Fall break - North & South Carolina - Day 1 and 2

North of Florida the states have a fall break. It is usually in October and is a chance to what? Breathe? Enjoy the changing colors? Get ready for the end of the grading period? I've come to think it means this is what we give you instead of a week at Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Madison had a fall break of two days and since those two days were Thursday and Friday that gave her a four day weekend. I decided to visit her at this time instead of parents' weekend which is really only a Saturday and the morning of Sunday. My brother and his family wanted to get away to a warmer climate to celebrate their upcoming 25th wedding anniversary and so we all agreed to meet in South Carolina to utilize our Wyndham points.

I arrived in North Carolina at 9:45 a.m. and by the time I got my rental car and drove to the university, it was almost eleven. We met downstairs and spent hours several minutes just hugging and kissing. She looked taller. She looked happy. She was very excited to see me as I was to see her. She had been cleaning her room so we went upstairs while she finished that job. I folded her laundry for her. She had several hours before her last class so we left to get some lunch.

She said it felt odd to be riding in a car and to be outside the confinement of the campus. We ate and then did some shopping. She needed personal items and food. We also did some winter clothes shopping. We hauled everything back up to her dorm room and put it all away and then I drove her to her last class. While she heard a lecture on mythology I drove around the campus and finally sat under a shade tree to enjoy the cooler temperatures. Most of the campus was packing up to go home. It reminded me of moving-in-day only in reverse.

We were on the road to South Carolina by 4:40 pm. It was not a great time to be on the road in the triangle. We spent over two hours on Interstate 40 going 5 mph. We passed the time talking. Madison told me all about college. I filled her in on home stuff. At one point I asked when it got dark here and Madison told me not until 8:00. By 6:45 we were in complete darkness.

Madison: "I don't know. I don't really see the outside world until I go out and then I never know what time it is."

I'm not good at traveling the unknown by myself. I thought I did fairly well for my first experience in channeling my inner Mary Anne, my mother-in-law who travels the world very nonchalantly.

Madison being with me helped too. It was as we got off the interstate on to a two-lane road that I got a bit nervous. That is also when my husband called and asked where we were, and upon hearing where we were told me we were heading the wrong way. I lost it a bit there, but Madison pulled me back together and my husband admitted we were fine (after he pulled up google maps).

We traveled about an hour in complete darkness on the two-lane road in the middle of nowhere. Once I put on my bright lights just to see what was around us and discovered absolutely nothing. Woods. Crops. Nothing else.

We made it to our destination without my hands getting clammy. It was after 9:00 pm. I was exhausted having been up since 5:00 am. We parked, checked in, went to our room, and fell into bed. The next morning, having been awakened at an ungodly hour by the phone ringing every ten minutes (more on that tomorrow), I got up and made the coffee that is provided by Wyndham. It was quite delicious and that was with powdered creamer. I drank two cups while sitting out on my balcony.

Madison slept. She probably would've slept the entire four days if I hadn't awakened her every afternoon. She had asked me to bring her favorite stuffed animals, Elmo and Cuddly, and she was in heaven with them, me, and a big bed with lots of pillows.

I had a breakfast place recommended to me from Jasmine, my Steelers front desk clerk, and was texting the address to my SIL after they landed at the airport. I was starving and so were they, but my brother wanted to relive his traveling days with our parents and pulled into a Waffle House.

Rusty: "Text Cara and tell her to meet us."

I did so reluctantly. The food was awful. Susan had a creepy crawler in her food which at first the server tried to tell her was a hash brown. Then it moved across her toast. They made her another plate. They did not comp her meal. We ate despite the nasty food because hey, it was day one of our vacation Fall Break.

After my brother got checked in and unloaded at the resort, we hit the beach. That is my SIL's favorite place and she was determined to spend as much time there as possible. The tide was out and the wet sand was like walking on concrete. It was great. If I had known the sand was going to be so hard I would have worn my tennis shoes and would've been able to walk for miles. As it was we walked two miles. The day was beautiful.

We ended up sitting in rocking chairs that overlooked the water conversing with a gentleman who had retired from driving a bus in Washington DC after 41 years. He was a Wyndham owner and he told us about many of the resorts we need to visit and gave us good tips about using our points. The resort should hire this guy to sell points! We had cocktails afterward at the bar where we talked fantasy football with the bartender.

We had a delicious seafood dinner at The Flying Fish that evening and relaxed playing a board game in our room. I decided I could get used to this Fall Break stuff.