Adventure, Part II

OK, adventure continued... as I mentioned it was an interesting night on Saturday, as the giggling continued through the night. we all woke at about 6 am, with the intention to leave at 7 am. we got packed, we had coffee and bagels for breakfast, and proceeded to head to the parking lot to begin our journey home. One problem, from where we parked, there were two vehicles parked that impaired our ability to get out of dodge... so we waited in the lobby for what seemed like an eternity, but eventually, the owners of the two vehicles came down and moved to where we could get out. ONWARD!!! we get on the highway, heading south. Let me tell you, as a resident of Florida, there are NO mountains, hills, or scenery that we experienced on our way out of North Carolina. The mountains are beautiful, Asheville was beautiful, as it sits in a valley of the Smokey Mountains. our view was amazing, from the hotel we stayed at, to the drive into South Carolina. I definitely would love to go back to Asheville for a vacation for pure pleasure and not for a "rescue" mission. Definitely, a place I would love to revisit someday. anyway, on with the drive... imagine if you will, driving a 12' box truck, with a 10' clearance with three of us in a cab that only has two bucket seats, which means one of us would have to sit on the floor of the cab and be squished and uncomfortable for over nine hours. during the trip we all came up with nicknames for each other, I was Scooter, a nickname I have gone by for most of my life. Then we have Skippy, my girl, and there is a running joke of whether or not her mood is creamy or crunchy, I won't go into detail, let your imagination run wild with that. Then we have Squishy, the friend we were rescuing. Skippy drew the short straw and ended up on the floor between the seats. she was uncomfortable, she got cramped up at times, and for the record, she was a trooper and the fact she volunteered to do this was amazing to me. So onward we go, hitting Interstate 26 in Asheville to get to I-95 near Charleston SC. Let me just say, The roads on I-26 in South Carolina are awful, and it was worse in the truck because rental trucks are not exactly built for comfort. we were bounced around like clothes in a dryer. Skippy was getting cramped for most of the trip and we had to make stops in order to allow Skippy to rejuvenate and get ready for the next part of the journey. a few hours into our journey, we stopped at a convenience store in order to stretch, have a smoke, and go potty. as we were out of the truck, we looked behind us and managed to see a baby kitten, he could not have been more than 3-4 weeks old. Skippy picked him up and Squishy, a big-time lover of cats had to walk away for fear that she would bring the baby with us. behind where we parked was a lot of brush, with a path down to an apartment complex. she walked to a spot, and placed the boy down to try and let the baby find it's mommy, as it was too young to be away from her. Once she did that and started to walk away, the baby followed her as if to say "Take me with you". Because of its age, we could not take it with us, so we walked away and I nearly cried hearing its meow as we walked away. It was a sad situation, but I believe we did the right thing.... end of part two... more later...