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Peter Taylor
DAY 146
Friday August 24th
Charleston, WV to Parsippany, NJ

Today was purely a driving day – we haven't had many of those lately. Our destination is Vermont, over 800 miles from Charleston, and we plan to break the back of it. The drive will be exactly the reverse of the one two days ago, so there will be nothing much to report.

Our first stop of the morning is Lost Creek. How we found it I'll never know. There is a gas station there, and not much else. We fill up, Alan and I each get a drink, and we leave. Five miles down the road, I ask him how much I owe for my half of the petrol, and it appears he thought I was paying. So we make a U-turn, and return to Lost Creek. I explain what happened, and no one seems too bothered. The hillbilly behind me in the queue, however, with a beard down to his navel, pipes up;

"Me and the wife did exactly the same thing last week with a piece of water melon"
"Easily done", I venture.

He puts on a concerned look. "Sure does make you feel funny though, don't it!" he confides.

Another couple of hundred miles, and it's time for lunch. By this time we are in Maryland, and find ourselves in the small town of Hancock…….or should that be Hhhhhhhhhhancock?

How long did lunch take? A hhhhhhhhhhhhalf hour, of course.

When the journey clock tells us we have done over 500 miles, we look for a hotel, which is why we find ourselves in Parsippany. It's not a made up name!

After checking in, we decide to find the local township, and set off along the road on which the hotel stands. Suddenly it becomes an interstate, so we decide to do a U-turn. Our first effort takes us onto another highway. We manage to turn around on that, and get back on the interstate. Unfortunately we are still going in the same direction. Eventually we get off again, turn around and get back to the vicinity of the hotel. The longest U-turn in history, around 20 miles!
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Pete's family have stayed behind to hold the fort.

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