Picking up the pace

We are at the Wal-Mart in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina (map). This is a familiar stop for us, close to the freeway interchange and with a selection of restaurants within an easy walk. After dinner we went in to the store to stock up on groceries.

We figured this to be a good stopping point, after about four hours on the road today and with just two and a half hours to go to New Bern, where we thought we'd have afternoon appointments. About 9:30 last evening, though, I got a text from Curtis, and he will be arriving in New Bern at 10:30am and flying back out around 5:30. We'll need to leave by 8am to make it to New Bern by 10:45 or so, about when he should be done picking up his rental car.

I'm not sure in what order he's lined up the visits, but we will ride with him to look at a Selene 48 in New Bern and a Selene 43 in Morehead City, about half an hour away. We'll just leave the bus in New Bern with our attentive guard dog on duty, and after he drops us back off we'll spend the night either at Wal-Mart or the New Bern Elks lodge a few blocks away.

I had originally asked him to set up appointments for Wednesday, thinking we needed a day in DC and not realizing how tight that would make the run to Atlanta from New Bern. Having everything wrapped up tomorrow is really much better, allowing us to get right on the road Wednesday morning and giving us two and a half days to make the 500+ miles to Atlanta. That's comfortable, and will even give us a chance to go out Friday night to celebrate Louise's birthday before she flies out early Saturday morning.