Road Trip

We had been running through on and off rain since we left home and it seemed to have stopped when we took the image above. It didn’t seem as quite as hazy in person as it tuned out looking in the photo. We kind of planned on using this picture for Washington County Georgia because last year we used the sign for Jefferson County that was on the other side of the Ogeechee River on the other side of the road. But we ended up liking the more interesting one we found when leaving the county heading south on GA-231.

Somewhere between Pineview & Rochelle amidst about 152,000 acres of peanut farms the Emperor moved past the 152,000 mile mark.

As a testament as to how much we hate Atlanta traffic, we have driven to Tallahassee, Florida to get our 4th state capitol building even though it would have been fewer miles round trip to the Peach State’s capitol building than these miles one way to get the Sunshine State’s.

We left Florence this morning and took a combination of back roads and I-95 to get to Midlothian, VA. This stop is for two reasons, Donna’s Cousin Susie & Family live here and it is 6 miles from the capitol building of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

One of the first things we did this morning was make a stop at South of the Border because one of the Motoring Challenge destinations this year is a Truck Stop and Pedro has one. While I’m sure any Pilot Travel Center, Love’s Travel Stop or Travel Center America would count, they said truck stop and by golly I was going to get one that said Truck Stop. The photo above is the out-take, the one below is the official submission.

Another reason to take US301 here is that you could get two state signs (1 point each) with ease. So we checked off NC & VA within 100 yards.

Today’s title comes courtesy of some high as a kite patron of a quick stop. We got off I-95 near Dunn, NC to make a pit stop and start on a back road, but couldn’t go much further than a 1/8 mile because a state trooper car had the road blocked. It was then we noticed the two police mobile command centers parked across the street with perhaps 2 dozen LEO vehicles parked there too. When we got to the counter with our drinks there was a dreadlocked individual in front of us trying to explain why he was so upset. After he loudly proclaimed he had to use the restroom, he exclaimed that he was upset because the cops took his biscuits. We asked the proprietor what was going on and it turns out that the house just past the stationary trooper’s car there was a big drug bust.

One of the “destinations” in this year’s Motoring Challenge is a palindrome sign and it is worth 2 points vs. the usual one. This was today’s road trip objective. According to Wikipedia’s page listing palindromic locations we are fortunately within driving distance of one of the three 2nd longest places that are spelled the same forwards and backwards, the 11 letter long Wassamassaw.

Historical Marker text:
(Front)
Wassamassaw, with several variant spellings during the colonial era, is a Native American word thought to mean “connecting water.” It first referred to the large cypress swamp here, but eventually referred to the community that grew up nearby in the Anglican parish of St. James, Goose Creek. Plantations laid out by the English and later by the Huguenots flourished before the Revolution.

(Reverse)
The swamp was almost impassible for most of the colonial period, but the Wassamassaw Road ran just below the swamp between here and Goose Creek. A Chapel of Ease was built nearby shortly after the Yamasee War of 1715, and a free school was founded in 1728. The “Wassamassaw Cavalry,” a militia company founded in 1857, later saw Confederate service as Company D, 2nd S.C. Cavalry.

Of all the entries in the 2015 Challenge for this destination, the best anyone can do is tie us when it comes to length by getting some other variation of Wassamassaw (there is a Baptist Church behind me and then there is a road by that name a few miles away near Summerville) or Ekalaka Lake in Montana. The only longer palindrome named place is Nerren Nerren at 12, but I doubt any Challengers will get it as it is in Western Australia.

The last picture taken on our 2-Day Moss Motoring Challenge Photo Excursion is the above photo. We snapped a total of 48 photos and accomplished 9 objectives worth 11 points altogether. We traveled a little over 600 miles on 2 tanks of gas. We had breakfast at home on Christmas morning and dinner at home today. In between we had a picnic lunch next to the Flat Creek Quick Stop, a Chinese buffet for Christmas dinner, breakfast at DD and pizza with my sister at One West in Hendersonville.

Now all that remains is taking the photo that will be the one that is closest to home, something less than a mile away, something we have already taken a photo of nearly 10 months ago and are slightly unhappy with, a Horse Track. Once we get that picture we will have scored 125 points out of a possible 201.