After our taxing but ultimately supremely rewarding experience at Mammoth Cave, it was time to take care of the van. The mechanic in Winston was all lined up and we coordinated everything with my mom to stay at hers. As we were looking at minimum 4 weeks in Winston-Salem, we had an 8-hour car ride to decide whether we wanted to wait for a month in the middle of North Carolina or take my mom’s car with us for the northeastern leg and pick the van up after the new year.
We left Mammoth Cave around 4 o’clock and planned to stay somewhere in between in a hotel, but as we drove on we talked and talked and decided to just make the long drive and arrive in Winston at 3 AM. Fin would sleep no matter what and if he was a devil the next day for not having slept well, we’d have one day of the devil in exchange for just having a house and a place to relax for a bit. As it turned out, Fin was fine the next day so it was an excellent choice.
The drive was long and boring, but we finally arrived early in the AM and rolled into bed.
The next day I took the car down to find that the shop could repair the van in 1.5-2 weeks. We could use Knut in the NE! We happily agreed and two weeks later were on our way North.
Nothing really blog-worthy happened in Winston. I met some long-time friends, my step-father made croissants, and my mom had lots of grandma-grandson time. It was nice, but after a week we were antsy to get back on the road.
