Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Farifax, Virginia to Florence, South Carolina.

After a great time here in the Virginia area it's time to head south.  Our departure from the Anderson's lovely home is scheduled for a little later, 0900 in order to stay behind the "Wave" of traffic going into and around the Washington area.  We leave their house and work our way to Highway 123 south which will lead us to I-95 which will be the main route for today.
     We are on the outbound side of the heavy traffic and thank goodness.  Looking across to the inbound side and watching those poor souls grinding along at a snails pace makes us feel very happy that we don't have to participate in something like that.  It's frieghtening to watch.
     At the junction of 123 and I-95 it's the same situation, the southbound lane is virtually empty but the northbound is paralyzed.  As we get south of Quantico and some heavy construction the traffic picks up.  Those going south bound for the day have caught up with us.  We are in three lanes of traffic doing 75mph and they are blowing past us.  It's not comfortable.
     At mile marker 113 there is an accident that closes two lanes and traffic is all stop.  It takes thirty minutes to work our way through this mess and the chatter on the CB by the truckers keeps us entertained.  They don't delve into a lot of modern day deep subjects but they are passionate with their opinions.

We are finally out of Virginia and approaching the Rocky Mount, N.C. area and Marguerite remembers a great seafood restaurant chain in the Carolina area called MayFlower Seafood.  It's worth the stop if one is reasonably close.  At the Caronlina welcome center we stop for a hotel coupon book for both North and South Carolina and break out the small Garmin GPS we carry.  It takes a while but we locate a MayFlower restaurant near Wilson that isn't too far off I-95.  Lunch will be there for sure.  The Tuesday Special is Shrimp and Flounder for $6.99, you can't beat it.

 

 

     The lunch break takes about an hour but it's well worth it and we needed a nice break anyway.  During lunch we do some research in the motel coupon book and pick a targert for tonights stay.  Marguerite homes in on a Quality Inn at exit 160 off I-95.  It's newly renovated, and has the best price.
     We get back on I-95 south and grind out the miles.  There really isn't much to see and the road surface leaves a lot to be desired.  After some of the really fun rides in Indiana, this is just the price we have to pay, at least that's what we tell ourselves.
     It's a 400 plus mile day and we don't get into the motel until after six pm.  It's a good thing we used the motel coupon trick, with the coupon our room is $60.00 which includes a hot breakfast. 
A lady that checked in at the same time as Marguertie and didn't have a coupon had to pay $90.00.  We've saved a lot of money over the years by taking advantage of the motel coupon books whenever we can.
     After our huge lunch at MayFlower we really don't want any dinner but Marguerite spots a Bruster's Ice Cream shop that's easy walking distance from the motel.  She says that after a day like today she really needs an ice cream cone just to take the edge off the day.