April 1 -- on the road again -- no foolin !

We got away around 6:15 a.m. finally getting all those last minute things done. Traffic was heavy all day, very heavy. I had not counted on this being the beginning of many kid's spring break since Easter weekend is coming up. RV's a-plenty, most towing cars, we were one of the few towing a boat.

We did our usual, catching up with George Cederholm, Tracy Dunham, Bill & Collette Nelson and a couple of others while driving. I've always found that driving is a great time to give mostly undivided attention to phone calls. George is still stuck in Oregon since he blew an injector on Friday in the diesel engine in his rig within 20 miles of leaving to go home to Phoenix. He expects to be out of there by noon on Wednesday, home in time for us to arrive !

Just south of Charlotte NC we came to a standstill and waited and crawled and waited -- we lost about 45 minutes. Since we had brought sandwiches (we are very tired of fast food) our only stops were gas at the beginning and half-way plus 2 rest stops to let Abby out and use restrooms.

We made it to Linda Wilder's just before 6:15 p.m. -- 12 hours. 726 miles -- according to maps.google.com -- 11:15 according to them, plus our lost 45 minutes = 12 hours -- perfect timing !

Another lesson learned -- I was checking the boat when we arrived at Linda's and noticed a bunch of blue all over the stern and realized that it is 2 cycle engine oil -- the lesson ? don't top off the engine oil before driving long distance with the engine tilted ! It will clean with citrus cleaner.

It was great to see Linda and Alec -- their house is beautiful ! They have done an amazing job. It's much more "finished" than ours (basement completed too and furnished throughout). They installed us in the self-contained 2 bedroom apartment in the basement. Abby is behaving herself -- she is not allowed on the hardwood upstairs.

The plan for tomorrow is that I'll go for a ride while Linda and Sandy go into town. Alec will be working in Lexington.

If you read these things you probably notice that I usually write them the day after but write in the present tense -- well, it's 6:35 a.m. local time on April 2nd as I write this one and the sky is starting to get light. I'll soon see the sunrise over the mountains -- it's all mist in the valleys at this point with the tops showing. Abby is patiently sleeping at my feet -- giving the occasional "sigh" since she is hungry. Her food is out in the car (as is mine) -- so we'll go out soon and deal with that. I've had my coffee ... I've checked email ... time to check CNN ... let the day begin !