Journey to Florida - Day 1

The adventure has begun!  We left our condo at 5:59 a.m. - - - YES, a minute ahead of schedule!  We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts in Millbury on our way to the Mass Pike. Yum!  My decaf iced coffee caramel swirl and my bagel sustained me for the first part of the ride.  The ride began smoothly with very little traffic...until I took over driving on the Garden State Parkway.  It began to rain...and rained for the next seven hours.  From the amount of traffic, you would have thought everyone from the Northeast was heading to Florida today.  The traffic and rain on Interstate 95 was horrendous for Russ the entire state of Maryland. We crawled for much of that part of the ride along with everyone else.   Thankfully, by the time I took over driving again in Virginia the traffic and rain got soooo much lighter.  Needless to say, we are thankful to be safe in our Chester, VA, hotel room right now.  Chester is 61 miles from the North Carolina border.  The Hampton Inn here is terrific!  Great room and nice breakfast room for tomorrow morning.  (Oh, and did I mention free cookies all day long?!) To finish the first LONG day, we had a delicious meal at Cracker Barrel.  Hopefully, we will sleep well tonight! (Did I mention KING-sized bed?!)

Only two photos to share with friends today:

 The sign (which no one could easily read due to the heavy rain) is for the Fort McHenry Tunnel near Baltimore, MD.  The traffic jam began once again shortly after taking this photo.

I love the way hotel bathrooms greet guests!