May 5
This morning finds us in Virginia, near Roanoke. Again last night we were glad to have the heat on in the vehicle overnight. Disappointed that we had to, but glad that we had it. It was down into the 40’s, and the TV was talking about frost warnings in this area! After a day or two of some rain, this morning seems sunny again, and I suspect the temperature could get to 60 in the afternoon. The weather has been so inclement that there seems to be no reason to camp in a state park since we wouldn’t want to get out of the vehicle. So we have spent the last couple of nights in the lots of “Cracker Barrels.” They permit you to stay overnight here, and we always go in and have either dinner or breakfast the next morning. They have fabulous corn muffins, and I have actually developed a taste for cheese grits. (Sho nuff?) There are many of these restaurants on the east coast (it’s a franchise) and the lots are always well kept and pretty quiet, since the places are not open 24 hours. We often see other RV’s in the lot doing the same thing. I don’t think it is quite as well known that you can stay here as it is at Wal-Mart, but we usually choose Cracker Barrel when there is a choice. We’ve never felt unsafe, and never had any incidents. Last night, we did get a knock on the door about 9 PM. It was a guy from a company that had been hired to re-paint the lines on the ground that delineate the parking spaces. He was asking us if we would mind moving to a different spot, one that had no lines, so that he could complete his job. He could not have been nicer, (we find the vast majority of Southern people to be extraordinarily polite) and we of course complied, in a surly northeastern kind of way.
The plan today is to get back on the road early (10-ish) and get through the rest of Virginia and into Pennsylvania before nightfall. We called and left a message for Paul to let him know that we would be home soon, and he hasn’t called back. I’m hoping that means he is too busy because he is cleaning furiously.