Heading South

Wednesday/Thursday, September 21/22, 2016
We were up and out of Dan's driveway by 9:00 on Wednesday morning, first heading to the local shopping center where we could hook up the car and then off for North Carolina - our next stop.  Our goal on Wednesday was to get to Wytheville, Virginia and the Max Meadows Campground there.  Aside from a stop for some lunch at a rest stop, we drove straight through arriving around 5:00 in the afternoon.  We were pleasantly surprised to find the weather only in the middle 80s with a nice breeze.

Our greatest concern was that we got up in the morning to find out there had been rioting along I85 by the University of North Carolina Charlotte not far from Sue and Tim's home and very close to Jackson's community college.  Our hope was it would not continue but we did look at other ways to get to them if necessary.  The schools were kept open with the hope of encouraging everyone to cool down and allow for dialogue.  Unfortunately, that isn't what happened despite leadership from many of the Christian churches and their pastors holding prayer sessions and making their presence where protests were taking place (the daughter of a black man killed by the police claimed he was sitting in his car waiting for his son and reading a book - the police say he was out of the car with a gun and threatening).  Anyway, there was more rioting especially in the Uptown area on Wednesday night.  A state of emergency was called and the National Guard brought in.  So on Thursday morning we decided to go to the Speedway Campground via Winston-Salem and then south on I85  rather than our usual way which would have taken us right through the area of concern.  We'd been told that a section of I85 was closed there.

We arrived prior to noon and got settled just before the 20% chance of rain decided to show its face :-)  It didn't last long  but of course made it muggier but also kept it cooler because of the cloud cover.

Ken and I enjoyed lunch at the local Panera and then made a quick visit to the local market for a couple of items we needed before returning to the RV.  We had major problems with the computer yesterday and couldn't even get on internet but after some fussing finally could get back on and do some catching up with email, Facebook and this blog.

Jackson came to visit us around 4:30 and we had a wonderful chat with him.  Then took him out for a bite to eat at Jersey Mike's where he works part time (mostly so we could see where he works).  From there we drove to Central High School for the away game that Reilly (#32) was to be playing in with his team from Hickory Ridge High School.  Sadly we didn't arrive till just after the game started so we missed seeing him go out on the field as his team's representative for the coin toss.  But we did get to see him make several great tackles out during the first quarter as one of the linebackers on his team. He really seemed to have a knack for figuring out who had the ball.  (below he is in midst of a tackle)

Then the next time the defense had to go out on the field we noticed he wasn't playing which was not usual since he is a first string player.

Finally Tim went down to chat with him and came back to tell us he pulled himself out of the game as he was feeling dizzy and was running a fever.  So sadly we didn't get to see him play anymore and just felt bad for him as he had to stay on a bench and just watch while his team lost.

We returned to the house for a short time hoping to be able to see him but he was just plain miserable and chose to take a shower and get ready for bed.  Since both Sue and Tim had to teach in the morning, we took off and told them we'd see them Friday evening.