Day One - On To Raleigh

Our first full day on the road started out in New Jersey, right off the Turnpike at an okay Best Western.  There was a bit of sleet and lots of wind, but the day has turned out pretty sunny. At the BW breakfast there were a bunch of truck drivers in training for Dannon yogurt piled in the small breakfast area.   One of the guys was loudly telling his buddy that he was trying to pair his phone with something and it wasn’t working.  I wasn’t paying that much attention because 1) who cares? And 2) I was reading the recap on Boston.com about the glorious Bruins victory over the Habs the night before.  So I notice my blackberry going nuts in my purse and I realize that the knucklehead was trying unsuccessfully to pair with my blackberry phone.  I always keep the security on my phones so that you have to approve any pairing to keep sinister knuckleheads from doing dastardly deeds. But I couldn’t resist telling the guy, “Hey, you’ve been trying to connect to my blackberry!” All of his buddies appreciated that! Lol!

We are stopping in various places taking pictures with the Bruins Stanley Cup Championship 2011 flag and having quite the time.  It is definitely a conversation starter, even in a New Jersey Turnpike rest area.

In a lovely Virginia rest stop, they want you to remind people that Virginia is for Lovers.  We’ll have no problem with that!

We decided to stop for lunch around Fredericksburg at someplace that was more local cuisine than say Applebees. So the first exit yielded only Subway and McDonalds as choices.  I noticed that we could take Route 1 south which parallels 95 in this part of Virginia. So we took a left there instead of going back to the highway.  Well, I am so glad we did. As we were driving through very rural Virginia, we came upon a bunch of emergency vehicles in the right lane seemingly stopped, lights flashing.  They were escorting Mac McQuown, Marine for Life (There are just no Ex-Marines!) on his quest to walk to all 50 state capitals. He was on his way to Richmond, Virginia today to raise money for Wounded Warriors.  His non-profit agency, Project Foot, is dedicated to serving the families of our troops,  according to his card.  I got to shake his hand and thank him for his service and his dedication as an advocate for our Troops. Of course he never stopped walking.  (Check out charity on Charity Navigator) If you’d like to donate to his charity or just check out the website, it’s at www.marinewalking.org and www.projectfoot.org . Semper Fi, Buddy!

Although this little detour already produced a wonderful experience, we still needed to eat.  Dave thought Food Lion was a restaurant so he pulled into the parking lot, quickly realizing that it wasn’t a place to serve us yummy food. We decided to stop anyway to pick up the Advil I forgot and some other stuff.  As we were getting out of the car, the poor old guy next to us pulls into his space and slams right into the pole with the handicapped sign on it.  He didn’t hit it that hard, but it made a horrific scraping sound.  So Mama gets out of the passenger side, grabs a cart that was there, looks at the damage, shakes her head and smiles and heads into the Food Lion while Papa sheepishly follows.  Dave and I just looked at each other and smiled.  Dave immediately said, “You would have kicked my butt for that!” I thought I might be able to laugh as well, but I don’t want to test it out!

So to make a long story longer, after the pole incident, Dave looked toward the East and what appeared, like a Tebow-like beautiful apparition, was a sign that read “Virginia Barbeque.” We were sooooo there!  Excellent, tender pork sandwiches, perfectly seasoned and accompanied with delicious baked beans and cornbread for me and beer battered onion rings for Dave that were out of this world.  Between the two people behind the counter, one was a Caps fan, the other a Flyers fan.  It’s great for the sport of hockey that we can wear our Bruins garb in rural Virginia and strike up a good hockey conversation. We also got a nice picture and a few chuckles from the surprised patrons. Oh, and we haven't got our butts kicked yet.  On to Raleigh!