The family rises eventually at around 9:00 AM and we head down to the hotel lobby for breakfast. It’s a very busy place as the hotel is full to the doors for Easter weekend. We soon find a table and everyone helps themselves to a nourishing breakfast and it’s a quarter to 10 before you know it. “I guess there’s not enough time for a swim”, says I to the kids... but the desk clerk overhears and cheerfully suggests that a noon checkout is no problem. So the kids head back to the room to suit up and I take the kids to the pool so Colleen can catch a few more Z’s.

 

By the time the swim is over and the bus is reloaded and refueled we are hitting the highway at noon. Not nearly as soon as I had hoped, but I’m not going to stress about it... We are on vacation! I give Jamie Auch a call to let him know we’re off schedule. The weather is perfect for a road trip: clear and bright and traffic is not too bad. There seems so be fewer trucks on the interstate than usual thanks to the Easter Weekend, and I am not complaining.

 

Heading South we soon notice the grass greening up on the roadside and the first bug-splat of 2006 hits the windshield at 1:03 PM EST. The forests are still grey and foreboding for a few hours, but as we get down into southern PA we can see some budding and there are leaves showing in some of the trees as we cross over into West Virginia.

 

It’s a long way down from I-90 to North Carolina... The drive to Pittsburgh is a piece of cake but after you get to Morgantown, WV the miles just sort of drag by as you follow the signs along I-77 to Rt (R-OW-T) 19 to Beckley. After Beckley we can sense our destination is getting closer and the sense of anticipation kicks in; but there are still many miles to go and we stop around 9:00 PM in VA for some road food and fuel to sustain us. We get to Clemmons, NC and promptly make a wrong turn getting off the interstate; but Clemmons is not big enough to get severely lost in and we are back on target in only a couple of minutes. We follow the winding roads into Jamie’s neighborhood and pull into his driveway a couple minutes after 11PM.

 

Jamie comes out to greet us and show us their new house... Christina had already gone to bed but soon re-appears and helps get the kids settled in. Colleen and I take our gear to the guest room and I crack a cold one with Jamie to catch up on things and find out in person how he is enjoying life in NC. (Immensely, and no wonder!). Eventually I wind down and at around 1:30 I bid Jamie goodnight and head back to the guest room for some much-needed shut-eye.