Time traveling: 1974 and 1781

We did a bit of time traveling today, first to 1974 and then to 1781.  Here’s what happened.

Summer 1974, I spent a week at the Georgia Bible Camp near Valdosta, Georgia.  It was not my first sleep-away camp, but it was my first time at this camp, and I didn’t know any of the other girls.  Being one of the younger campers, I was assigned to the Ina cabin.  It was there that the girl in the bunk next to mine greeted me so warmly and became my first camp friend.  While we lived in different cities, we were pen pals throughout the rest of the year, but every summer through high school, we went to GBC the same week.  When we were in high school, she spent a day with me at school.  I’d visit her, her mom would take us various places, and she even came to visit me in college.  We reconnected online when Facebook took off and have kept up with each other over the last several years through there.

When we first started planning this trip, I looked to see where she lived, and she was in western North Carolina.  It would be too far out of the way going or coming by our original routing, so I didn’t think any more about it.  Until this morning when I was studying the route we were taking from Asheville to Greensboro and noticed the town she used to live in was right on our route.  She had moved several years ago to another town nearby, so I sent her a message to see if she might be available to meet up.  She’s still working, so I knew her schedule might not allow time.

Well, it was my lucky day because she had to take her work car for service, so she was going to be waiting for that, and the timing for us traveling through that part of North Carolina lined up perfectly.  So we got to spend about a half hour together catching up in real life.  And we both said “you haven’t changed a bit” when we saw each other!  It was such a wonderful spontaneous addition to our day!

So from Summer 1974 we continued traveling back until we were in Guilford County, North Carolina, 1781.  This is where we meet Major General Nathanael Greene who commanded the Southern Campaign of the American War for Independence culminated in a battle at the Guilford Courthouse in what is now part of Greensboro, North Carolina.  This is part of the National Park Service.  The visitor center wasn’t open today, but they have several audio tours that you can do through the app.  We did the driving tour which was pretty good, but only after we figured out that the numbers in the beginning don’t line up with the actual stops on the tour!  We eventually got caught up so the narrative matched up with where we were in the park.  Listening to the audio tour is a bit like listening to a podcast.  I think we would have enjoyed this more if we could have seen a film at the Visitor Center or had park staff give us the scoop on how to make the most of our visit.

But besides all that, it still escapes my mind about how battles were fought during this time period.  How close the armed forces had to get to each other before their tactics could be effective.  We just watched the PBS documentary about the American Revolutionary War which is what put the Guilford Courthouse on my radar for visiting, but even after watching that, it’s still something to see the area in person and think of the men who fought for what became our country.  This is just the first of several sites we plan to visit during our trip.  You know how I sometimes say, “another day, another fort”?  Well this trip it’s likely to become “another day, another battle site.”

Other notes from the day.

There was a Costco between the battlefield site and the hotel, so we filled up.  $3.62 per gallon.  The car got 32.x MPG on the last tank including the stop and go of the driving tour at the NPS site.

We ate lunch at the Red Robin located just a few minutes before the battlefield.  We don’t have a Red Robin any more, so this met our criteria.  We ate at one in Columbus, Georgia, for the first time in ages when we were going up to visit DH’s sister before she passed away.  The very first time I had Red Robin was in Vancouver in 2011 when we were going on an Alaskan cruise.

We planned to do laundry but the dryer at the hotel was broken, so we’ll wait until we get to Delaware and try again.  Instead, DH rested while I worked on blog posts, smash book, budget stuff, and reviews for TripAdvisor.  I’m trying to keep up so that the hotels don’t blend into each other in my memory.  Then after 5 PM when the sun wasn’t so strong, we spent some time at the pool.  I like to do that when we have several car days in a row because it helps me stretch better and I can do some water exercises.  And relax!

Coming up:  headed to Virginia so I can add another sticker to my 50 States water bottle and so we can officially start heading to the northeast!  Thanks for reading!

~ Cindy D.

P.S. We had a bit of a problem with the air conditioner going out in our hotel room last night. But I called the front desk and they sent someone up right away to check it out.  They were able to fix it, thankfully.  I didn't want to have to change rooms because we were already ready for bed.  We bring a couple of small travel fans with us that would have probably been sufficient; I would have asked for a fan from the hotel as well.  But yay for maintenance people being available at 9:45 PM.