Monday, March 24, 2008 - Road-Trip from West Virginia to
Charleston, SC
With the Commander packed the night before, we
had nothing to do in the morning but pull on our clothes. Once again the
roof box swallowed all our luggage, leaving enough space in the rear cargo area
for folding chairs, walking sticks, umbrellas, etc.
Movie (11MB - Click)
We were all hungry so we went with a breakfast
stop we knew - the local IHOP at the Glenmark shopping center right here in
Morgantown. We all had our usual favorites and were back on the road by
8:30AM.
We drove out Route 68 and then took Route 79
South. Along the way Maria wanted to drive through the Stonewall Jackson
Lake State Park to see what it was like. We found a nice place with pretty
gold courses and no doubt some great outdoor recreation.
I recalled that the night before I had not
purchased the small day packs I had promised the boys so around 10:30 AM we
stopped at the Wal*Mart in Summerville, WV to get the backpacks, complete with
water bladders. The hike we'd taken a couple weeks earlier revealed that
the old book bags we had were a bit large and heavy for day hiking so these
packs were purchased to lighten the load and provide a water source in the
bargain.
We stayed on the road until we reached the Travel
Center of America at 1:05PM where I fueled up (17.681 gallons). From there
we stayed on the road for another hour and then stopped at the KFC in Elkin
Valley, NC at about 2:15pm.
From there it was another 3 hours on the road and
then another fuel stop at the Shell in St. Matthew, SC at 5:18pm. We
took on 14.751 gallons.
After that it was me doing my usual road-warrior
thing - we didn't stop again until we reached the hotel in North Charleston, SC
at 7:00PM. The kids burned up a few DVD's, and got halfway through new
PlayStation and Nintendo DS games. Maria and I listened to most of an audio
book. Don't underestimate the value of these things for keeping peace on
the long boring part of road trips like these!
We unpacked the Commander and got a quick change
then drove downtown to King Street arriving at about 8:00PM. We walked
until we found Basil Thai - the smells coming out of the restaurant were
heavenly. We got on the 30 minute waiting list and went next door to their
Chai's Lounge and Tapas to wait for our table for dinner.
Our dinner at Basil Thai was every bit as good as
the smells coming out of it. We had a great meal with everyone ordering
something and sharing with the rest of us.
After dinner, around 9:50PM, we went back to
the hotel to charge our batteries (literally and figuratively). We reached
the hotel at about 10:03 and were all out cold not long after! What a day!
Here's a preview of all the places we visited white in Charleston:
