12/18/12 Goose Creek

Another early morning.  We were ready and waiting at 5:30 for the first shuttle to the airport.   Going through security this morning was a breeze.  We used our meal vouchers for a smoothie, muffin and some donuts and a couple bottles of water.  When we got to our gate I called Hotwire as the response to my email told me too.  They refunded my money for the hotel that we were not able to use in Charlotte which I thought was very generous, I guess it pays to be on their preferred members list.  We also had much better seats on the plane than what we originally had since they gave us the economy plus seats so we had extra leg room.  We landed in Charlotte at 11:00.  Our bags had come in the night before and as we were walking to the baggage carrier we saw them in the baggage office.  So just a note making your luggage easy to spot helps in multiple situations.  I have orange duct tape with my last name written on it so there is no mistake whose luggage it is.

We got to the National rental car office and of course they tried to up sell us since we had prepaid for a compact but we kindly declined.  She told us to go out and pick our car and when we went to the area they were out of compacts so we got a free upgrade.  That is the second time that has happened to us so I suggest that you decline the upgrade and if later you find that you do not fit in the vehicle then you can go back and ask and pay for the upgrade.  So we ended up with a Dodge Cavalier.  I will say that we had to lay down the back seat to fit our two large suitcases, two carry on's and our two backpacks.  We would not have fit in anything smaller.  Once we got situated we were on our way to Charleston.

The drive went pretty smoothly we stopped about half way and ate at a Cracker Barrel which I had been looking forward to but instead of getting the country fried steak which is what I was craving I got the meatloaf since it was the lunch special, which turned out to be really good, the mashed potatoes were a little weak though.

Amanda got a bacon cheese burger and instead of fries she got the fried okra, which she said was a let down.  She loved the fried okra at Lambert's.

 Of course we did some shopping in their little store and Amanda purchased an ornament and I purchased a watch face that I can put on my lanyard.

The last half of the trip was a little harder because now with full tummies we were really ready to take a nap.  But we finally made it to Brad & Christine's around 4.  Where we were greeted by SoCo.

Brad was still at school so we got to have some quality time with Christine and SoCo.












Christine made us some pizza casserole which we ate after we went and picked up Brad.  We were able to sit and relax for a little bit before we were all ready to head to bed.