Here We Go Again!

Friday, May 13, 2011
Day 1 Summerville SC to Charlotte NC 200 Miles



After an intense few days preparing the house for a long absence and packing the RV, we finally climbed into the RV at 9:30 this morning. Earlier, I had kissed my tomato plant goodbye,taken a photo of my planter, and then gave them to my next door neighbor. 




Goodbye...


The tanks were filled, the refrigerator stocked, all dog the paraphenalia stored away...and unlike our 2008 departure, we remembered to put the dogs onboard! So...we managed to pack everything, right?

Driving along I77 about 45 minutes from our destination, I turned to Jim. "Where is TOM TOM?" I could tell from his expression that good 'ol TOM wasn't anywhere in within the confines of our 30 foot, rolling, metal box. We both knew where our navigator TOM was - under the console of my CRV, presently sitting locked in our garage. Oh crap...

Hard to believe, but there was a time when people could actually find their way around without navagation, remember those things called MAPS? A fact that I mentioned to Jim. No dice, he wanted a new TOMTOM pronto. I don't understand why...all he does is argue with TOM. "No, that damn thing is wrong! Turn it off!" About 99% of the time, guess who is wrong?

Funny though, I remember last year as we were traveling through Arkansas(...or was it Oklahoma?) and the highway dept was in the proces of compleltly replacing the east-bound lanes of I40. I do mean completely...right down to the roadbed, everything was ripped up and they were starting from scratch to replace the highway. To accomplish this they shifted the east bound lanes into west-bound side, turning it into two-way road that stretched for miles. Poor TOMTOM couldn't quite understand about the re-construction of the road, to TOM it appeared that we were blissfully cruising along at 60 miles per hour...ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY!!!

TOMTOM tried to save our lives, truely he did. Watching the display, we giggled at how he kept jumping over to where the old lanes were. Then the pleaded, "Turn around when possible." Several minutes of that without success Tom tried another approach as he sensed an exit, "Sharp right! Sharp right! Sharp right!!!!" Poor Tom, surprised he didn't melt a circut that day!

Shortly after lunchtime we arrived in the Charlotte area. We are in a campground adjacent to the speedway and a dragstrip. Woo hoo (sarcasticly) thankfully there are no races taking place this weekend...racing is HIS thing, not mine. We are here for Jim's friend's son's college gratuation tomorrow. Unfortunately, the closest campground to his friend's house is here at the track...and it's got nothin'...no WIFI, cable, pool...but on the positive side, there is a kick-ass MALL right down the road! Oh...and there is a golf course within walking distance. Guess where he spent the afternoon?

So here I am, watching the late news, blogging 'Day #1' on wordpad and with no photos to show. I always take photo of the RV in front of the house, but in our rush to leave on schedule, I forgot. Other than that...there was nothing 'photo worthy'...

Oh, and I did take the car up to that mall...our TOMTOM in the car at home now has a new big brother!