Two Miles and Four Feet from Home: Last two days!

Day 1

We both slept great in the tent with the camper mattress. Jasper loves sleeping in the tent because he sleeps at the end of our mattress and can put his head or foot on our bed! We all got up around 6:30 AM. The plan was to pack up camp and get showers then hit the road. As stated before this place was fancy. Everything was a step above.They even gave us one trash bag for trash and another for recycling. They also said just leave it at the site and they would pick it up. Wow! The next two days would be just driving days and we were hoping to be back home by Wednesday. Anyway we hit the road about 7:30. This drive I was not looking forward to it because it would be filled with lots of traffic and congestion as we work our way around Chicago and other busy areas. We spent hours weaving in and out of traffic and finally ended up at a KOA in Ohio. It was about 6 miles off the highway but we decided to stop anyway. As we drove up it looked OK but there was virtually no one there. Anyway we did not like the vibe and had only driven about 7 hours so we decided to push on and get a few more hours knocked out which would make the next day getting home even easier. We drove a few more hours and ended up in a very desolate area. Finally we came around a corner and at the top of the hill was a Red Roof Inn. We pulled up and the people at the desk where super nice and after talking with them gave me a teacher discount that ended up making the price $98.57. While this sounded great the way my credit card points work is that I have to use at least $100 or more at the time to have them cancel out the bill. So I explained this to her and she said no one had ever asked to increase there rate. She was able to add $2 to the bill making it totally free for us. Nice another free hotel room. I am such a good negotiator ha ha! The room was nice and we decided just to eat in since we are trying to finish up food in the cooler. We went to bed around 10 PM with only about 5 hours between us and Greensboro! We are excited!!!

Day 2

We actually slept til 7. Curtains really do make a difference in sleeping in! We had breakfast at the hotel and by the time we left it was 8 AM. The plan was to make a quick stop in Mount Airy and get a Pork chop sandwich at Snappy's take a quick look around. Three day before we had gone through a lot of tolls and had used up most of our cash. Not really a problem except I had forgotten about the West Virginia Turnpike. When we hit the first toll. We found out we would have to pay three tolls total after digging through all of change we finally paid our last toll using almost all of our remaining change and Lyn's last remaining $2 bill. How appropriate! We really enjoyed the drive through West Virginia and we noticed right away how different it looked than the west. The mountains were covered with trees so completely that you could not see anything but leaves. Anyway we went through several tunnels and after about 4 hours we were entering NC and heading to Mount Airy. I had only been once and Lyn had never been. We found a place to park the camper and walked through main street heading to Snappy's. As most of you know this town has a cool touristy vibe and we decided we would need to come back and check it out more thoroughly. We walked down main street and saw the police car from the Andy Griffith show as well as many other things related to the show. Finally we came to the restaurant and saw a picnic area right across the street complete with bathrooms. I went in to get our lunch and noticed a sign that said they could not take debit or credit cards today due to their system being down. Dang it we had only about a $1 in cash. I found an ATM about a block away. We enjoyed the sandwich which was delicious and headed back to our car. At this point we were only one hour from home. Finally after 9112.6 miles we were in Greensboro! We went by my Dad's house to drop off the camper and then 10 minutes later we were home. Wow what a great trip! So thankful to be home safe and sound! After unloading the car I went to see our awesome next door neighbor Sally! She had kept an eye on our place and getting our mail everyday for almost 5 weeks. It was an entire trash bag full. Remember we have two High School seniors living with us and they are getting college flyers left and right. She also had two cases of Le Sueur Peas that my Dad had dropped off! Kind of an inside joke but lets just say I love these peas and to show my love for them I took them with me on the trip and photographed them in places along the way. You can see the pictures below! We met so many cool people along the way. Remember the Grandfather granddaughter team that were driving motorcycles with side cars to Alaska. Well they made it all the way to the Arctic circle! Every day we were amazed at how many nice, helpful people we met. We also really appreciated our friends and family at home who encouraged us, helped us and even gave us great ideas while on this trip. I am so thankful for Lyn and Jasper my travel companions. On this trip we were with each other 24/7 for almost 5 weeks and we always woke up looking forward to spending the day together! We are already looking forward to a trip next year and are thinking about slowing it down a bit and doing a North Carolina tour. Hoping Spencer can join us for that one! :) See you in the bye and bye!