Halfway

 A Friday Drive in the Appalachian Mountains - July 12

The Hickory Tavern used these clips to leave the bill. I wanted it! Mindy said no!

Mindy & I planned to drive approximately halfway on Friday. A week earlier, I booked a hotel in Mooresville, NC – a cute town bordering Lake Norman. We planned to be on the road by 9am. To that end, I was up at 650am.

Save for prepping a drive cooler and then organizing morning toiletries, both of us had everything packed and ready to load the night before. Mindy wisely suggested we have an overnight bag separate from our beach week packing for convenience sake at the NC hotel. 

Loaded the CRV around 830am. Everything went in with plenty of room to spare. We really did a super good job planning and organizing, including placing the six sets of bedding sheets we bought for the trip (Beach house doesn’t supply linens) in a large empty cooler. In total, we were taking 3 coolers, but only one loaded with food and drink for the drive down. 

After bidding Bella farewell, we were on the road for Mooresville, NC by 9am, just as we had planned/hoped. Topped off the gas tank at Circle K and on the highway by 905am. Easy 400 mile drive – 270, 33, 77S thru Ohio, WV, VA, and finally NC. Mooresville rests about 65 miles into NC right off I-77. Arrived near 350pm.

After 7 hours of driving, I wanted little more than to rest my tired eyes for a spell. In the meantime, Mindy sought out a local dinner venue. We settled on the Hickory Tavern, a local spot just up the road. What caught our eye was the plethora of options, including raw oysters. We were a little disappointed then when we got there and learned that most if not all of the seafood options had recently been removed from their offerings. Still, the service and food were decent. In particular, our server, whose name I have since forgotten, was very cute and fun – full-on Carolina accent. We were there for about 90 minutes. 

Back at the Hampton Inn we changed into our sleeping attire then tuned the TV to a cool show contrasting tuna and sharks. Both have evolved to become superior bad ass sea creatures. Fascinating program. I was asleep before 10pm.