Travel to North Carolina

Feb 1-5, 2018

Our son-in-law's mother passed away this week and we have decided to drive over to North Carolina to be with the family for the services.  We plan on staying in the on-base hotel as it is the cheapest around.  It is the old Offices Bachelors Quarters so we are not expecting anything fancy.

We left on Thursday around 11:00 or so.  I had to wait for some medication to be delivered before we could leave.  Nick is going to watch the house for us and bring anything inside that gets delivered after we leave.  Thanks, Nick!  The drive is a total of about 650 miles from our house to the base so we planned to break up the drive going there.  We stopped for the night in Beckley, WV at a Choice hotel.  We stopped for lunch on the way in and also visited a Walmart to pick up a couple of things we needed.  The drive was a little over 200 miles.  It rained most of the day.  We went to the Outback by the hotel and Bill got his steak and lobster.  I had prime rib and it was good.  The hotel was fine but I sure miss my memory foam mattress and adjustable bed at home!

Sometime during the night the rain turned to snow and we got almost 4 inches!  Wow!  Didn't expect that.  Also, the water on the car froze so we had to scrape windows and break ice to get the doors open.  Well, Bill had to, not me!  Neither of us slept good so we were up and out early, around 7:30.  The hotel had a nice breakfast that we appreciated before we left.  The main roads were cleared but since we are in the mountains of WV they were steep and curvy so I slowed down.  That added to the trip.  Also, the windshield was getting pretty dirty from the mud being thrown around.  We drove in those conditions all the way into Winston-Salem, NC.  We stopped closer to Raleigh-Durham for lunch at a Cracker Barrel.  I found a shirt I liked and bought it.  I didn't try it on until we got to the hotel on base and it didn't fit.  I will return it to another Cracker Barrel on our way home and see if I can get the next size up.

We made it to the hotel in the late afternoon and checked in.  The room was better than I thought it would be.  We had a suite which consisted of a living room, the bedroom and a bathroom.  The building is a bit old but it was pretty well kept up.  The bed wasn't as comfortable though.  It was a full size and a lot on the soft side.  Needs to be replaced.  I forgot to take pictures of the room.  All in all it was fine for the price.  They have a continental breakfast that we took advantage of the last morning but we went to some local restaurants the other mornings.  After getting settled we drove over to the kids house and visited for awhile before heading back to our room to go to bed.

Saturday morning was the services so we got up and dressed, had breakfast and then headed to the church.  The family had planned a very nice service.  We saw some friends and family while there.  It was cold and windy at the cemetery, aren't they always, but the minister kept the graveside service short.  He did a great job all around.

After the service we headed back to the base to change.  First we stopped by Smirthfield's BBQ and Chicken for lunch.  They have really good hush puppies and Bill was craving some.

I texted this picture to Nick as he really likes them, too.  He was jealous!  Guess they will have to make the drive over so he can get some.  We went to the kids house for a bit and then back home.

Sunday we drove around and checked out some of the changes around town.  They are working outside the back gate of the base to make a new off-ramp for the base.  It looked funny to us as now all the trees that were there are gone.  Guess we will see what it is like the next time we come.  Everyone was planning on meeting at the kids house for the Super Bowl.  We all brought finger foods and had those for dinner.  Something new for us, they start the game at 6:30 PM back here so we only stayed until half time.  We watched the end at our hotel room.  We said goodbye to everyone as we are headed out in the morning.  We packed up as much as we could in preparation for leaving in the morning.

Got up early.  We are anxious to get home.  We have decided to drive the entire way today.  The weather app said there was snow on our route on Sunday and would come again on Tuesday so we decided to drive all the way on Monday.  The drive wasn't back as we each drove half.  We saw there was a big accident up ahead of us at one point on I-77 in VA.  Bill was driving so I quickly found an alternate route and we took some back roads to get around it.  Just as we were heading to get back on I-77 we saw a couple of tow trucks with a big rig that had flipped.  Guess that was the problem.  I don't know how much time we saved but the drive was scenic.  We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel to exchange my blouse but they didn't have the size I wanted either so I returned it and order it online.

We got home around 7:00 PM, safe and sound.  It is cold here and there is snow on the driveway from Sunday. We unpacked and rested before heading to bed.  We are glad we are close enough now to do things like this.  We will be visiting more often.