Five States Down, One To Go

Drive By Photo of The Ohio River 

Well, it's 7:00 and I have been sitting in the lounge of our Hampton Inn for forty five minutes, with the rest of America, at least like us who are on the roads again, heading South or heading home. Evie's still sleeping, lucky girl, and we are in no great hurry this morning as we cannot check into our cottage until 4:00.  We hope to make Charleston around 1:00, enjoy their downtown central market which is supposed to be great, then head to Folly Beach around 3:30, perhaps earlier if we want to check out the beach.

Yesterday's eight or nine hour drive turned out to be ten hours because of a traffic jam just outside of Wytheville, VA, at the curve where we get back on to #77 from #81.  Anyone who drives this route knows where I mean.  We drove it, as I recall, for the first time in 1979, on our way to Hunting Island, SC, for Spring Break, with our friends the Armontrouts.   We must have sat there at the traffic jam  for at least an hour, inching along until traffic finally let up.  I guess I cannot complain as this is the first really bad jam we've experienced in years.  Unfortunately, we may have trouble this morning as the news said one lane of #77 would be closed today for road repairs.  Maybe the late check in isn't so late.

Wild, Wonderful West Virginia

Other than the traffic jam, our ride was fine, in fact, driving through the mountains of both West Virginia and Virginia is always spectacular.  And at times, it looked like fall, as the forested mountains were spotted with colors, mostly the reds of budding trees. Traffic most of the way was heavier than I expected though it was a Friday and I assume some schools were headed South for Spring Break.  I just hope they continue south, past Folly Beach, to Florida.

Waiting For Tables

We finally arrived in Statesville, some 564 miles from Woodlawn, at 5:15, having left at 7:15, ten hours.  We relaxed in our luxurious suite until about 6:45 and the best part, next door was an Outback Steakhouse, not our favorite but at least we could walk to it.  It's parking lot was packed, so we were expecting a long wait.  In fact, when we left around 7:45, there were families outside, relaxing on the lawn, kids running around, just like a playground.  We were lucky, however, as there were two seats open at the corner of the bar.  We ordered a couple of drafts and took a large sigh, as it was good to finally relax and enjoy ourselves.  I ordered steak tacos, Evie a chicken club with blooming onion tips, both decent, not great.  And is our wont, we struck up a conversation with the couple sitting next to me, transplanted New Jerseyites, who have been in Statesville for 15 years and have a 13 acre farm, with a horse and donkey.  She was tiny, looked like my Grandma Davis, with tight curls, and he looked like a biker, with a ball cap, drinking a long neck beer.  They were fun, told us all about their life here, why they love it.  She has recently retired at 62 and does taxes for play money.  He is a truck driver and still working.  Evie really liked my Sam Adams beer glass, so we asked the waitress if we could have one.  She said sure and wrapped a clean one in a paper bag for us.  Nice people down here in North Carolina with no undertones of the new legislation in North Carolina during our short stay.

Paying The Check

After they left, we did not linger as we were both tired and getting back to our hotel room sounded good.  We watched some TV although Friday night is not a great TV night.  We ended up falling asleep around 10:30, a little early for us.

We are looking forward to today, not the ride, but our first walk on the beach, some beers and seafood as we watch a couple of basketball games at a bar.  Sounds good.