On vacation

For probably the first time in 8 years we managed to get through Virginia without getting lost. Though gas stations remain elusive around Lynchburg. Hotels and restaurants abound but gas stations are hidden from view. I hate going into restaurant bathrooms when all I need is to use the facilities. Like I am committing a crime buy using a bathroom in a place where I buy nothing. Gas stations though expect you to use their restrooms & not buy things.

We did track one down eventually for the boys and then found our way right back to the highway. We managed North Carolina fine, though gas stations continued to be elusive. We were able to get on all the various interstates with no confusion. We  made very good time with little traffic. The boys watched various movies and played intermittently with the DS. DH & I listened to The Color of Magic

We arrived in Walterboro SC, at 10:30pm along with every other mini van on the highway and finally got one of the last 3 rooms in town. Next to the elevator, on the second floor. You’d think with it being 11p and the hotel being full the elevator use would come to a end fairly soon. But no.

And of course the boys were up at 6a. We were greeting the dawn at the Waffle House at 6:45. We were on the road by 7:30.

This time we got lost on I10, which never happens because it is an interstate & all the exits are clearly marked. But somehow we drove 12 miles past it without realizing.  The final area of confusion was at Gainsville, which is not actually on I75 but rather just near it so you have to by/around/through Gainsville to get there. There are some signs saying I75 this way but no mileage mentioned. Google’s directions with their little maps that don’t show anything more than the turning point left us confused as to just where we were. And given neither of us trusts  Google maps all that much, we were fairly sure we were lost actually, though since we were following directions we were not lost technically.

I’m fairly sure there is a better way to get to I75 than Google told us. I’m even more sure that going to Ocala & getting on I75 is easier. I’ll be keeping that in mind in future.

But eventually the long tedious stretch of I75 began. Miles of flat road with palm trees. The thing I find most tedious about I75 is the lack of ice cream shops. ( I don’t know why I associate ice cream & Florida but I always *want* it while I am here. It’s a like a switch in brains says “Oh Florida state line? Where is the soft serve?) All the way down there was a DQ every hour just about, or a Coldstone.But after that first exit on 75, where we had lunch, there is nothing until Ft Meyers, which is 20 minutes from my parents’ house. And we just can’t bring ourselves to stop for ice cream 20 minutes from our destination (after which we will have ample time to go get ice cream whenever we want). I spend the whole 4 hours watching FOOD signs go by hoping for a Dairy Queen and am disappointed over and over again.

We made excellent time though. We were here at 5:40, 2 hours before my parents expected us. We went out to CiCi’s for dinner. I was all for it because there is a Baskin Robbins right next to it.

But they had closed.

It’s now Monday and I still have not achieved a waffle cone or peanut butter milkshake.