The wait was long so Lucy and I ate in the bar (which was non-smoking so it was fine). The food was great. Lucy treated me to dinner for my birthday. We sat around and people watched and yawned a lot and hardly said anything (which was also fine).
It was after dinner that the adventure begins. OK... so in an effort to be spontaneous and adventurous we traveled without reservations... no I mean really... we had no reservations... to stay that is. So we left the restaurant with our full bellies and droopy eyelids and headed to the nearest hotel. Unfortunately for us... after checking several hotels... we found out that it was Parent Weekend at Liberty University and all the hotels in town were booked (that may have been why the wait at the restaurant was sooooo long).
What to do next was a puzzle. You see we could head in our original direction and be on Route 460 in the middle of the mountains of nowhere with no place to stay and winding roads... or... we could head north in the direction we came from with better roads and more chance that there might be a place to stay between Lynchburg and Charlottesville (which according to GPS was about 1 1/2 hours north).
We ultimately decided to head north back on Route 29 and hope we found something on the way between here and Charlottesville. It was about 10:15 pm at the time. Here we go. Take a deep breath and wake up ladies.
So north we went, all the while watching every exit for signs of life and a neon vacancy. We drove for miles and miles. Occasionally we saw a sign that said "motel" but there were no street lights and no mileage info and we were a little afraid. Not chicken... just cautious.
Eventually we arrived all the way to Charlottesville. This is a BIG town and chances are there would be lots of rooms. Did I mention that Charlottesville is the home of the University of Virginia (go UVA Cavaliers). Well... imagine our surprise when we found out that not only was it also parent weekend at UVA but... there was a great big home football game the next day AND... wait for it... Elton John was in town giving a BIG concert.
Chances of getting a hotel in this town.... = ..... BIG FAT 0 !
So we get back in the car... by now it's at least 11:00pm (probably later) and we are about 50 minutes from the next quilt shop on the tour (the rest of the 5 shops on the tour were all in and around the Richmond area). OK we start to head East on I-64 again (remember the mountain pass) and head to Richmond. There must be a room in Richmond... it's a big city. We had to drive more than 35 miles before my GPS would start showing us hotels that were not in Charlottesville (backwards).
We kept seeing signs for motels but every time we would get near the exit it just wasn't clear how far off the beaten path they were or what they would be like. We just elected to stay safe and keep on going. Eventually we arrived in Short Pump (a very nice commercial area in the suburbs) sometime around midnight... YIKES! We sat in the car and used the GPS to get phone numbers and call all the area hotels to enquire about rooms. We found one and were lucky enough to get Lucy's husband's AARP discount. We both laughed about that and then I thought about how soon it would be until I would be using my husband's AARP discount.
We were too tired to argue. We were too tired for anything. I had driven probably 400 miles that day and was pretty tired. We went straight to bed and crashed hard. No wake up calls at all. We woke up the next morning at 9am (which I think is pretty good considering) and brought up breakfast and coffee to the room. The hotel was actually pretty great.
We showered and freshened and continued on with the day. The best thing was when we went outside this is what we found.
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