The second night of sleep in our campsite was better than the first. Maybe Lilly was used to the birdy neighbors, or maybe just too exhausted to care! Either way, we all slept better. We hit the road early, since we had a full day of driving in front of us. Our first stop - another dog park!
I have to say that Charleston has amazing dog parks. They are so nice and accessible, it cost us $1 each time to enter the park area (which included more than just the dog park, but we didn't check anything else out) and it was so worth it! This time, some other doggies showed up to keep Lilly company.
She had a blast running around and it was nice to have the little wooded area for her to play in.
After that, we were really ready to go. As we drove, we kept seeing billboards advertising one spot. I knew we wouldn't want to eat there, but was curious about the place. It is called "South of the Border" and is a collection of attractions in South Carolina (but just south of North Carolina).
It was totally sketchy. There were restaurants, motels, gift shops, and a little amusement park. We got off and sort of drove around but didn't have any interest in stopping at any of them! We did see a sign that said "internet cafe" and thought that would be worth checking out. It was at the end of a long building with "Flea Market" signs. We thought it was odd when we walked up to the door and it was locked, but there was a bell, so we rang it. We were buzzed into a dark, smoky room filled with slot machines! Ha! This was the most crowded place we saw. The whole place was so sketchy. We used the bathrooms, but there was no wireless internet to be had, and we didn't feel like hanging around to ask for a computer to use. We hustled out of there very quickly, I didn't get any photos, even from the outside - I was a little afraid the pit boss would be after me! As we left, just north of the building, we noticed a small sign on the road (not the big pretty colorful kind) that said "North Carolina border". We figured NC and SC must have different gambling laws, and this spot capitalizes on that. Oh well! Anyway we were back on the highway pretty quickly.
But we still had to eat. I had used my phone's web browser to discover a seafood restaurant that got good reviews, just a little bit off the highway, so we headed there. It looked pretty busy, late lunch crowd by the time we got there, maybe 2pm. But we walked in and found out that it was a buffet restaurant. I am not always thrilled about the idea of eating food that has been sitting on warmers for hours, and wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try it this time. We looked around and just headed for a Mexican restaurant that was across the parking lot. LUCKY! It was delicious!
We had a great lunch at this place, and if I were ever in the area again, I would definitely go back.
We made one more stop, at the outlet stores. I couldn't resist! We both got new sunglasses, which was nice. A few hours later, we arrived at our stop for the night in Richmond, Virginia. We stayed at a Westin which was extremely nice, especially because they were dog-friendly. (Its pretty much our number one criteria for a hotel.) They had a pool, and we got to do some relaxing swimming. I think the highlight of this stop for Chris was the shower head.
It was pretty cool.
We got a good dinner recommendation from the guy at the front desk, the Capital Ale House.
They don't brew their own beers but they have gazillions of beers on tap. (And even more in bottles.)
They have a very cool strip lining the bar that is frosty so it sort of keeps your beer cold.
Probably more style than function, but neato anyway. And finally went back to the hotel for a very relaxing nights sleep in a soft bed with a fluffy blanket in an air conditioned room. Great way to end the trip.
The next morning, we lounged around for a little while after we woke up, enjoying the gourmet coffee and watching HGTV. Then we had an uneventful drive back to NYC.
As always, we were sad to see the vacation end but happy to come home. Thanks for going along on our trip with us!!
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