Virginia to North Carolina

We woke up on our final morning at the Thomas’ home, got packed and ready to go, played with Emma just a bit more, then headed out.

We followed Ryan through the streets of Blacksburg and Christiansburg to get to the Waffle House, a Southern staple. It was after 11 am by the time we had breakfast, so it really ended up being both breakfast and lunch. The waffles were great, as was the bacon. The waitresses had great Virginia accents, and one of them had quite a mustache.

Then Ryan headed back home and we hopped on the interstate. We drove through Virginia toward North Carolina, and before we knew it, we were in Greensboro, NC, about an hour from our destination.

We went shopping at Target to buy some gifts for Daniel and Andrew Bear, and hung out a bit, then got back on I-40. We were rather confused for a while about the directions, because Yahoo! maps had told us to look out for Exit 273, and the exit numbers where we were showed in double digits (approximately 47). there were also alternate, “old” exit numbers that were about 141, but that didn’t quite match our expectations related to the distance we had to go. But finally, when I-40 split from I-85, the exit numbers were closer to what we expected, and the rest of the directions actually got us where we needed to go – Durham, NC.

We arrived around 3:45 pm at the home of our friends Jim & Suze Bear. Suze was in the process of trying to get Andrew (who is about 6 months old) to take a nap, and Daniel (who is 2 years old) had just gotten up from his nap. We gave the boys the toys we bought them, and Daniel enjoyed playing with both of them. Andrew enjoyed his as much as a six-month-old even notices anything.

The rest of the evening was chill. We played with the babies and chatted with Suze. Jim came home from work around 6 pm and we had salad with grilled chicken for dinner – very yummy, and perfect for a sticky summer night. After the boys went to bed, we had a great time catching up, since we hadn’t seen each other in over a year.