Day 38 (8/5) Stone Mountain, GA; driving to Chapel Hill, NC. (Lin) Can I just say that Jo is an amazing driver? She has silently been the driving machine for 90% of this entire trip. We hit 10,000 miles today for this trip in eastern North Carolina, which means Jo has easily logged in 9,000 or so of those 10k miles. She actually drives most of the time on all of our trips. It started because she gets motion sick if she tries to read or work on her computer, and I don’t. So she graciously drives and lets me get stuff done. (We sometimes joke about which is harder with a van full of kids – driving or siting in the passenger’s seat and fielding the never-ending stream of requests for water, wipes, music, food, chargers, etc. etc.) Still, we all are so grateful for her excellent driving this entire trip.
Lazy morning at the Stantons’ – up late and were treated to a lovely warm breakfast of muffins, eggs, sausage, and coffee. The kids enjoyed ziplining in the backyard a bit and messing around the kids.
We pulled out a bit later than expected and decided to swing by Stone Mountain on the way to Chapel Hill. What a weird place. It is the southern version of Mt. Rushmore in many ways, with the three main leaders of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War (Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson) carved into shallow relief on the side of a huge granite mountain. It is also the site of the founding of the Second Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th c. On the large lawn in front of the stone facade, each state which joined the confederacy (or even had sympathizers within it, like Missouri and Kansas) are memorialized. If you want to understand the ongoing controversy regarding the Confederate flag, this is a good place to start.
Traffic was heavy from Atlanta to our next destination, Chapel Hill, NC. Perhaps because it was a Friday afternoon, but we hit a lot of smaller and then a few larger slowdowns. It totally made me miss the wide open, mostly empty roads out west. We drove through massive rainstorm and saw a rainbow later. We hit 10,000 miles for this trip in western NC!
In Chapel Hill we are staying with our good friends the Baynes. I’ve been here before, but not Jo and the kids, so it is nice to get our full families together finally. We gorged ourselves on a marvelous feast of southern BBQ ribs, brisket, beans, etc., at The Q Shack in Durham. Afterward we came back to the house and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, including part of the parade of nations. Good times.
(Can click on pics for larger versions.)
Fisher Family Travels 