Day 55, June 9, Sick in Charlotte

We traveled from Lumberton to Charlotte, with the hope that we would be able to see our aunt, Ann Ice, and spend a couple of days with her. We arrived at the Towne Suites Hotel, looking forward to spending the next two days in the Charlotte area. Patrise was still sick with what we thought was a bad cold, so we knew we would have to be judicious about how many activities we undertook, so as not to tire her out and possibly set back her recovery.

However, at her sister's suggestion, Patrise took a COVID-19 test. Bang! The test didn't take 5 minutes to show a positive result. Well that changed everything. We called Ann and told her about the change in health circumstances. She had suffered through COVID herself earlier. She is a very giving, thoughtful person, so she immediately asked what she could do to help us, knowing that we now had to isolate ourselves from everyone. We did need a few OTC drugs and mineral items. Ann got those and brought them over to our hotel; she set them outside of our room.

We stayed in the hotel. Since we had gotten a suite with a separate bedroom area, we were able to stay away from each other. We slept in separate rooms. However, before going to sleep for the night, we decided that we would leave Charlotte tomorrow morning, a day earlier than we had planned. Since we could not visit with Aunt Ann as we had hoped: and since we needed to responsibly stay away from other people as much as possible, we decided all the signs pointed to heading home.

Today, I only took some pictures while we were on the road, but none in Charlotte. Traveling through this part of North Carolina reminded me of how agricultural and rural a state it is. In fact, the road we traveled, 74, was partially US highway and partially interstate -- more of the former than the latter. So we traveled through several, very small towns and communities, often having to go no faster than 35 or 45 mph. That made the trip a bit more tedious. Here are the pictures I took today.

Tomorrow, we head back to Atlanta, our journey complete. We are sad that it's ending, but very glad that we have taken it. A very close friend of ours recently wrote a really profound Dr. Seuss quote which fits this moment: "I will not be sad because it is over, I will smile because it happened."

Goodnight!