Heading north
With all the weather reports promising dire events in the northeast, we decided to get as far north as we could as soon as we could, so we were up at 3 AM and soon headed north. We made it all the way to Georgia, and breakfast with Kent and Joanne at a pleasant Cracker Barrel there, before daylight.
Port St. Lucie to Roanoke
We drove across Georgia and into South Carolina where we took a left off I-95 toward Columbia and then north on I-77 toward Charlotte. We didn't want to face the same traffic jams on I-95 that we saw when driving south, and took a chance that a more westerly route would be an improvement, and new scenery as well. Toward midday we passed through bustling Charlotte and chose the Duke Energy Center for our first photo of the day:
Duke Energy Center in Charlotte
By now we had set our sights on Staunton, Virginia, as our landing point, but just as we were passing Charlotte Patti Trip (for the new reader: our Garmin GPS) made her first navigational error and somehow we managed to end up going north on I-85 toward the Technology Triangle. That wasn't what we wanted to do at all--it would ultimately bring us back toward DC and the traffic nightmare we experienced going south.
Eventually we decided to leave the Interstate and wend our way cross country to rejoin I-77, losing an hour or so, but at least returning to our original plan of avoiding the Northeast Corridor at all costs.
Some folks don't like trucks on the highway. I love them. Trucks mean business, jobs. It's hard work and they should be treated with respect.
Into the Appalachians
I-77 in North Carolina north of Charlotte.
It's nice to see mountains again. Florida is flat, flat, flat.
Headlights from oncoming cars imply bad weather ahead, perhaps.
More mountains, more trucks. And darkness approaches.
More of the same.
The blogster, chins and all. I love to drive. And I turn 69 today.
It was getting late in the day and I had been driving for more than 12 hours, so we decided that Roanoke would be a more reasonable destination. Mary Frances contacted the Holiday Inn there and threw her weight around--Gold Membershipwise--so we had rooms waiting for us. But Patti had one more nasty trick to play on us, insisting that we exit well south of Roanoke, and approach our hotel by way of the Floyd Highway. I have no idea how much time that added to our trip, but it was a bit. It's a beautiful country road if you don't mind lots of turns, including hurtling headlong downhill on 8% grades around tight turns. When we finally checked in, I had been driving over 15 hours, but the mixologist at the restaurant there made a superb martini...which eased the pain a lot. After a pleasant meal, the Dumases and Hatches retired in preparation for another 3 AM departure.
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