Friday, July 15, 2011

To the Beach, to the Beach...............to Ocean Isle, NC

At 5:00 this morning Randy and I were up and putting the finishing touches on our house and ourselves.  Meredith arrived at 5:30 on the nose, and by 6:10 we were out the door, everything dead-bolted, and we were on our way. Randy is driving his truck, and I am driving my Rendezvous.  The reason for two vehicles is that we will not be driving home together. Now, while that may sound ominous, it's not! It's really a matter of creating the easiest way to get Randy's mom home from Texas, via North Carolina.

On the way home next week, Randy will be taking a side trip to Nags Head, in the Outer Banks, to pick up his mother, Fran.  Fran will be flying north from Texas with Randy's sister's family, then be coming home with Randy to visit in Akron, where she will visit for three weeks, staying in the homes of all three of the Gillenwater siblings, sort of like a time-share event.

We have a reservation tonight at a Comfort Inn in the north part of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and we had to drive approximately 450 miles today to get here.  We made exceptionally good time, but as two of us had not eaten breakfast, by about 9:45 AM we were ready to stop for lunch/brunch.  We ate our picnic of egg-salad sandwiches and fruit on the banks of the Ohio River in Marietta, Ohio.  We sat on the concrete tiers that face the river arena for the stern wheeler boats during the Stern Wheeler Festival Days that we have attended when my sister and her husband lived near Marietta.

We used the restroom at the historic Lafayette Hotel, then we were out of town and back on the road.  We had a few gasoline stops and bathroom breaks, notably one at Beckley, West Virginia, near the Tamarack West Virginia Arts building.

On we drove.  Our GPS unit, Thelma, is so wonderful.  I don't know how we ever got anywhere without her.  At exactly 3:50 PM, just as Thelma had predicted, we pulled into the parking lot of this Comfort Inn. (The funny thing is that Randy has borrowed his brother's GPS unit, Thelma II, and they have actually disagreed on the route to take!!!)  Thank goodness for cell phones car to car.

We ate dinner at La Torrendos, a real Mexican restaurant which is fairly close to our motel.  We have a bit of motion sickness from riding for more than nine hours. (You know that Randy and I don't like "power driving." We're more the ambling type........the "roamers.")

We anticipate a lovely evening and a good night's sleep here.

 We have rented a beach house in Ocean Isle, North Carolina for a week, starting tomorrow. It's the beach town where my former husband and I used to take our kids for beach trips when they were little.  Meredith actually selected the house online and we did the entire rental by computer.  It's a house that sleeps more than the three of us, but we couldn't convince Stephen to leave home with us.  (Meredith's little Yorkie, Boogie, is staying with a friend.)  I cannot believe that I failed to mention the destination.............except in the title...........

.............but I guess that's because we so infrequently HAVE a "destination!"