Road Trip

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Posted 5/17/19

I’m writing this post from my phone. So forgive me for any formatting issues. In my haste to pack I, of course, neglected to pack my laptop.  It's really not a huge deal, since this is …

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Road Trip

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I’m writing this post from my phone. So forgive me for any formatting issues. In my haste to pack I, of course, neglected to pack my laptop. 

It's really not a huge deal, since this is the only thing I really needed it for.

590 miles and a tank of gas later, I’m enjoying the sun and 90° weather. It’s seriously a welcoming change after waking up to 37° last week. 

I took a few days south to recharge and to visit with a young woman who is like a daughter to me  

The ride down was long (almost 10 hours of me singing to various music in the car). I drove through heavy rain, dealing with too many people with road rage worse than I thought possible, and saw some interesting stuff as I drove. An oversized load with an inground pool shell wobbling was interesting to watch, as were a pair of trailered motorcycles I caught up to. 

The things you notice on a drive that long by yourself are, at the least, entertaining. 

I found a radio station near Richmond, VA that was fantastic (100.9). They didn’t have a format. They weren’t straight oldies, country or rap. It was a rather eclectic mix. Much like I have in my own playlists. One minute I was singing with Aerosmith, the next there were a few one hit wonders from the 80s on and after that, some early 90s rap music. There isn’t much that’s more amusing than switching decades and genres... or belting out "Don’t Stop Believin" while you’re doing 70mph down I-95. 

Trust me. I belted it out too. And why not? When you’re alone, or even with friends, the quality of your singing doesn’t matter. (Unless you’re driving slow with the windows down and cause a three car pileup. Then you might want to reconsider. 

That might have been the case when I got through Richmond and found the traffic slowing. Since I was using Google Maps for my directions, the voice from my phone cheerfully told me that through the traffic was backed up for two hours, a simple detour off the upcoming ramp would save me two and a half hours on my trip. So, I exited the highway and meandered down four different back roads for about 30 miles. 

I should have stopped and photographed all the old signs and buildings along my back road journey. But it was 2 p.m. already, and leaving home at 6:30 a.m. meant I was just about tired of driving for the day. Don’t get me wrong, I love to drive... cars, trucks, snowmobiles, my motorcycle, demolition derbies and even R/C cars. However... after that many hours of dealing with people who should probably have their licenses taken away, I was ready for the hotel, a shower and some great southern BBQ. 

I arrived in Fayetteville, NC at 4:23 p.m. (which was 26 minutes faster than the GPS had originally said I would be there). After a quick shower and acclimating to the huge temperature difference, we went out to (what I’ve been told) is one of the best BBQ joints around  Not only was the food excellent and the portions bigger than even I could handle, the beer list was 2 pages long set in eight point type. I tried to count how many beers there were, but gave up when I realized there had to be over 200. We ordered, we ate and we did a ton of people watching while we were catching up. 

Trust me, the people watching at a southern BBQ joint near an army base is amazing. I won’t go into detail here, but feel free to ask me about the people I saw when I was in there. 

We left there with to-go boxes and stopped at the store for some snacks and some water among other things  Honestly... I can’t deal with the water in any city. The chlorine flavor is just too noticible. (Besides the traffic, noise, and masses of people, that’s the biggest reason I couldn’t be a city girl...)

I have to cut this post short, because there’s too many things to explore while I’m here and not much time to do it  

I’m headed home Sunday, just in time to put the finishing touches for Upper Delaware together, and get the weekly paper made too. Who knows, maybe I’ll even bring home some of this southern sunshine and warm weather to share. 

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