Through WV to NC

We didn’t leave Pittsburgh until 4pm, Friday, and drove to Charlotte, NC. According to Google Maps (and Mapquest) it should have taken us 7.5 hours. It took us 10! We didn’t even stop to eat… just a few, quick bathroom stops. My guess is, they didn’t take into account all the ups and downs of the mountain driving. (Plus we had a loaded van, which slowed us down going up the slopes.) Man, that was grueling, at the end… we didn’t get to our hotel until 2am. On the very street of our hotel, the police had the road blocked, and were checking every car. They looked at my license, but, didn’t ask for the proof of insurance (thank Goodness!). Maybe it was a sobriety check point? We aren’t sure. My mom thought she heard there were some escaped prisoners.

The drive through West Virginia was very pretty. The mountains were still mostly covered with bare trees, which none of us have ever seen, in person, before. We didn’t stop, but, we did drive through the counties in WV where Jim found out his Granny’s family used to live. Because we could actually see through the hills, Jim kept spotting old shacks. (He had learned from some cousins that his Great-Grandpa was living in a shack, with his chickens, in his older years. The cousins apparently weren’t allowed to go inside.)

This isn’t a people picture, either. But, it shows the lilacs in bloom, all along the mountains in WV. (This is from the way back, when it was raining.) The lilacs were impressive. All those times driving in the Summer, we never realized there were miles and miles of lilacs along the route!