Work, SE Ohio, WV, Virginia, NC then Bed

Up initially at 530a I decided to sleep an extra half hour. Finally up at 6am, I started coffee then did exercises. I felt better, but any hopes of my cold being gone were quickly thwarted. Clogged sinuses and chest congestion were still a huge issue.

I exercised, meditated and stretched, and then walked Eiknarf. I did a run around 8a, but ran only three miles.

Mindy and the kids were up around 9am. Mindy planned to take Eiknarf to Dena’s for the week around 11am. While I started and completed yet another online technical course, the kids gave Eiknarf a bath. It was near 11am when I completed the course and test. I cleaned Eiknarf’s pen before Mindy and the kids took her to Dena’s. It’s something we never think to do at home. The bottom tray was loaded with dog hair and old newspapers.

Not only was Mindy dropping Eiknarf, but she was running a handful of other errands too, including dropping off a sleeping bag to Little Rocky, and dropping our kids off at her mother’s house. While she was off doing all of that, I planned to cut the lawn. It rained extremely hard the night before but it was hot and sunny by mid morning. There were only a few squishy spots.

I decided to do the push mowing and tractor before weed whacking.  I worked quickly, finishing up in about 90 minutes. Mindy got home around 1230-1p. Not long after Mindy got home, I called Kenny to bring down his golf clubs so we could get them loaded in the Thule. That went a little easier than expected. Not only was this vacation departure day, but also Kenny’s 36^th birthday.  He & Kapil were heading out for sushi to celebrate.

Mindy spent the afternoon loading the Honda. We were packed and ready to go by 230-3p. We had a good plan and were well organized. Actually, we were planning to leave a little after 3pm. All we needed were the kids to get home. Joe dropped them off sometime near or just after 3p.

We had nothing but our personal ‘carry-ons’ still to load. We secured the home and called dad to let home know we were about to depart. Just before we were ready to leave a small but strong storm developed effectively right over top of the Hilliard area. It was sunny to the east and sunny to the west, but stormy directly over head. Poured cats and dogs. Weather report said that the storm was severe and producing golfball sized hail in and around Hilliard. Crap! We waited for the rain to subside before leaving.

Everybody was chomping at the bit to hit the road. Finally, after about 25 minutes it let up enough for us to load our remaining gear and head out. I called Kenny to let him know that we were leaving. Said Kapil was waiting for the rain to stop but planning to walk down to our house to drop off a gift. I felt bad. We agreed to stop down briefly. It’s very likely we won’t see Kapil again unless we make the trip to Sacramento.

Mindy ran in first while the kids and I waited in the car. It started to pour like crazy again. After about five minutes we decided to tough it out and go inside and say goodbye to Kapil one last time. He gave us a framed family photo. Very nice! We exchanged some pleasantries then hit the road. Our original plan was to leave at 4p. It was 420p when we headed back to the car, and it was still raining although we could see bright sunshine just to our immediate west. Again, the storm developed right over top of us. Wasn’t moving much, if at all.

As soon as we got on I-270s it was sunny again. We called dad to let him know we forgot to turn on our spot lights and also shared that there would be little need to water Saturday morning after the torrential rains. By the time we made it around to route 33 the storm caught up to us thanks in part to the typical rt 33 slowdown leaving town. Once again, it was sunny directly to our east but raining overtop. Thankfully, the slowdown lasted only a minute or two. Once we hit Canal Winchester it was smooth sailing. And once we hit the Lancaster bypass it was sunny and beautiful and remained that way for the duration of our daytime drive.

I hadn’t been south of my mom’s exit (rt 93) off rt 33 since I was about 12 years old going to Sean Meehan’s grandma’s. It was really pretty, especially driving by the OU campus – gorgeous! I’m thinking it was near 7p when we crossed over the Ohio River into West Virginia. That was pretty too. Some double-wides just the other side of the border, but after that West Virginia was absolutely gorgeous.

We stopped for dinner at a Wendy’s in Beckley, West Virginia. That proved to be a poor choice, ridiculously slow service. I’ll bet we were there 30-40 minutes. My sinuses and throat were draining and becoming quite bothersome. Finally, after our lengthy Wendy’s stop we were back on the road for Myrtle Beach. The speed limit through most of West Virginia and Virginia was 70 mph all the while  winding and twisting through the mountains. Seemed a bit too fast for me.

We made great time, however. I’m thinking it was 930p when we crossed into North Carolina. We thought we might stop for the night in Winston Salem, but we blew right by those few exits. Instead, we stopped in the first town just passed it after seeing a Quality Inn sign. Turned out, there was no one in the office. Other potential guests were knocking and waiting.  Honestly, it didn’t look that savory any way. We decided to move on to the next option.

We’d gone about 400 miles and needed gas too. We stopped at the next exit for gas. It wasn’t a very nice area either. Yikes! Thankfully, Greensborough was just up the road maybe another 10-12 miles. We spotted an Embassy Suites and another Quality Inn. We opted for the Quality Inn. This one was far nicer. It was approaching midnight and everyone was tired and edgy. They could’ve soaked me. We got a nice room with two double beds that would include a complimentary breakfast for $79.99. Good deal! There was an old man sitting in a lawn chair by the back entrance to our hotel where we entered after parking our car. He had been drinking lots of beers as made apparent by the pile of empties lying around him. He asked us who won the game. J

We were settled in our room and our beds in 15 short minutes. I was beat from seven hours of driving, but struggled to get my sleep on. At least part of the reason was my cold, the rest, I’m sure, due to the stress from driving. My eyes were nice and bloodshot, too.