Day one of travel was easy for me, since John did all the driving. The day was sunny and warm for a winter’s day. We left North Carolina in the morning, and I took a photo of the visitor’s center sign before we stopped for the night.

Having gone further than John thought we would, we had time to poke around Binghamton, NY the next day. We checked out the train tracks, but nothing was moving. It was fun to look at the buildings in the heart of town. Some were old houses in varying degrees of disrepair, and others were gorgeous. We stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant in some little town. The waitress said there was one serving of eggplant Parmesan left, and I told John to go for it. He loves it, and I don’t. I chose a seared tuna panini. We were both wowed by the food. Delicious!

We had coffee with Long Island friends Connie and Dennis in their lovely town, along with their daughter Danielle and her son AJ. They moved upstate the same year we moved to NC. The family’s equestrian center was just a short ride out of town, and we enjoyed the tour of the barn. Presently there are 29 horses in stalls around the huge riding arena. I had seen pictures of it on Facebook, but it was even more impressive in person. We enjoyed catching up before moving on.