Day 10 - N. Canton, OH to Charlotte, NC

Things started off pretty well this morning.  We were on the road by 9am, which was a really good start for us.  To save time, we ate breakfast (from Starbucks) in the car.
The first couple of hours went well until we pulled over for gas. Mimi took Sweet Pea in for a potty break. The toilets had automatic flushers and Sweet Pea really didn't like the loud noise. She also didn't seem to want to wash her hands. Mimi was anxious to get back on the road and that's when things started to go downhill. Mimi didn't want to call it a fit, but Sweet Pea certainly caught every one's attention with her protests that she DID need to dry her hands more!

As everyone stared at them, Mimi dragged Sweet Pea back to the car, we loaded her up and headed out.

Soon we were in the hills.  We went through several tunnels.

Sweet Pea had never driven through a mountain before.

The landscape grew more mountainous and the roads became curvier and curvier. North Carolina mountains were much different than any mountains we had been in before. At first it was beautiful and interesting.....

Soon, however, we were all beginning to feel car sick. Really car sick. I cracked open a bag of candied ginger and passed it around to try to help alleviate the nausea.



It was no use, we had to pull over at a rest stop and wait about an hour until we felt better. The rest area was incredibly large with beautiful grounds. Mimi and I got iced coffees and Sweet Pea had a smoothie while we rested.  Cheri met several other dogs and had a fabulous time. Cheri loves rest stops.

Our tummys finally calmed down and we felt better.  We got back on the road and were really glad that we were making such good time.  Mimi was delighted when she noticed a beautiful old mansion on a hilltop with a sign that said "Tours on Saturday".  Mimi and I talked about how interesting it looked and decided that if it had been a Saturday, we would have pulled over and toured....you know, because we had the time.
Soon Sweet Pea was napping and we felt like we were making great progress.  It would be so good to see Brittany again, but of course I had to stop to potty.  Mimi pulled over at the next rest stop and I decided to check the map on my phone...

... and discovered that we were going the wrong way. We had missed our exit and were driving toward Roanoke instead of towards Charlotte.  Well, not just toward Roanoke, we were half way there!  Apparently the exit where we needed to turn to head to Charlotte was right by that old house we were so busy looking at and talking about.

We just smiled at each other and said aw shucks.  We immediatly decided to make a rule that we would never turn our GPS device off again.  We even named her after "Dory", the forgetful fish from Finding Nemo, because she sounded a little like she was underwater and was always trying to lead us in the right direction.
It was almost dinner time and we were supposed to be in Charlotte to meet Brittany and Johnny for dinner!  I spent some time texting them and we finally decided it would be better to meet them for lunch the next day instead. 

And then it started raining hard.

The temperature dropped by about 15 degrees... And the only place we could find to eat was McDonalds.

We tried to wait out the rain in the car (because it was really pouring), but Sweet Pea said that she was about to wet her pants so we had to run through the downpour.  Everyone was now wet and chilled so we spent quite a while in the bathroom trying to use the hand dryers to dry ourselves. Wet, cold, and hungry. Ugh.
Oh Yum! lol.

The entire day my right contact had been giving me lots of trouble.  My contact case, solution and eye glasses were packed in tight under all our other suitcases and other things in the back of the car.  We didn't want to try to unload everything in the pouring rain to try to find them.  We had even stopped at a rest stop to try to buy a new case and solution, but they didn't carry any.  By this time in the day, I was spending much of the time looking like a pirate.  "Argh Matey!"

Sweet Pea was the only one having a good time.

When I went to pay for the meal, I couldn't find my credit card. We looked all over the McDonalds and all inside the car. I called the last gas station where I had used it, but they said that they didn't have it.  It was only about a 20 minute drive back to the gas station to see if I had dropped it there, so we figured we should do it.
We drove all the way back.  Mimi went inside the gas station to search for it while I looked around outside (in the rain).  When Mimi came out she reported that the bathroom was FLOODED and she had been trudging around in dirty water looking for the card.  Yuck, but she hadn't had any luck finding it.  So, I took out my phone to call Ross to tell him to cancel the card.  As I was dialing, I glanced down and saw my card stuck down between the seats.  Oops!  I swear, I had already looked there twice!

Oh well.  We got back on the road.  It was getting darker and Mimi was about to fall asleep at the wheel.  We finally made it, but didn't arrive at our hotel until after 9pm.   Our nice 8 hour drive, took us over 12 hours. 

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