En route to Richmond, VA

Very brief update tonight -- it is late, we are tired, and we need to be up bright and early.

We had a relaxing morning, and I was just in the middle of wiring up the new GPS, while Louise was in Wal-Mart adding to her tropical fish collection, when my phone rang around one o'clock.  We had pretty much given up on the Red Cross needing us for this storm, but here they were calling to send us to Richmond, VA to set up a headquarters there ahead of Ernesto.  Most of the folks who had been in Florida were jumped ahead to North and South Carolina to set up for the second landfall there.  As the storm moves north, the Red Cross is rolling ahead of it getting facilities ready to go.

Now you may remember that we were just in Virgina three weeks ago, and worked our way down through North and South Carolina on our way to Atlanta.  Well, today we reversed that route, albeit on the interstate instead of our preferred two-lane blacktop.  It took us two full hours to worm our way out of Atlanta in rain-induced bumper-to-bumper traffic, and the last five hours we've been driving through the outer bands of the storm system, where the driving rain and low visibility have kept our speed down.  We stopped for dinner at the very same Olive Garden from the FMCA rally, at the speedway exit in Concord.

We finally stopped about half past midnight, here at the Wal-Mart in Henderson, NC (map).  We are about 20 miles from the Virginia state line, and 120 miles from Richmond.  We should be there before 11 tomorrow (well, OK, later today, by my watch).

I'll post more once we come up for air in Richmond.