On to South Carolina - Day Three

Up early today and another hearty breakfast at the hotel, packing and out the door by nine-ish in the morning...this is good timing for us. The calm voice in the GPS of Carol's car directed us easily

Going down Route 81

out of Arlington and soon we were heading down Route 81 in the mountains of Virginia. This is a beautiful drive and we elected to take this route even though it is about half an hour longer than if we had taken Route 95 South from DC. Our destination is Chapin, South Carolina and our friends Tom and Debbie. We met these wonderful folks while we were cruising back in 1999 and have been good friends since. The weather today is fantastic and the driving long but easy. We have been enjoying an audio book about life on the road in an Airstream, which is our dream. From Virginia to North Carolina and on to South Carolina the road treated us well with not much traffic and good rest stops. The scenery along the way was spectacular. I was amazed at the many colors of blue

Mountains along the road.

that the mountains offered up.  Our country never ceases to amaze me both with the scenery and the great people that live here, although I have been observing that more and more people seem to be involved with their phones while driving, passing me at 80+ MPH and looking solely at their phone. Somewhere along the route we found a Walmart, as there is always a Walmart along the road, and we needed to pick up something so vitally important that I cannot remember just what it was. While we were at the Walmart we found that they had salads to go and picked up a couple for lunch. Later in the Day we found a North Carolina roadside stop in the mountains and had lunch and watched some cattle on a far hillside. Back on the road we listened to our book and chatted, made phone calls which all made the time pass quickly. We arrived in Chapin after dark and the GPS took us right to our destination, but I just could not distinguish just which house was Tom and Debbie's, but Debbie stepped out the door just as I was calling Tom. We had arrived. It was so good to see these two as we just do not have the opportunity to hang out too often and we really enjoy their company. After chatting and carrying luggage we sat down to an absolutely wonderful meal that Debbie and Tom had prepared.

Dinner at Debbie and Tom's house

Did I mention great cooks they are. We chatted late into the night and caught up on all that has happened since we last got together a couple of years ago. We first met these two in Hardin, Illinois while cruising the Great Loop in our boat. We cruised with them from that little town on the Illinois River to Tampa Bay, Florida and met up with them again in Key Largo. We had a lot of adventures together over that four month period cruising Americas waterways in our little boats, and as you can imagine we had lots to reminisce that evening.