5-17

We had to change our departure itinerary because of a family emergency, my Mom's only sister, my Aunt Ellen, passed away on Wed morning and the wake was this Friday. So our planned leisurely 2 day drive to North Carolina changed into an overnight power run, we should be able to make it, the picnic doesn't start until 10AM tomorrow.

At 19:40, we launched from Mike's place.

We decided to try 2 hour shifts, Mike took the first leg to get used to the car while there was still some light.

We decided to eat before we started, since we both hadn't eaten in a while, we stopped at Wendy's and had some burgers and salad, nothing fancy but a good start to the road trip.

We actually made pretty good time and trading off kept both of us pretty fresh into the night.

5-18

I started fading around 3 or 4, but was able to take a couple catnaps when Mike was driving so that I recharged a bit. We didn't do any hot driver swaps, always got out and walked, did a restroom break or got something to drink.

We drove through some clouds in the mountains of Tennessee East of Knoxville, quite cool, yet intense driving, visibility was down to about 50 feet at times. Luckily it was Mike's turn in the drivers seat, so I could enjoy it instead of doing the sweating.

Got to the hotel and checked in, crashed for a couple hours before heading over for the picnic. It was cold and windy there, but we still spent the whole time checking out all the cars and meeting all the folks. We got asked a few times about the jackets and got to tell the story and try to get folks to remember the address. There were over 70 cars and 100 folks there, it was truly a great day, and everyone that had seen my old car congratulated me on my new car.

We left the picnic early and caravanned to the restaurant/lodge at the top of the mountain, it was a really good drive in beautiful country on really fun roads running 70 cars in a row through the switchbacks and hairpins was a blast. Dave and Jeannie had called ahead and had them turn up the heat in their meeting room and we had cappuccino, coffee and cocoa coming in by the trayful. They gave away a table full of door prizes and told us thanks for coming.. They really took care of us as their guests as if, as Jeannie said, they consider us as extended family. We ate at the restaurant, and they had told them to expect us, so they had a special for the "Shark Folks" of a nice New York Strip.

Dave and Jeannie even invited everyone back to their place after dinner, but Mike and I were so fried from lack of sleep and being outside for the day that we declined and headed back to the hotel, I crashed by 8:30.