Our Longest Day

First , let me apologize for the lack of a post Wednesday morning.  Things didn't go exactly as planned yesterday so I wasn't able to "getter done".  So this post will be our grand finale covering the last two days of the trip.


Tuesday, July 5th

We woke up at 5:30 because no one set an alarm so we skipped breakfast and got on the road in record time.  However, we stopped five minutes later at Walmart for ice for the cooler and bagels that we toasted enroute.  I was going to drive today but the fog was so thick that we could barely see 30 feet ahead of us so I opted to wait till tomorrow, maybe.  I drove the van for the first three hours then Raleigh took over.

I'm not great at photographs, but this captured
the eerie yet mystical morning sun
through the thick fog with the bus in the foreground.  

This bad boy is a home made air
conditioner, complements of
Tim.  We brought it as a backup for Lon
and used it one particularly hot day.
We could have used some block ice
or dry ice...next time.

Shortly thereafter, we pulled into a rest stop for the thing we hoped we could avoid...the dreaded kidney stone!  A week before we left for the trip, Lon had been dealing with kidney stones and passed one so we thought we had dodged the bullet with that.  No such luck.  Lon has been drinking water like a mad man on the whole trip but today it caught up with him.  We switched drivers so Raleigh could "nurse" Lon along.  He was feeling pretty miserable and looking pretty pitiful.  (I decided not to post pictures of his pitiful face as he endured the pain like a champ.  The pictures after the pain medicine were even better!)  Thankfully, they had come prepared with medication and emesis bags!

Lunch was a stop at Love's Truck Stop and after a quick pow wow we decided to go full speed ahead all the way back to Smith Mountain Lake instead of stopping in Milton, West Virginia.  We totally missed celebrating our last night in the bus by skipping this campsite.  Bummer...it could have been a great party. 

Nina...this one's for you!

William, the artisan, holding
one of the mugs he
actually made.  For sale
for $15!  A man of
so many talents!

We stopped in a place called Tamarack in Beckley, West Virginia.  It features local artisans from all over the state.  Will worked at a pottery "factory" last winter making mugs for a company called Mud and we found a mug that he actually made while working there.  He could tell from the way he had signed the bottom of the mug.  Cool, huh?  I'll have to go back there and really shop...everything was awesome.

Fueling up again.  I'll have to find
out how many stops and how
many gallons of fuel we used.

Will and I were getting
slap happy.

Lon was beginning to feel better but we still hauled buns and made it to the lake by midnight.  That was about 17 hours, and 644 miles.  That's a record we hope we never break!
The heat and humidity lets us know we are definitely back in Virginia, but boy it feels good to be "home"... almost.  Because of the late hour and the poor internet service, I wasn't able to get the pictures downloaded for the blog, hence the delay.

Wednesday, July 6th

We all slept in some Wednesday morning, some longer than others (me).  We sort of regrouped, and Lon was feeling better, thank goodness.  So Wednesday's trip was only 200 miles and that seemed like nothing.  Lon and Raleigh took the van and Tim and I cruised with the bus. I actually slept most of the way home so the trip went really quickly for me!  However, since I missed my chance to drive yesterday because of the fog, I at least got to "bring her home" up the driveway to Raleigh and Lon's house.

Home at last...

And waiting for us in Franklin were Bick and Carolyn and some of her home cooking!  Fried pork chops, smashed potatoes, peas, string beans, squash, and Sister Shubert's rolls.  Her food always tastes good but tonight it was even better!

Tim wanted to make sure everyone following this knows that all 3,700 miles of the trip were worth it just to see Raleigh and Lon enjoying being together at Kari's wedding and seeing Raleigh dance till there was no more dancing to be done.  We loved every minute of it and have a whole new appreciation for each other.  We are thankful for our safe travels, great scenery, paved roads, good friends and the opportunity to get the Struggle Bus out of the driveway and on the road!  Thanks to all who made it possible!  Next trip?...wait and see!



*Here are a few random photos and I will probably post a few more later, like the bungee cords holding the drawers shut and the staples holding the curtain valance up.  You might be a redneck if...

The curtain on the left is the "bathroom", the bed in the back
is Lon's coveted space.  See the party lights?  And the
curtain  hung sideways using command hooks in the back.
There are command hooks all over this bus!

See these holes in the floor?  Yes, that is the
pavement under us.  There are quite a few
of these holes in the floor where the
seats came out.

William being his normal
dorky self with his new
reflective durag and no shirt.
Truckers were probably
getting quite a chuckle seeing him.

More misty morning driving.

Long day Tuesday.  We got to the lake
about midnight!

I was driving Lon's van when it
turned over 99,000 miles. It was just a
few hundred shy of 100,000
when we got home.