ROAD TRIP 2008-2009 - Richmond, VA

Well, here we are in Petersburg, VA, just outside of Richmond, in a Rodeway Inn that has very few guests. This is the first place we have stayed that was not well populated by other tourists. I am sitting here in our hotel room typing this as the kids are sleeping. We have one big room, not separate ones like we did in some of the other places. Anyhow, today and yesterday were long days of driving, probably a total of 20 hours on the road, 15 hours of which was just driving time alone. Today we started out in Hardeeville, SC, just outside of Savannah, GA at 8:40 am after a nice hot hotel breakfast. This included my homemade cooking of course- yes, those great Belgian waffles we get to make ourselves. I made 3 for the fam today. Our first stop was at South of the Border, which is located, where else but, just south of the North Carolina border in South Carolina (or north of the South Carolina border in South Carolina, depending on which direction you are coming from.) We did this as a special commemoration of Jon's family's driving trips to Florida when he was young. I remember Aiya mentioning that there was not much there, yet there were all these billboards advertising it, from way back, along Rte 95. We saw the signs starting in North Carolina saying, "183 miles away". Jon alerted me to watch the signs and notice that no two signs are alike. Hell, he was right! They all said something different. Many of them referenced Pedro, who we were sure to meet when we finally arrived. Needless to say, we did not find Pedro, just lots of shops with Mexican and Souveneir things in them. It is actually a HUGE area now. It must have grown since Jon's family was there because there is a Supermarket, various hotels/motels, a Post Office, a Bank, and much more... It was cool, though many would call it "honkeytonk". We had packed our PB&J lunches so we found a picnic table and ate there. The weather was gorgeous at noontime, probably 60 degrees and sunny there. The kids LOVED looking at all the cool chatzkahs (sp?) inside and we did end up buying a few things, just for kicks. We left there and continued on to our next stop, J.R. Outlet, which was quite worthwhile. I know it only as the cigar company mail order catalogue that Jon receives. However, as we drove and saw the billboard ads, we realized that it was more than that. It was a HUGE warehouse with all kinds of discounted items. I bought some perfume, a pair of pants for Samantha, a bag of pecans (which are now half-eaten). Jon bought a sampler pack of cigars which he said he had been eyeing in the catalogue, but for which he didn't want to pay shipping costs. Voila, we made those costs go away! We spent about an hour there. Afterwards, we headed up to the area where we are now. We ended up eating dinner tonight at Denny's because there was no other good option at the time. There is alot of nothing around these parts! The universe rewarded us; it was Kids Eat Free Night!!! We only spent $22 for dinner for all 6 of us, the lowest price for dinner yet. Now, THAT made me want to do the happy dance! Ta ta for now... Gotta think about yesterday's adventures so I can write 'em down...