Dec 29th

We got off to a great start on the 27th and the first four hours and thirty minutes were uneventful. Then we hit NYC traffic and it came to a crawl for the the next 1.5 hours (to go 22 miles). Then, upon reaching the NJ Turnpike, we encountered heavy rains, high winds, and a lot of traffic. A planned 7 hour trip ended up taking 9+ hours.

We finally arrived at Linda and Dave's house, Jean's brother, for needed libations and a great Christmas dinner. Their whole family was there and it was great catching up with everyone. The next day we visited A. I. DuPont's Nemours estate. Talk about your 1% I would guess this was the upper .0001% (see and read more here). In case you miss this point while looking at the website it only took 18 months to build this estate.

After another relaxing evening and dinner provided by Linda and Dave we had an uneasy sleep dreaming of the many miles ahead of us.

Thursday the 29th we departed for Roanoke, Va. 385 miles away. Once we left some initial snow flurries and freezing temperatures behind us the ride was uneventful, a nice departure from our first day's experience. We arrived at the LaQuinta on schedule and headed out for a "fine" dinner at the local Ruby Tuesday's. Tomorrow we head for Nashville only 425 miles.