Natural Bridge, VA to Charlotte/Fort Mill

242 miles/387 Km

21 June 2006

Photo Gallery and Commentary
An easy day. Our objective for the day was to meet with the Polite Family in the Charlotte, NC suburbs. This was a short run so we took our time getting ready to travel. This is one of our few short travel days. The route to Charlotte took us down to the end of the Shenandoah Valley, over the Blue Ridge Mountains into North Carolina.

Reggie Polite was one of Susie's first students. As a kid, growing up, Reggie spent quite a bit of time with us. So much so, that he became known in our family as our "first born son." He, in turn, considered Carrie and Rick as his sister and brother. Reggie had an uncanny sense of timing, always showing up at our door when it was time for dinner (as he did last February). Other than the visit earlier this year, we have not seen Reggie, his wife, Mercedes and his children, Marcus, Julius and Alexis in the past few years. When we planned this trip we decided to make a little detour to Charlotte so that we could spend some time with the Polite family. We had a great evening and hope to see them again soon.

We were going to upload this after finishing the page. Unfortunately we were reminded about the uncertainties of accessing the Internet when on the road. The campground in Fort Mill has free wireless access. It worked in the afternoon when we got there, although it was a bit slow. When we returned in the evening, it was slower and kept dropping out. This upload will have to wait until New Orleans since the next stop does not have Internet access. And we thought it we would have better luck traveling in the Continental US.
l - r: Alexis, Reggie, Mercedes, Julius and Marcus Polite