South Carolina Bound: Hitting the Road - April 9th

At 4am Larry and I headed for Charleston, SC to begin our much needed week of relaxing and hopefully nicer weather than here in Illinois. Does it really need to snow in April??? Because the week before it didn't and then it did...I've hit my limit with snow!

Anyway, Larry and I have this trip ritual of getting up ridiculously early to hit the road before anyone else does and arrive at or 1/2 way point (Knoxville, TN) with enough time to enjoy the area - for us, the drive is part of the vacation, so we want it to be as enjoyable as possible.

Our other trip ritual (read Larry's "requirement") is for me to immediately go to sleep upon entering the car because 1) if I wake up I instantly start chatting a mile-a-minute and 2) I avoid needing to use a rest stop if I'm asleep. By doing this Larry avoids sensory overload and the added benefit of not stopping before breakfast. But I'm convinced that at least with 2) that Larry just doesn't want to admit that he needs to stop for the bathroom and will use "breakfast" as an excuse. I'm thinking this is some vast male "conspiracy" that all men are apart of - never wanting to stop for the bathroom and never asking for directions. Sweeping generalization? Perhaps, but I'm convinced I'm right.

The problem with leaving from upper IL is that there are very few places to stop on our route for breakfast along 41 in Indiana other than a truck stop - if anyone knows of any good spots...let me know.

We ended up stopping in Attica, IN - at a greasy spoon - not too bad, and I was impressed that they had sugar-free syrup, which is a gauge of mine lately - seems it's the "normal" spots that have it and not the more fancy places, which I kind of thought the opposite would be true.

The first leg of the 2 day drive was relatively uneventful: taking turns driving and me watching a DVD or two - keeps me from using the rest stops!

I will say we love to drive because it gives us the opportunity to stop at any cute town/site/shop we come across. On most of our trips we typically find great little towns, but I will fully admit that occasionally we get suckered in by a sign saying "historic downtown..." and end up being disappointed. Luckily, we didn't get duped on this leg of the drive...