2 Rv's to NC, one to Mocksville, one to Concord

... spending the night at Mocksville NC ...

Breakfast, bagged. One bottle of water, one fruit, one Rice Crispy bar. Plus they had yogurt in the fridge and juice in the machine. Some juice. I wanted the Orange Pineapple, but it tasted like water. So I had a mix of grape and apple.

1st stop was right across the street at the grocery store's gas station. $2.13. It went down a penny since last night. BB thought she would have enough fuel from here to make it ... I hoped I would.

Not too far down the road BB moves to the left lane to let in someone merging on. They speed up enough to stay beside her and there is now a line of cars behind both. I finally slow down enough that she can catch up and then passes me to get back in the right lane. Working together :)

2nd stop is the Pilot in Chillicothe OH for a rest stop. Quick in and out.

We had looked last night at all the places to stop today and when we realized there would be five stops instead of four, BB was too tired to start over. If we had started over, one of the places we might have stopped was at a rest area on US-35. It is on the wrong side of the road and that is why BB didn't want to stop there, some online comments were that it was dangerous. As in having to cross and enter traffic that is going 65 mph. The road is not a freeway at this point.

And where the road is not freeway, in places the speed limit is 55 mph. After one of those 55 mph places, BB finally passed me after I ignored the second 65 mph sign ... guess I was day dreaming ... a little. I had noticed we were back to overpasses but missed the signs.

Finally when we are in WV I pass here when she slows down because her RV starts tacking out at 4,000 rpms. Mine didn't ... yet.

On US-35 in WV they are getting closer to being done making the road a four lane from IL to the freeway. When I started it was all two lanes. Then sometime when I was looking, was running this route, both ends became four lane. Now we can see the bridges are done and the base is mostly done on the last stretch. It's still hilly, but four lane will be good. It isn't quite as bad if you don't get behind a farmer going 15 mph :)

On that stretch of US-35 I noticed that one of the buildings at the feed mill had totally burnt. Just a pile of metal from what had been inside ... then a few miles down the road there was a remains of a house that was still smoking after being burnt.

Then another half hour down the road in Cross Lanes I see that the Barnyard BBQ is a pile of brick. Couldn't tell on that one if it had burned or just been knocked over. Lots of brick and stuff to have been knocked over unless they just buried it.

3rd stop, Cross Lanes at the Honey Baked. We had looked last night online and the Honey Baked web site says this location is closed on Sundays. But Google maps said it was open. By the time we were looking it was too late to call so we took a chance and drove past it. It looked open so I stopped, went up and opened the door. It was open :)

So I order their chicken salad sandwich and BB orders a turkey salad sandwich. We decided to eat inside as last time no one came the whole time we were at one. And today no one is here. But as we sat there, there may have been a dozen people come and go. None ate inside and it is a large area.

Just past Charleston is our only toll road for the trip, three toll stops. We both had our passes out this AM so we are good.

Good, other than I almost get rear ended coming out of the toll booth. Leaving the toll both the road turns a little to the left and then to the right so you can't see very far. I had just got up to speed and I see the truck that had been ahead of me at the toll both is almost stopped around the bend. I hit the breaks and then look back, the person behind me is on the shoulder beside me ... BB ... ?? ... she says she had just 'glanced down' to look at her speed to set the cruise and when she looked up I was stopped. She managed not to hit me and get her four ways on in a second ... and she kind of rearranged her personal stuff she has sitting loose in the RV.

4th stop is the Tamarack Oasis for a rest break. Way less than two hours but the next leg will be two hours.

No, as in -0-, scales open this trip. One less thing to worry about.

By now I am watching my fuel. I think I will have about a 40 mile range left when we get to the next stop. It holds, even with the steep up hills and the 99.9 mpg down hills. I've found that if I start at the top of the hill at 60 mph or less the rpm's won't go over 4,000. And I have also found that the mpg doesn't change going down hill, either 2,000 rpms or 4,000 rpms, it is still 99.9 mpg.

Should have stopped in WV for fuel at Loves. $1.89. Instead we had planned on stopping five miles down the road at the Flying J. Once we were that close I am trying to figure out how many gallons I need. And I'm flipping through the screens on my dash. I know this road, I know that the next exit after the freeway splits is where I want to turn off. Opps, I miss all the blue signs and the next thing I know I am crossing a bridge. This Flying J sits below road level so as I go over the bridge I am looking over my left shoulder, the cross road runs at an angel right there. FYING J. I quick glance to my right and take a hard right to get on the clover leaf.

5th stop Flying J near Mt Airy. This may be our last time stopping here. It is easy to miss, Loves has a sign you can see for miles away, Flying J is completely hidden from the road. Fuel price, Loves was $.30 cents per gallon less. And this place is old and congested, Loves has a lot more room.

I'm getting 18.8 mpg so I put in enough to get another 100 miles. I should still be coming in under a 40 mile range.

The motel next door used to be a Best Westnern, it is now the Bryerson Inn. We stayed there we BB had her '40-foot' flat bed truck, she managed to get it turned around in their lot as we could not drive around the building. Biggest truck she has driven, and likely ever will.

50 more miles to go. Somewhere down the road a car passes us dragging it's bumper into the right lane. The who plastic bumper. Finally a mile or two down the road they suddenly pull over, like they just noticed it ???

We exit off of the freeway onto a four lane express way, and then on to a two lane US highway. Nice road but only a foot from the white line to the drop off.

6th and final stop is at the Comfort Inn in Mocksville. We get upgraded, another perk of being a diamond member. And we are getting close to a months worth of free nights in rewards points. The current promotion will be over in a week.

Closest food is Pizza Hut and Burger King. Then a Sage Steakhouse across the US Highway, we could walk across, just no stop lights and lots of traffic. Instead we decide to walk another block down the street to the Arby's. OK, if I am serious about loosing weight I am going to have to start looking at the numbers ... I thought I was doing good by not ordering a cookie or malt. But after I ordered I saw that what I ordered had almost have again as many calories, is that what they call them? as my 2nd choice.

Tomorrow BB fuels and drops. I do my inspection and then go and log off and wait off duty until she is done. Then another 40 miles and we pick up the car a mile from my fuel and drop.

As of now, I am going to wait to commit to anything heading home. We'll watch the load board in the morning until I drop and maybe a little longer.

Still need to do closer math on the two main runs I am looking at.