Days 13-15: Charlotte NC- Athens GA

I wish I could tell you that we've been off on some crazy adventure and that I had a really good excuse for not posting... but that just isn't so. Although, we also haven't been having a miserable and boring time. We simply haven't been getting into crazy roadtrippy adventures.

For the last few days we've been enjoying the company of Tony's college friend Tim, or as I have been conditioned to call him: Provo( as in Provolone [Tony's weird nickname]), and his girlfriend Sabrina. We sat around and watched endless episodes of the Simpsons, Seinfeld, and South Park. ( Sorry for the alliteration it was not intentional. We really watched these shows) Tony and I went to the drive-in a town away from Charlotte. The man that ran it spoke with the fastest southern drawl that I've ever heard! It had two large screens and was surprisingly full for something to which the concept of is dieing. The best part of all though was that it rained and stormed heavily through both features! That was fantastic. We had to keep turning the car to defog and cracking the windows to vent the inside. There were also a car full of girls that didn't appear to old enough to be watching the two R rated comedies that were about to start and sure enough the mother of those girls must have realized her mistake by the first scene of the first movie because they high tailed it out of there soon after... none the less I found it a bit strange.

Tim and Sabrina cooked us a fantastic vegan dinner, Vegan chicken Alfredo. Then we watched a Freddy Krugger flick and went to bed. Today we drove from Charlotte to Athens wandered around town a little bit and Met our host for the night, a young couple with 9 month old. We all went out for dinner and chit chatted and had a lovely time. Now we are caught up.

Let's now rewind because I did promise to tell the story behind our our first days back on the road. ( We stopped in at home for a few days on our way south. Tony's cousin Zach graduated from High School and Tony wanted to be there. Congratulations Zach! We also needed to re organize the car and dump some things at home...)

Little did we know that the room we had cleared would come in handy so fast! We drove to skyline drive and then began to ooh and aww over the beautiful scenery. We were taking our time and enjoying all that the park had to offer knowing that we didn't have to be at our camp ground any particular time. As afternoon approached we thought about trying to find a nice place to take a little hike and eat a little lunch. We stopped to look at a park map and use the restroom when we bumped into two really nice through hikers that had had to turn around and head home. The girl hurt her knee and they realized it would be better to head for home. We realized that we were all headed in the same direction and so we moved everything in our car and fluffed pillows for them to sit on because we left the back seats at home. A little while latter we dropped them off at their campground offering to drive further south with them if they liked. They refused and we took off again. We made camp. Took a little hike and made a fantastic camp meal. ( well I made the meal and Tony went to get water!)

That would have been the last we heard of our new hiker friends except that Tony has a habit of handing out the roadtrip business cards that we made to everyone we meet.

They text-ed us. We were all headed toward the smokies. How silly they we're refusing a ride that would take them approximatively two months to hike!

The next morning we all met very early to strap the suit cases on the roof and to make sure there was room in our car for two more people without two more seats. All day long we drove together, talking about music, hiking, the road and life. We had so much fun on that long drive from one national park to another. At one point Cole and Sarah found out that not only had Tony never been to a Chick-Fil-A but neither of us northerners had ever even heard of one. Suddenly the primary mission of our trip was no longer to just get to the Great Smoky Mountains but also to get to a Chick-Fil-A somewhere not completely off coarse.

After forever driving through Virginia, no one ever tells you just how horrifically huge Virginia is, we finally began to see signs for one. When we got there, though, it was not a drive through but a mall food court shop. We ran around the mall franticly looking for the Chick-Fil-A. franticly looking for the Food Court. Franticly smelling the air for the smell of greasy fried chicken in a bun with two pickles. And then after wandering upstairs and down, around clothing stores and sunglass kiosks we spotted her. It was a woman innocently sipping from a flipping Chick-Fil-A cup! One of us pleadingly said to her, " Excuse me, Where on earth did you find the Chick-Fil-A?" She pointed the way and the other three almost running finally reach the intended destination of our current mission.

I had waffle fries and the second attempt at a side salad. I was happy though. There never really is anything at fast food restaurants for me. Tony and our new friends, however, all seemed extremely happy to have found their chickeny sustenance.

Bellies full and primary mission accomplished we continued onto our secondary mission. Getting to the campground before dark. Indeed , It was late until we made it to our site. It was also pouring down rain. ( We learned that it almost always rains in the smokies) Putting up a tent in the rain can be a bit difficult but it was nice test to see how dry our tent stayed.

The two of us and the AT hikers ate dinner under a shelter and then went back to our tents after the rain stopped. The next day our hiker friends parted ways to continue on their adventure and us on ours.... to Provo's in Charlotte but for a little while it was really nice to have friends on the road.

If we had passed Cole and Sarah by. If we hadn't made room for them in our car we would not have had the pleasure of getting to know them. That would have been something that we would have missed out on and wouldn't have even known it! Lucky for us this trip has had a way of showing us who we really are by getting to know complete strangers. I am so happy that we were lucky enough to meet them.

We have met so many wonderful, cool people on this trip. We are so lucky! And now you know where we've been!( out of wi-fi service!)