But a good time to write about this most wonderful road trip with Cousin GJ and Annabelle. How I love a road trip! And this short one has me dreaming of planning a longer one. Maybe next summer? Thoughts of driving up to PEI, or through northern CA and up through Oregon, or around Portugal and Spain (can you drive to Morocco?!) are dancing in my head...
We left yesterday morning, stopped in Delaware for something called The Bobbie (a turkey sandwich of impressive heft), drove directly to Peter Chang's China Cafe in Short Pump, VA for Sichuan food (fried dried eggplant is now my new favorite thing), then slept happily in a Hilton before hitting the road again. Today our lunch stop was at Wilbur's BBQ in Goldboro, NC. It was fine, not mind blowing. Except the chicken gravy they serve you to dip your hush puppies in. That was revelatory. I was disappointed we couldn't stop at Ava Gardner's childhood home, but we had a 7:30 reservation at 82 Queen here in charlston so had to hit the road. Our room in The Elliot House is all southern charm. There's a courtyard below and I feel like I'm in Streetcar Named Desire. Champagne waiting for us. Two Bourbony manhattans, fried oysters, and shrimp and grits. Enter that Alka Seltzer I'm dreaming of.
Biggest surprise? We are listening to the first Harry Potter book on tape and it is entertaining us all. I can't believe how much it makes me laugh. And it provided lively speculation at dinner tonight. Yes, it's true. I've never read the books or seen the movies. I started book 1, and Sam and Grace had no interest. So we moved on to other pursuits. Now I tracked down a copy of book 2 on tape to get us back to RI! A wonderful surprise this has been, and such good company these many miles.
I've missed knitting my blanket, but as the driver I've time only to look for license plates to add to our map. We have spotted over thirty, snagging Alabama and New Mexico today at last. The Dakotas, Hawaii, and Alaska are the plums. But we have all the way back home to spot them.
Today we stay put in Charlston, eating dinner at Husk, the motivation for our trip here. It's right next door, so we have spotted it already. And after shopping and a sunset boat ride, it should be the perfect ending to our time here.
