Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 18-From OC to NC

7/18/10: We wrapped up a fabulous week in Ocean City (year 4!) and headed to North Carolina to see lil’ sis Claudine & some of the Bright family.
The Cape May Ferry was something I’d never tried, even through all the years of driving to the beach house on the Outer Banks, so we figured
we’d give it a try then take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel on the way to North Carolina.
I was surprised at how expensive it is: $62 for our truck and family to take an 85 minute ride across Delaware Bay to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The ride was uneventful, except for Caroline’s wee bit of nausea. We saw a couple of dolphins, a bunch of big ships and then we were there.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel hasn’t changed too much, aside from a whole new north-bound section. When we used to drive it there were only two lanes total. Of course, traffic was probably half what it is now, too. We stopped at the gift shop for my first time ever and then kept on to Norfolk, where we stopped for one last Wawa hoagie (I bought a Hoagie Fest tee shirt!).
We got to Apex in time for Betty Crocker’s, I mean Claudine’s, dinner. Charles seemed pretty darn cool and his girls (15 & 12) were really, really great with Grace & Caroline. Claudine is quite settled and happily working at Cisco. So folks, it looks like the Charles/Clau thing is the real deal! They are doing the big planning, and they sure look cute together.

An awesome Krispy Kreme & OJ breakfast was in store at Great Aunt Hannah’s place in Durham. Cousin Lisa was awesome and skipped out of work for an hour or so to come hang out with us. It was great to see them, catch up on some family news and get lots of pictures. Hannah gave us directions to Maplewood Cemetery and we went to visit Nan and the rest of our departed family members.
Even though it was a cemetery, it was good to go and just say hello and I miss you. A lot. Like tons. There’s something about being in front of a gravestone with your grandmother’s name on it. It’s wrong. It shouldn’t be there. But it’s important anyway.
We drove off, I composed myself, and we drove through the really beautiful North Carolina countryside. Stopped to get 4 quarts of pulled pork bbq along the way at Carolina BBQ! Turned out that the NC BBQ Society had ranked this restaurant as a can’t miss place. Adorable town, too – Statesville.

The Carolina mountains turned into Tennessee mountains and the green rolled on and on…