Road Trips and Life's Little Adventures

Well, I'm still recovering.
I'm just not used to being this inactive.

Saffy and I were e-mailing and I told her I wished I could just get in the car and DRIVE for the sake of taking a road trip.

I miss doing that.
High and Skyrocketing gas prices these days prohibit it from happening.(And they ARE high! To our standards, anyway. I remember when gas wars would have gas prices down to 5 CENTS a gallon and the REGULAR price for a gallon was 50 CENTS! Now compared to THAT- Gas prices NOW are DRAMATICALLY higher!)
I get jealous every time I see Ozzy mentioning his motorcycle cause I know they are GREAT on gas consumption and I WANT one and if I HAD one I could do a road trip anytime I liked.

Someday Paulius and I are gonna get a bike and we are going to just hop on and ride all day. I swear we will.

I remember the last two spur of the moment road trips I went on.

The first one me and my BFF of 40 years-(OMG- has it BEEN that LONG?)- Rhonni, borrowed Clays little CRX and went to lunch at the Asian House in town. After a long leisurely lunch, we strolled out to the car and I asked what she had planned to do for the rest of the afternoon and she said nothing.
So I asked her if she wanted to go buy a lottery ticket and she said sure!
So what I didn't tell her is that we always went to a certain spot just across the line to BUY the tickets, so off we went. On a 40 mile scenic route road trip to buy a lottery ticket. We live in Upstate SC and have some of the most beautiful country in the entire country all around us. Lakes, mountains, rivers, meadows and forests- we got it all- and the beach is only a few hours away as well. Close enough for a day-trip there.
Anyway, I digress....
We got to the lottery spot in about an hour and a half and bought our tickets. 2 each -and we WON about 50 dollars. So we were VERY happy campers!
We decided since Clay had loaned me the car for the day we would just ride back the REALLY LONG scenic route. So I bought a RC Cola and a Moon-pie and Rhonni bought a Dr.Pepper and some Doritos and we fueled up the CRX and off we went.
We went back thru Clayton Georgia and then wound our way to Scenic Highway 11 and drove thru a part of the North Carolina mountains.

Miles and miles of beautiful views with nothing on our minds but the beauty of our surroundings and the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair.
We stopped at a little cafe and got a bit of dinner somewhere up there in one of the quaint little towns we drove thru, a little mom and pop operation and you KNOW the food was better than just good and we didn't worry a bit about how much fat was in any of it.

We talked to our hearts content about anything and everything. Our families, our Hopes for the future, our dreams that had fallen along the wayside. Three states in one day.
It was a great day. One that will stay in my memories forever.
I wish we had thought to bring a camera.

Which brings me to my LAST Road-trip.

This one Paulius and I went on.
We had made quasi plans to go on a mountain ride that day.
We got up about mid-morning and hoped in the car and off we went towards the general direction of the Highway 11 area.
Again, beautiful spring day, sun shining, mild temps. Just beautiful!
So we got to the breaking off point and decided to go o North Carolina mountains. We pull onto the highway and drive , enjoying the views and scenery. We stopped and got a couple Cokes and some chips. We got some Boiled peanuts and Paulius tried some. He didn't much care for them, but I LOVE them and took care of the rest of them. Paulius is more the Roasted Peanut type, I think. And I have to agree that they ARE a more neat treat to eat, but that's half the fun of the boiled peanuts, getting the juices all over you.
Well, we came to another junction and decided to go a way I had never been before- have a REAL Life's Adventure for once and take a chance with the new and different.
Well, we rode, and rode, and talked, and talked. And then we rode some more til we came up on a nice sized town. That I had NEVER heard of before. And I had driven all UP in those mountains for a courier company.
That's when things started becoming a bit hairy.
All the sudden we were out in the middle of nowhere, and to make matters worse, a mountain Thunderstorm blew up out of nowhere and it was SPITTING!!!!
We actually had to pull over and wait on the rain to stop before we could go on.
We were still laughing at this point- but the laughter was beginning to sound a bit nervous.
Well, the rain finally stopped and we backtracked as best we could figure and the first town we came to we stopped and called my Dad since none of the convenience stores seemed to sell maps of the state or area and I just didn't trust anyone to give us correct directions at that point. (Mountain people in those Quaint little towns have a strange sense of humor and would be just as likely to send us on a wild goose-chase just for the fun of it as not.).
He grew up in those parts and he told us where we were-(about 100 miles from anything familiar to ME) and he gave me two sets of directions as to how to get back home. One was the scenic route- the other straight highway.
Can you GUESS which one we chose to return home on?

Yep- the highway.
Once we got back to a certain point that I was familiar with, then we veered off the highway and grabbed a bit of dinner before heading back the scenic route again.

When we finally returned home that night we laughed about our Life's Adventure.....and we laugh even harder about it today. Especially with some of Paulius' viewpoints of the story.
He's bloody hilarious!
And again, I wish we had brought a camera.

Then there was the White-Water Falls Incident when he was just over visiting from England......but I'll save that one for another day. And no- no camera THAT day either.
But NOW we DO have not only a camera but COMPACT CAMCORDER as well!