April 25, 2016
Starting mileage 3128.6
When we first pulled into the campground, two of the sites had been occupied. When I poked my head out of the tent in the morning, we were the only ones left. I can be accused of many things but being an early riser is definitely not one of them. I thought about making breakfast but still couldn’t bear the thought of eating anything so we went for a short walk before breaking camp.
When we had passed through Tellico Plains the evening before, I had noticed a bakery and figured a nice cup of coffee was in order. Just because I wasn’t hungry didn’t mean I couldn’t get caffeinated. So we went back into town. And the bakery was closed. I had forgotten that it was Monday after all. Somewhat dejected, I started to drive out of town when I happened to look to my left and saw a small brick shed with a sign that read “Tellico Jail”. I don’t know if it was actually a jail but I had to stop for a quick picture.
With a stack of maps and brochures tucked under my arm, I went back to the car and out to the road. It did not take me long to realize that the day before, I had actually taken a wrong turn and was never on the Skyway. Those nice hills that I had seen were actually foothills. Well didn’t I feel the ass when I sorted that out. The Skyway was exactly how I had thought it would be and on par with the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.
After strapping the dogs in, I sat in the drivers seat and steeled myself for the drive. Music on and at a good level? Check. Everyone peed? Check. Hungry? Still no. Weird but I’ll think about that later. We have a dragon tail to drive. And here. We. Go.
Fortunately there were plenty of other spots to stop and enjoy and we made frequent stops as we drove. With the clock ticking away before I had to be back home, the drive was not as leisurely as it could have been even with our little walk breaks. As we were approaching Cincinnati, Ohio I noticed there were a lot of signs for campgrounds. Wanting to make the most of a mostly open road, I decided to wait until we passed through before putting in for the night. I thought that with campgrounds to the south, there would be campgrounds to the north. Well that backfired because I did not see a single sign north of the city. You would think by now that I would have learned my lesson and done some research ahead of time.
Finally as we approached Dayton, Ohio, I saw there was a Red Roof Inn. Perfect. The room wasn’t as nice as the one we had stayed at in Greensboro but it was clean and I was tired. And finally hungry. I tried to order a pizza from a restaurant that was 7 kms away. They told me I was outside of their delivery area. By this point I was so tired, I didn’t care and crawled into bed. Apparently I found the really comfy spot on the pillow because Leo decided to use me instead.
