A Capitol Visit and a Wedding in 2017

We were on I-95 heading into Georgia.

entering GA

I thought we would go to See Jay's Cafe on Jekyll Island and have some Brunswick stew, but the phone told me that Sea Jay's was permanently closed. I thought we might go to Brunswick (which we have only skirted in the past), and have lunch, but I eventually decided just to go to Hinesville and have lunch there. I decided to over-ride the GPS and get off I-95 earlier and head toward Hinesville because I thought we could see a restaurant and stop more easily than we could do on the interstate. Also I wanted to eat an a local place and not a big chain.

We stopped for gas (42 mpg) but were suckered in by a sign advertising $2.09 for gas and that was only for cash. It was 10 cents more if you paid by credit card.

The first place I picked to eat, we didn't see. So I picked another place which was up a side road. the GPS tried to take us all the way back to I-95 which was different from what the phone said for the same place, and we ended up on an unpaved road - and never did find the place. So we got to Hinesville and passed the hotel by 1:00.

Bob was, as usual, driving speedily down the road, passing everything before we could stop, so we ended up at El Paso - a Mexican place. And Bob promptly ordered chili which is not what I would have ordered at a Mexican place.

I had two cheese quesidillas and fried ice cream and watched the soccer on TV which had closed captions in Spanish. At one point I wanted to know what country AJAX was from so I looked it up on my phone - I think they are from Amsterdam.

El Paso

We checked into the Hampton in a little before 2., and after settling in, I went for a swim. I took the scooter. The sign pointing to the pool seemed to go out onto a road, so I asked. One of the doors out to the pool was open but the lady I asked opened the other one for me. Then there was a gate to the pool, which I managed OK, but the gate 'grounded' noisily on the pool surface. But I had my swim.

On the way back to the room, I decided to ride the scooter around to the front where there are automatic doors, and then I knocked on the door for Bob to let me in.

About 5, Bob wanted to know where we were going to eat dinner He didn't want Panera Bread next door to the hotel because he didn't want a sandwich. He didn't want Mexican, he didn't want BBQ, he didn't want pizza, and he didn't want a buffet. I didn't want a chicken place or a chain. So I suggested a German place. No he didn't like German food. So we ended up at Applebees. He had tomato soup

Tomato soup

and a salad.

Bob's salad

Light fare dinner

May 11
We left about 9 - I was going to wait longer, but Bob was impatient. We went zipping out of Hinesville, up I-95

May 11 continued

We got to Walterboro where we turned off I-95 for Summerville about 11:00. My children thought this was a terrible road, but I don't see anything wrong with it. We have - on occasion -eaten lunch in Waltersboro
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Waltersboro Historic Marker

Many of the hotels in Summerville are on a road right next to I-26 on a road which had a Holiday inn on it - the road is called Holiday Drive. Usually we have stayed in the Sleep Inn which is less expensive and also has a free breakfast, but this time we decided to stay in the Hampton Inn, and our three daughters and their spouses and quite a few of the other wedding guests were here too. I knew that one son-in-law would want to stay here because he wants a king bed with fitted bottom sheets, and the Hampton Inn can give him that.

Originally there was just the Holiday Inn and the Sleep Inn and another hotel on this road. Now there is an Econo Lodge, an Economy Inn, Country Inn & Suites and a Wyndham in addition to the Sleep Inn and the Hampton Inn. The GPS refused to acknowledge that the Hampton Inn was on Holiday Drive (which has been extended) and insisted that it was another location. Apparently they were across the road and just moved to this location a couple of months ago. I think their former location has a Comfort Inn.

I wanted to find a place to eat lunch because we were WAY early to check in to the hotel, but Bob does not hear me and is driving too fast to stop. We eventually got to Five Guys Hamburgers and Fries and had lunch.

Five Guy's drink cup

taped to the bag

After we ordered, Bob waited a long time for the men's room - I could see him fidgeting outside, so I went to the ladies room and it was empty (a single stall place) and I told him to come in there with me. They brought our food to the table.

I had a cheese dog and a grilled cheese sandwich

Grilled Cheese

Cheese dog

Bob's hamburger

Bob went over to Walmart - he said he thought he saw BJ's gas (and we don't need gas) but he couldn't find it again. Bob decided we should take KFC and soft drinks over to our son's house for dinner, so he stopped and got some chicken on the way over there. We had never been to his new house, so we went over and had dinner there. I met my granddaughter's fiancee and talked to them a bit.

They are all set up to have a wedding in the garden where there is a tiki hut on the deck, and a fountain in the yard.

garden

Tiki hut on the deck

Garden where the wedding was to be held

We had breakfast at the hotel and went over to our son's house in the afternoon. Her brother (our grandson), his wife and their child (our great grandson) got there about 4 in the morning because they tried to drive from Aberdeen through D.C. in the rush hour. Which is not a good idea.

Great grandson

We went back to the hotel - two of our daughters had arrived - one from Florida and one from Maryland. The Florida couple are on the first floor, and the Maryland couple are on the second floor. They came up to our room and we talked until it was time to leave for the rehearsal dinner (there was no actual rehearsal because the lady who was marrying them had to work, so they did the rehearsal after the dinner.

About 5:30 we left for the rehearsal dinner, which was at Sticky Fingers.

Sign for the rehearsal dinner

Sticky Fingers neon sign from inside

Buffet food at Sticky Fingers

We got reacquainted with our daughter-in-law's side of the family and had dinner. There were about twenty-five people there from out of town plus our son and daughter-in-law and the engaged couple. Our third daughter from Texas arrived about 8 pm. They had flown from Houston to Atlanta and rented a car. They are on the third floor of the hotel.

