Easy Day's Drive

We woke up this morning to see a thick fog covering the Walmart parking lot.  I turned on the tv for local news and found out the fog was blanketing the area, but would burn off quickly.  That was when I decided that getting an early start wasn't such a good idea and we took it easy getting ready to hit the road again.

Fog clearing up

The traffic on I-81 South was light and we made good time traveling down the road.  Once we got onto I-77 South, the traffic picked up a little, but not enough to slow us down.  The tractor trailer trucks with heavy loads were another story since we were beginning the ascent over the mountain on the VA/NC border.  One truck in particular had a load of steel, was barely moving 40mph and was holding up traffic.  I don't know how he did on the really steep grades just ahead of him.

The downhill run of 7.5 miles had numerous run away truck ramps spaced about a mile apart.  The lower we go, the more the ramps had been used.  I downshifted the transmission and let the exhaust retarder do it's job and maintained a safe 50 mph descent.  I love the exhaust brake and the job it does.

We arrived at the campground and were almost set up when Barbara & Henry showed up with some great sandwiches and cold beer.  We were happy to see them and started chatting non stop and it stayed like that for a couple hours.  Henry and I transferred the load in the back of the Saturn to Barb's Avalanche.  Part of the load even carried over to the front seat.  They went back home to do some chores and we finished up with setting up the motorhome.

Later we went to their house for more visiting and a small cookout on their patio.  We didn't take any pictures since we were beat and just wanted to relax.  More conversation followed and we wound up staying there until about 11pm.  By this time we were very tired and ready to call it a day.   

Now it is time for feather bed ball, so good night.