of African Americans, no Swedes or Italians.  We ordered a couple of beers, looked at the menu, and I ordered the Cowboy Burger, Evie an Asian salad.  Usually we meet someone at the bar but it didn't look good.  On either side of us sat two guys, both on their iPads, busy typing away or reading, which made me laugh.  How different from the way it used to be in a bar, where it was easy to strike up a conversation because no one had a toy, in fact, most came looking for a conversation.  Anyways, Evie was cold, so we switched chairs, which was the charm. She managed to catch the guy's eye sitting next to her at a pause, and that was all it took.  We ended up talking with him non stop for at least a half hour.  He lives in Marietta, Georgia, but started out working in Rochester, a salesman whose territory was the entire Southern Tier, so we had lots to talk about.  Now he has his own company, Randyland, a high end jean company and he's on the road a good part of the month, selling his wares.  A neat guy, we had lots in common, as he's lived all over the East, a good part of his life in Cincinnati, where he went to college.  It's always fun to meet someone new, with a life story and occupation so different from our own.  He was waiting for a call or email from Vancouver, so we said our good byes.  A fun encounter.

Great Beer

We were back at the Hampton Inn by 8:30, in time to watch some TV, read, relax, and get to bed early, as we were both really tired from getting up early and the long drive.  But our goal is in sight, ten more hours today and we'll be on the beach, enjoying the good life with my sister Linda and her husband, Rich.