Today was the last day of our 2010 summer vacation (other than in 2 weeks when we got to a church conference together). We left Bryson City, NC at 7:37 this morning. Neither of us slept too well last night, and so we just got up, ate a poptart, drank a couple cups of coffee, put on a hat and left. We didn't see anybody else out and about. We went down the hill from our cabin, drove up the hill out of the resort, swung through town and got some coffee for the road at McDonald's, and hoped like heck we didn't hear any banjo music playing.
We took rt. 19 north to the Smoky Mountain Expressway (74) East and headed back the same way we came in. But when we got to I-40 we went West instead of East. It drizzled rain on us a little bit winding down to the interstate, but once we hit I-40 we were truckin. We only had one little glitch where the directions took us off the interstate and through this teeny country road, and right back on the same interstate like 7 miles later. It was weird. Anyway, we took I-40 to I-640 around Knoxville, Tn, then caught I-75 north going home. And the traffic was just thick as could be. We still had to wind through some hills and mountains, and I still don't like driving in the stuff; but I especially don't like it with all kinds of idiot drivers that don't know how to drive on the interstate. While driving along I was thinking of a blog post "Rules for Driving on the Interstate." Anyway, it was no fun. I hardly used the cruise control in 9 1/2 hours of interstate driving today.
So, we headed up I-75... We kinda had to make a lot of potty stops (like every hour, I think). We finally made it just north of Lexington, Ky and stopped for lunch. I thought it might be about halfway, and it ended up being just a little over halfway. And I didn't finish my Dr. Pepper from the Lexington Burger King until we pulled in our driveway 4 1/2 hours later!
We also had another little directional blunder coming around Cincinnati. I hate Cincinnati anyhow - I think it's a cursed, devil town - but at the last minute we decided to follow Carrie's gps device and take the bypass around town instead of just staying on 75 through town. We got off, but then it told us to take 275 West. We thought we should have went East, which we did, and... we were wrong. We probably wasted 15-20 minutes going around the city. Anyway, Jane was ready to through the GPS out the window, but we ended up making up with the lady announcer before we got home.
Traffic was still terrible all the way to exit 110 where we caught rt. 33. I just can't believe the people who get in the left lane and don't even drive the stinking speed limit. Then they won't ever get over. I almost ran 2 young girls off the road somewhere in Tennessee or Kentucky. They stayed in the left lane and went 85 down hill, but then slowed to like 55 uphill. And they would never get in the right lane to let people pass. So I finally passed a bunch of cars on the right and just cut right over in front of them. They honked at me, and I reacted with a hand gesture. Then they tried to ride my tail. Hahaha... they've got a thing or two to learn about driving on the interstate. Anyway, road rage was in high gear today.
We finally pulled into the old homestead about 5:15. So it took us about 9 hours and 40 minutes - which is just about what Google said it would take. We covered 577 miles today. The entire trip was 1,734 miles from home to Myrtle Beach to Bryson City and back home.
All in all it was a very nice vacation. No bad weather, no major mishaps, and a good time was had by all.
1 comment:
It was a most awesome week. Counting the days until next year...
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