My husband K, daughter J, and I had a cruise from Boston to Quebec City scheduled for May, 2020, but we were not surprised, when that was canceled due to Covid-19. Over the past year, we rescheduled the cruise multiple times, each with a different itinerary, as the one before was canceled and new incentives were offered to let the cruise line continue to hold our money. On May 6, it was canceled yet again. That exact same day, we received an email from Icelandair, our carrier to the Christmas markets in 2019, telling us that Iceland was open to fully-vaccinated visitors and offering us a package including round-trip airfare, hotel and two excursions. It did not take us long to decide that we had to do this. We'd watched Icelandair's ads for Iceland, when we'd flown with them in December, 2019, and had decided then that we had to visit. We'd hoped to visit when the Northern Lights were visible, but decided this timing was a sign that we should go now.
So, my daughter and I got on the phone with each other and sat at our respective computers looking over all that was offered. The first package offered was to hike Fagradalsfjall, the volcano that is currently erupting. I was game to try, because I'm fascinated by volcanoes. However, J vetoed it, noting the warnings of dangerous gases and the mention of hiking a ridge, which did not sound too safe to her. I reluctantly agreed that she was right. So, we chose the Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon package.
We decided rather quickly, that the offered 3 nights was just not enough. We found three other tours that were of interest to us and added those to the booking making it 7-days including flying. We wanted to the trip to be over my birthday, but Icelandair wasn't to fly out of Orlando until July. However, it was flying out of Washington, D.C., where J lives. It wasn't hard to decide that we'd fly out of Dulles. K and I couldn't decide how we'd get to DC, though. Since it wasn't a vital decision, we tabled that for a while and went ahead with the booking.
Eventually, to convince me that driving was a good idea, K suggested that we could visit the North Carolina capitol and add to my collection of those. He also thought that we could take care of the Maryland capitol on this trip, even though that would take out the first stop on the trip that J and I want to take hitting the capitols of the East that are north of Virginia. We would also being saving J a lot of money on transportation out to Dulles, as she has no car. And, that explains why the title includes "some US".
It was weird packing for such different climates. Also, we didn't want to haul the driving trip clothes, whether clean or dirty, to Iceland. So, we packed separate suitcases and planned to leave the warm weather clothes, laundry, cooler, etc. at J's apartment, and take the cold weather clothes in bigger suitcases.
We didn't really have any deadline today, so we didn't kill ourselves to get going early. Finally, we had my car loaded with the suitcases, cooler with water bottles, and snacks. I took the first shift of driving, when we departed at 8:49 with the odometer reading 64,029.
Even at that time, there was some traffic on the 417 and even more on I-4. We were really surprised by how many cars were on I-95. Shouldn't they have all been at work by then?
But, what really shocked us was how many people there were at the Buc-ees at Exit 323 north of St. Augustine. We pulled in there as a rest stop at 10:30 (64,143). We'd been in a Buc-ees ages ago in Texas and I knew from Ben Brainard's comedy videos on Facebook, that they are a big deal there. They've recently started appearing in Florida. They are a gas station with a huge store that has gift items from various western and beach related vendors, a pastry counter, sandwich area, and much, much more. We are careful and wore masks to go inside, and felt a bit uncomfortable by the number of people without them. We walked around to stretch our legs and used the incredibly clean, private restrooms before getting back on the road at 10:56. Oh, and we couldn't resist getting a cone of warm cinnamon roasted almonds.
K finally decided it was lunch time. I had him go to Google to see what food could be coming up that would be of interest to us. We used to stop in Brunswick, but that was never an interesting stop. He found something that sounded great in Richmond Hill, so I pulled off at Exit 87 for Rte. 17. The car was getting thirsty and there was a Shell station, where I get a discount. We stopped at 1:07 (64,291) and the car took 9.353 gallons of diesel. The mileage was 38.939 mpg, the best I've gotten in a while. I think, the car liked stretching its legs. At 1:12, I set off again to find the restaurant.
It was not near the highway and getting there involved a tricky turn. But, at 1:20 (64294), I parked beside All Things Chocolate & More. When we went in, we saw a candy counter, a cash register area, and tables spread across a large space. We were directed to a table and the very pleasant waitress pointed us to a QR code on a laminated paper, saying that's where we would find the menu. It would not be the last time on the trip that this would occur. We noticed a very large sign from the state of Georgia telling everyone that you are taking any risk of Covid on yourself by being on these premises. We kept our masks on until drinks came.
Our 2 Diet Cokes were $2.20 each, which isn't too bad for a restaurant. I chose a very tasty roasted turkey on pretzel bread with sweet potato fries for $10. K went for the traditional breakfast, which is served all day and consists of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs for $11. He enjoyed it. We felt we couldn't very well leave without trying one of their desserts. The most chocolate thing there was the Perfect Stranger, which was a crepe with chocolate and vanilla custard and sliced bananas for $9. It was delicious, but we were still puzzled. It was up at the counter that I realized that the chocolate they were referring to was their handmade chocolates. We got fudge to take to our daughter and large square of dark chocolate and mint for me. We were warned to keep them cool in this heat and we promised to put them in our cooler.
Our appetites satisfied, K took over the driving at 2:44. I dozed off, as I am wont to do, if I am not driving. I did wake in time for a rest stop near Santee, SC that had a very nice fountain that had various quotes around it. K pulled into the stop at 4:55 (64,422). When I took over driving, it was 5:05 pm.
The drive was uneventful, if rather crowded with vehicles. At 6:29 (64,523), we passed South of the Border and were rather gratified to see that it has survived. Very soon, we crossed into North Carolina.
At 6:48 (64,543), I pulled into our destination, the Fairfield Inn in Lumberton, which had been our traditional overnight stop on those trips north. K checked us and was given the keys to room 330. We took up only the luggage we needed for the night, which made things a bit easier. The room looked clean and comfortable, but there was only 1 washcloth and a hand towel. There wasn't even a bath mat. K had to go down to get towels to be able to shower. They gave him 2 bath towels and no mat. I was glad to see the note on the elevator telling folks to only ride with family, as well as the plexiglass at the check-in desk. Most guests we saw were wearing masks.
At 7:30, we were ready to walk next door for dinner at Cracker Barrel. I decided not to get my usual grilled chicken salad. I was probably influenced by all the Cracker Barrel billboards we saw with fried chicken, when I decided to order hand-breaded chicken tenders with broccoli and fried apples for $8.59. K decided to get my normal salad order for $9.59. The meals were good, but I probably would have liked grilled chicken better.
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