September 16, 2019—It was a L-O-N-G day. Actually, two long
days. We drove 1,232 miles in two days, starting in Warwick, R.I. We passed
through Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina
before we hit the Florida border. That’s a lot of states!
On the way up to the reunion, we pretty much adhered to I95,
only altering the course when “Garmina” (our GPS lady) told us to go a
different way. I think we had programmed her to avoid as many tolls as
possible, so she took us off the interstate through some areas we hadn’t
planned on traveling—such as through Jersey City, the Bronx, and the Hutchinson
River Parkway in New York and the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. We were very
glad that we were not driving our truck camper; manipulating it through the
city would have been challenging enough, but on the parkways, we discovered
that some of the underpasses were only about nine feet! (The truck camper is
about 12 feet tall.)
One evening, Jim was talking about our trip to another
reunion attendee. He said he never goes down I95, and he proceeded to tell us
the route he takes when he drives south. When we got back to our room, Jim took
out our atlas and planned a more scenic and less stressful (albeit a bit
longer) route. We were glad we took it.
As a born-and-raised flatlander, I love to look at mountains—from
a distance. (I have no desire to live in them. The closest I came to living in
mountains was in the early 1970s when I lived in Connecticut, which has the
Berkshire Mountains.) The route we drove home took us through the Appalachians,
including the Blue Ridge Mountains. (See photos below).
Our first day of driving was overcast and a bit rainy. The
second day, however, was clear. As we started out in the morning, we could see
mist in the valleys. The vistas were outstanding. Lest we forget that we were,
indeed, in mountainous country, we occasionally would see signs warning trucks
to brake and if their brakes were to fail, to use the runaway truck ramp plowed
into the mountain side.
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| The orange sign indicates a runaway truck ramp, which can be seen in the distance as a cut through the forest. |
Two days on the road in a car traveling more than 1,200
miles is a test of relationships, but we survived it. We also survived some
road rage: A woman entering the interstate pulled into our lane and almost
sideswiped us. Jim blasted the horn and fortunately was able to pull out of the
way. The woman then gave him “the finger” through her sunroof. She pulled ahead
of us and slowed down. Jim tried to pass, but as he signaled, she pulled into
the passing lane to stop us. This in-and-out went on for a while. And during it
all, she smirked and kept giving us the finger. It could have been worse.
We both agree that we prefer traveling in our RV and
taking our sleeping and eating accommodations with us.
We pulled into our driveway at 6 p.m. last night, after a
6 hour and 25 minute drive. We slept well in our own comfortable bed.
Until our next adventure,
Your Reluctant RoVer,
Linda
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