Putting the suitcase away....

The last road trip of the year...so far as I know, anyway.

Drove myself to a large cabin in the mountains of North Carolina...taking a very roundabout route to avoid all of the 'essential travel only' areas that are marked in both North Carolina and Tennessee.  I decided I'd talk about the trip itself here...and the reason for the trip (a small writer's conference) over on the other blog, once I get it processed enough down to coherency.

I will just say that the willingness to make the 7ish hour drive by myself, in completely unfamiliar territory, is evidence that I REALLY, REALLY wanted to go.

I had obsessed over Google maps for the previous, like, month, trying to figure out the best way to go.  I had a plan, including a stop on the way back to visit with a friend in East Tennessee, then Helene tore through and wrecked all those plans.

My friend lives in the 'essential travel only' (henceforth ETO) area.  We discussed meeting up on the edge of said area for a bit as I went by, but she ultimately decided it was going to be too tough to get in and out.  We were sad to not get together (it's been 5 years since we last met up) but...too hard is too hard.

And google maps played with me.  I had planned one route out;  based on what I saw on the North Carolina maps, it looked like the route was good east bound, with some lane closures west bound, so I was going to take the longer route home, with a stop on the way (which I had planned before it became obvious I couldn't meet up with my friend.  Just decided to keep the overnight west of Knoxville to make the trip home easier).  But when I actually tried to bring up the route on my aging tablet  in the driveway before pulling out, the North Carolina route didn't even show up.  Instead, I had the option of going through the ETO area in Tennessee, or driving down to Atlanta and then back North.  And my tablet kept losing the GPS signal; that worried me.

I decided I'd stop for coffee in Starbucks in Chattanooga and check the map again and see what I got.

Then had problems with a tire pressure light about 8 miles from the house.  Not going into the details; turns out it was a problem with the sensor but I lost nearly half an hour dealing with it.  Worth noting that the problem never showed up again on the entire trip.

So, a potty break being a necessity, I stopped at a McDonalds about 1/2 of the way to Chattanooga, scrapping the Sbux plan, got a biscuit, hit the bathroom, and looked at the routes again.  I gave up on the tablet and pulled GM up on the phone.  Still wanted me to go to Atlanta or through the ETO area of Tennessee. I figured there was a problem on the North Carolina route, so  I manually selected the all-interstate route that went up into Virginia to connect with the ONLY interstate that currently crosses North Carolina, the route I planned to use coming back, and got back on the road.

As I approached where I would have headed East, had I been given the option of the NC route, Google suddenly says 'We've found a faster route that will save you 14 minutes'  At that point, I was a little weirded out..  Was there or was there not a problem on that route?  As I got closer to that exit, I decided to stick with my (only 14 minutes, right?) longer route as a Sure Thing and kept going.  I assumed Google would revert back to my route choice, my phone screen being too small to quickly see where it was heading.  I relied on the voice directions, but I had a basic idea of where I was going.

Wrong.  I kept an eye on the ETA (we had been asked to be there between 4 and 5 Eastern) and I was looking pretty good.  Until I got the 'In two miles, take the exit to I 26/ Johnson City' alert.  Apparently, somewhere it had defaulted back to that ETO route  (why, Google??  Why???) and THAT was the '14 minutes longer' one...not the route through VA that I had selected.  It kept trying to reroute me that way at every exit I encountered until I got to Virginia.  Where I discovered that the I-77 exit wasn't around 40-50 miles in, as I had kinda rough estimated from looking at the maps, it was EIGHTY miles in.

I was going to be a bit late.

I knew the 4 - 5 o'clock time recommendation was a  bit ahead of the actual start of the event, but still, it put some stress on me at that point.

There was, however, a real treat going that way.

Virginia. Was. GORGEOUS.

ALL the trees were in full fall color.  One specific tree made a big impression...about 25 miles in, in the middle of the median (which was pretty wide at that point) was a huge, full, rounded maple tree on which all the leaves were a vibrant orange.  The sunlight lit it up so that it almost looked as if it were glowing.  None of the branch tips were bare yet; I'm telling you, it was magnificent.  Took my breath away.

The whole corridor was just brilliant with golds, yellows, reds, oranges..  It was hard to pay attention to the traffic, which was pretty heavy and needed attention. I stole glances as best I could at the display as I passed through.

But there was another treat.  Almost immediately upon getting on I77, which was nearly bumper to bumper in places and running 30 - 40 mph (I did say it is the only interstate that crosses NC right now...), there was a sign warning of an over 7-mile-long descent ahead.  The road literally ran down the bluff and the view off to the left was just unbelievable.  It was a bit hazy, but I could see for miles and miles.  I was glad we were going slow, it gave me the chance to look over at it three or four times on the way down.

It was not really visible on the way back, being over my shoulder as I went up the hill.  If I had come the other way, I wouldn't have seen it.

I got to my destination at about 5:30, with half an hour to get situated in my room before the event began with dinner. Just enough time to shake off the road stress, lol.

I was a bit bummed on both the trip out and the return trip that I couldn't share the beauty;  no one was with me to see it.  I couldn't take photos while I was driving.  It was a purely transitory experience.

Sunrise from the deck of the lodge on Saturday morning....

I will say the conference was worth the trip.  And I will also say that I'm glad I can collect all my travel gear and put it back in its storage spot for the foreseeable future.

And get back into creative mode again.