Step onto the Road

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

Destination: Norfolk, Virginia
Total Miles: 430ish
Total Cost: (starting cost for yesterday) $40

It's that time of year again...spring is in the air. The threat of snow has subsided. The sun shines a little brighter. And the roads stretch with seemingly endless miles ahead of me.

Spring Break.


Having been sufficiently grounded to the Upstate of South Carolina for months, I have broken the chains of labor forged by school, work, and clinicals! It's time to travel, see new sights, visit relatives and friends, spend hours in one of my favorite places: Mr. Darcy. (Who, I am pleased to report, is clean and celebrating with me, today, 39 months of being my car.)


And in the wee hours of the morning on our drive, we crossed over to 88,888 miles!!!

This trip finds me headed back up north to fulfill a promise I made at the end of last summer when the LPs and I visited DC and Philly (the links are all to different posts for that trip). The promise: visit Philadelphia again and learn more about our nation's first capital.

Yesterday's drive began after classes and midterms finished. The first leg of the trip involved visiting a baby at Greenville Memorial. Not my typical start to trips, but one I deemed necessary. After insuring he would behave while I was gone (and maybe come back to SRHS), I hit the road. And rush hour traffic.

Armed with pretzels and hummus, I staved off hunger and drove until I had no gas...which was somewhere near Oxford, NC off I-85. Horatio joined me in partaking of the hummus.

The trip was fairly uneventful. I was reminded of last year's March trip and the long drive in the dark. Rather like something out of a zombie trailer. Hardly any traffic out, especially once I was past Greensboro, NC. And by the time I hit the really-long-and-boring-road-that-cuts-across-Virginia (aka US 58), traffic was at a bare minimum.

Fifteen.

The number of vehicles I passed or passed me from the time I pulled on to 58 to the time I reached Norfolk. Yes, it was that boring.

Good thing I love to drive!

But no worries! Today, I am spending time with friends. And who knows what tomorrow holds?!

Stay tuned. :)