Our four children

Photos in front of the sticky fingers sign

May 13 - Saturday - the Wedding

The weather forecast was for rain, and it did indeed rain. That meant all the set-ups for outside had to be moved into the house.We had a good time at the wedding in spite of the rain. They managed to cope wonderfully. My son moved his prized Mustang out of the garage and parked it down by the community pool about a quarter mile away (parking was a problem), and the moved all the furniture out of the family room and put it in the garage. Chairs were set up in the family room for the guests to sit on facing the kitchen island,.

Great grandson

chairs set up

photographer waiting for the bride

Wedding location indoors

and the cross ceremony was on a card table at the doors out onto the deck.

First kiss

Then tables were brought in and set up, and someone from Mo's came with food which was buffet style in the dining room. Drinks in cans (water, soft drinks and beer) were on the front porch and my son was running the blender in the kitchen as the bar tender backed out at the last minute. The cake was in the apartment for the cake cutting

photos on the deck

I took about 170 photos, or which 60 were of our great grandson (or people holding him)

Bob had parked the car down at the pool and walked back to the house, so he walked back and got the car and we took our Texas daughter and son-in-law back to the hotel. The two other daughters used Uber.

May 14 - Mother's Day

My kids wanted to take me to a restaurant for Mother's Day, but I figured that since we didn't have reservations it would be a madhouse if we could even get anything. So I suggested that since we were at the Hampton Inn and they had breakfast, we should just go all together and eat breakfast there. Our Maryland daughter left early to drive back home (because they had their dog in a kennel) but the other two girls and their husbands and our son came to the Hampton Inn and we had breakfast and chatted. Our son didn't eat anything.

son-in-law

breakfast

The Florida couple were going to Savannah (which isn't far), the Texans were going back to Atlanta (they were tracking their kids on their phones, so they knew that at least their phones were at church), and our son said that our daughter-in-law was cleaning up.

We left about 10 and had a straight shot up I-95. On the way to Rocky Mount, we stopped at Burger King for lunch.

Even here, it was very crowded because of Mother's Day.

May 14 - continued

After lunch I fell asleep and when I woke up the GPS had turned itself off again and would not turn on. But we are going to be on I-95 so it basically isn't needed. Bob asked for a place to get gas, so I found a place on the outskirts of Rocky Mount where gas was $2.15. We stopped there - 46 mpg.

gas station

selfie

. We had dinner at Red Lobster- this is a chain, but there isn't one near us. And Bob suggested going there.

Red Lobster

May 15

We got underway early - Bob is - as usual - anxious to get home. We were crossing into Virginia by 9:30. Once Bob heads for home, he doesn't tarry.

Entering Virginia

Someplace in Virginia, the GPS turned itself on again. For reasons unknown except to it.

Virginia is a big fat state in the middle (unlike Maryland which is wide, but very narrow north to south in the middle), but it seemed like no time at all until we were crossing the bridge into Maryland.

Morgantown Power Plant smokestake

By 12:25 we were passing the PEPCO smokestakes in Morgantown on the Maryland side of the Potomac and turning down Budds Creek Road.

Bob suggested that we stop someplace and get lunch. I suggested going to KFC/Taco Bell in Leonardtown because there were a lot of choices (both Mexican and chicken), We got something for both lunch and dinner.

Our mail had been delivered and so had the papers.

The cats were confused because the cat sitter had already been there this morning.

The house a few days later with our car in the driveway

Accounting

So many people ask, "How much will it cost me to drive from .." point A to point B. Most of the time they want to spend minimal amounts of money. We don't want to scrimp, but neither do we want to pay more than we have to. So for this trip I kept detailed expense records. When we were traveling on our boat, my expense records included things like dockage, food, fuel, repairs, phone bills, and the cost of electricity, water and other utilities for our house when we were gone. That is total living expenses. But this report is just for the travel expenses, so I did not include the phone bills in this report, nor did I include house utilities or the cost of the cat sitter.

This is broken down into the following categories

• Gas/Transportation
• Sleeping Accommodations
• Food
• Other (such as admission prices, tolls and gifts)

Transportation expense when traveling by car depends on how expensive the vehicle is to rent. We had our own car, so the only actual out of pocket expense was for gas. Technically we should include the cost of insurance, licensing and depreciation, but I'm not going to get into that. We have a hybrid car which gets very good gas mileage. Our average gas use was 45 mpg for the trip. It was as much as 50 mpg on the freeway, and less than that in town. The average price per gallon was $2.23. So for a trip of 2088 miles, our total gas cost was $100.00

Hotels: For 8 days on this trip we stayed at Hampton Inns which have free parking, free internet and free breakfast. The price of the room depends a good bit on how expensive the area is. The average cost was $160/night, and we tipped about $3.00/night to the maids. We also stayed for three nights at a Navy Lodge (only available to military families) which has a small kitchen. The cost for this accommodations was $77.00/night. This helped balance out the price of the 2 nights where we stayed at a very expensive hotel in Tallahassee for $612/night. Our average room price for 13 nights was $210.46

Food: Most of our breakfasts were eaten at the Hampton Inn's free breakfast. When we are driving, we mostly eat at a fast food place for lunch. If we are going to be several days in a place, we have lunch at a regular restaurant and then take the leftovers home for supper. Since usually our room has at least a microwave and a small fridge, we will also go to a market to buy food to eat in the room. Also during this trip we attended a wedding, and two of the dinners (rehearsal dinner and reception) were free. Our total cost for food was $512.06 or $36.50/day

Other: We paid admission to one Florida State Park ($6.00), and one museum ($8.00 each). We had one bridge toll $6.00, and two ferry rides $6.00 each. We also spent $101 on gifts.

The total cost for 14 days (and 13 nights) was $3909 or $275.00/day

My last trip in 2017 was a Princess Cruise to Hawaii with my friend Polly