There and back again…

I thought of Bilbo’s book during our trek which began Wednesday morning.  We set off about 7:30 am with our destination set as Boone, NC, some 350 miles to the north.  Our route was designed to include a visit with my mother at Kingston Residence of Hickory, so the “going there” would be a bit longer than the more direct “back again” portion of the journey.   All told we would travel 735 miles in about 34 hours.

We arrived at Kingston Residence about 1:15 pm and found that Mamaw was fine, cheerful as usual and happy that she had just finished her appointment with the in-house hairdresser shortly after we arrived.  We visited for a while as we talked about family news and Kingston happenings, and we left about 3:00 to get up the mountain before dark.

We picked up sandwiches on the way into Boone and ate them as soon as we got home, even before we unpacked, washing them down with Carolina Magnolia wine.  There was no snow to deal with this visit, so we relaxed a bit before trying to get a good night’s sleep in preparation for the “back again” portion of journey the next day.

I set out early Thursday morning for Stick Boy Bakery.  We had looked forward to their muffins on this trip, and I brought home an Everything and a Cranberry-Orange for breakfast.  The muffin-tops were scrumptious as usual, and we enjoyed this little treat before heading to the dentist (the real reason for this journey). I ran a few errands while Billie visited with the dentist, and when she had finished we loaded up the car to head back to Hilton Head.  We didn’t want to linger since snow was in the forecast for Thursday night.

All told, 735 miles in a day and a half.  Lucky there was no traffic jam anywhere along our route, and lucky for us we had no car trouble.  The trip “back again” involved a short 40-minute stop for lunch and another 20 minutes for potty-stops for us and the dogs.  Six hours driving time, it turns out, is about the norm for this trip.