Underway for Roanoke

We are on our way to Roanoke, Virginia. The map is the GPS location of

our campground near Statesville, NC. As we approached Charlotte, NC on

the way here we saw a sign that said, "I-485 Freeway." It appeared on

the map to be a bypass around the downtown part of the city. What we

did not know that it was incomplete and found ourselves on a small two

lane highway in a fifty foot rig including the auto in tow. Fortunately

we were running the GPS with a moving map display on the laptop. With

the aid of the GPS we were able to navigate our way back to the

interstate. While it was not a path we would have intenionally chosen we

both found ourselves not stressed out about it. The fact that we are not

on a limited number of days as we were while working had a lot to do

with it. We just saw it as an interesting diversion since we are not

using up our limited annual leave days. We saw parts of Charlotte that

we would never have seen had we not taken the incomplete beltway road.

It was also a good thing that we called ahead and made a reservation at

a campground because when we arrived we found it filling up fast.



We drove over to Statesville and were surprised at the development that

has taken place since we last visited here. The last visit was well

over ten years ago when we picked the first glider I owned, a Libelle

H-201 that I bought in Elizabethton, Tennessee. On that trip we went on

to Blacksburg, Va. to visit Barbara's mom and dad and then came back by

Statesville. We both remembered that Statesville was a small town at

that time and the only place to eat was a local barbecue place, The

Carolina Barbecue. We had a lot of fun that time because people kept

asking us what was in the sailplane trailer. When I told them it was an

airplane they were disappointed. Most people in this area wanted it to

be a race car of some type and they expressed their disappointment at it

not being one.



That's about all the news from The Mothership for now. No internet

connectivity at this time so this will be uploaded at the next place I

can get online.







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