Long day in the car.

We started in ugly, late winter landscape.

And drove almost all day on I 81, through

. . . ugly, late winter landscape.

Target for the day was the Super 8 Motel in Christiansburg, VA. We arrived around 6:30, took a walk, checked in, went across the street to a (sigh) Wal-Mart Super Center where I obtained some salad greens and microwaveable rice and beans. Antiques Roadshw is on PBS on Monday nights at 8 here too, so I watched that and fell asleep.

The motel is located in one of those commercial areas that surround cities. There’s a lot of pavement, a lot of cars and it doesn’t appear to be a great place to walk a dog. And it isn’t; except, I discovered, at 6 AM. The stores are closed, the parking lots empty, no one is driving by. I felt safe letting Chico off the leash for 5 minutes, which he adored.

The staff of the Christiansburg, VA Super 8 were friendly, considerate, and truly welcoming of me and my dog. The construction workers down the hall were perfect neighbors – like me and Chico, they go to bed early and get up early. Breakfast was fine – cereal (enhanced with some blueberries I picked up at the store last night) and tea for me, part of a cinnamon roll for Chico.

Day and overnight clerks confer about the pet charge for our room.

Chico never alert barked during the night (keeping the bathroom fan running for background noise may have helped), he was polite to people we met in the lobby . . . and way too nervous to eat his dinner.

Now, on to Asheville, NC.