ROAD TRIP, Day 1

An annoying and jarring alarm bellows at 3:45am. Really?!

We've promised to be at RvH's by 5:15am, and that requires that we back out of our driveway no later than 4:30am. What idiot cooked up this plan. Um-m-m... That would be me.

Hitting the road before 5:30am in order to drive 10 of the requisite 17 hours toward the South Carolina beach is logical. It's the reality that overwhelms.

Triple espresso for Marielle; a double for the ever-so (genetically) -laid-back CA. Last time we made an early morning call on RvH to drop her at the airport as we headed to Orlando in October, she was WIRED and full of graphic details of neglected and abused zoo animals somewhere in Ohio, I believe. That was also about 5:00am. 

I'm taking no chances. 3 shots of espresso won't even guarantee I'll be ready for whatever worldwide grave and tragic details FOX news has spewed in these morning hours. RvH will have had that station playing at her house since somewhere around 3:00am. She-e-e-esh. 

Spare me, please, dear Lord. Give our world only good and positive events today.

We're headed to Kiawah Island near Charleston and a few days with D+M's family, while RvH will meet up with her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren for almost a week in Beaufort. 

Ah-h, the lovely anticipation at the beginning of an adventure... Pure hope and joy fuels us throughout the day, along with too much fast food and Diet Coke. The sun shines. We reminisce; we expound. Life is rich and full and we're each filled with the "good will toward all men" appropriate to this season.

As the day unfolds, RvH claims to have never experienced a true road trip, and spends the day basking in the simple pleasures of sunshine, windmills, winding mountain vistas, and warming temperatures. We know her every delight as she "charmingly" narrates the approaching and passing moments. Hm-m-m...

We've set Knoxville, TN as our endgame for today's travels and we roll in here around 7:00pm, finding an extremely nice Holiday Inn Express with two queen beds and an Outback Steakhouse just down the road. Makes for a satisfying close to our day of travel--clean and pleasant surroundings and dependably well-prepared food. 

We'll get plenty of rest tonight and tomorrow face another 7 hours of drive time, arriving at the beach around 4:00pm.