We left Ohio to return to Givens Ferry State Park, South Carolina (where we left our home) at 7AM Wednesday. It was bitter cold at 2 degrees!!!! Blaine actually did something he never does – – he left the Jeep running as we loaded it up. Other than that, it started out as a great travel day – clear skies, not much traffic. The GPS said our ETA was 4:45pm.
We didn’t get home until after 6:30.
Three and a half hours in, we ran into icicles and light snow in West Virginia, but nothing to really stop us.
I know the pictures don’t match what I’m saying about traffic.
The empty roads are just before the stop.
It was the traffic! It was like driving in rush hour most of the way home! Two different times, we were completely stopped or slowed to a crawl, causing a 50-minute delay. Our only rest stop was 3 minutes. Thank goodness we stopped! Our first 20-minute delay (to go 2 miles) happened immediately after we got back on the road! And we were in a ‘no service’ area, so we couldn’t even see what was going on. Turned out to be road work and as we approached the lane closure, there was a lot of jockeying for position going on as everyone was in a hurry.
Icicles while you wait . . .
Lunch was 15 minutes and a bit unusual as we quickly discussed what we had in the car to eat as Blaine pumped gas. The gas station had plastic forks in the ‘take out’ area, so we grabbed one and opened the peanut butter and jelly and chips, added a few well-traveled grapes and voila! Lunch was served!
Blaine tried valiantly to make up time, but the traffic was just too much for him to conquer.
You do notice some funny (as in odd) things when you’re forced to slow down. We passed a building advertising, “BOAT, RV, AND WINE STOREAGE”. OK. I get the boat and RV, but wine????
Dinner was a much-needed stop at a Shoney’s. It’s all we could find. The food was OK, but the atmosphere was a little too laid back for us. Our server was nice, though. It was basically just ‘eat and get home’ for us – which is why we chose the buffet.
Thank God for traveling mercies!
We love our family and friends and will miss them, but it’s good to be home.