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Day Five

It was late in the afternoon when we left Monticello – hours later than we intended to depart for home.  As we got on the road I wondered if we’d be able to make it straight through.  In the past couple years I have lost the ability to drive comfortably at all hours: past midnight I become a drowsy man.  If the conversation in the car is good it’s still possible, but if Miriam falls asleep I get sleepy, too.  So, heading east on Interstate 64 toward Richmond I was still unsure.

We stopped for food at seven o’clock.  Perhaps we were already in North Carolina.  I ate four more biscuits, bringing my total for the day to seven.  Re-energized from the food and soda, I thought surely I could drive another ten hours.  Ha!  It soon got dark, and the miles and miles of South Carolina interstate were monotonous and fatiguing.  The to-stop-or-not-to-stop debate was a perplexing one.  On one hand, another night’s hotel would cost more money.  On the other hand, driving while sleepy isn’t safe, and since it would be likely we’d end up having to stop anyway, we might as well stop sooner than later, because the earlier we get to sleep the earlier we can leave.

We began looking for hotels where Interstate 26 crosses 95 in South Carolina.  Though there was nothing worth anything at that exit, the two or three hotels we asked wanted well north of a hundred dollars for a room.  We trudged on.  Finally, after perhaps another half hour of driving, I could stand it no more, and I pulled into a Super 8 Motel.  I went to the office but found the door locked and the room inside dark.  A teenager within seemed to come out of nowhere and gestured for me to walk around to the side of the building.  I found a small bullet-proof window there, and that’s where we conducted our transaction.  The room was sixty dollars or so.  I was too tired to haggle.  Miriam found the place extremely distasteful, and it did seem like the ideal horror movie setting, but the room was actually clean, even if the air conditioner having been off for some time made the room a bit musty.  The fear of certain murder kept me awake for a little while, but I did ultimately get the sleep I desperately needed.

Day Six

We didn’t bother retrieving our free continental breakfast in the morning.  We left as soon as we woke up.  We had never removed our clothes.  Leaving the parking lot in daylight I got a better look at our surroundings.  The hotel was a hideous yellow, and vultures sat perched along the roof line, perhaps waiting to feast on the heaps of torsos left murdered in the rooms.  It was somewhat chilling.  We got the hell out of there.

We were back in Florida by noon, and had pulled into our driveway by a quarter past one o’clock on the first day of June.  In five and a half days we had traveled 1,762 miles through five states and the District of Columbia.  It was an unforgettable adventure.

Filed under: Dana Heritage Project, Food, Travel on September 6th, 2010