Moving Trip (Part 1) - Day 1

We had to drive down to North Carolina today - to pick up a U-Haul truck. It is amazing how the Law of Supply and Demand can drive up the prices for rental in an area where people move all the time (i.e. near Norfolk)... Anyway, there were much cheaper truck rentals down in NC. The drive was nice - US-58 to I-95. Took just over two hours to reach Sharpsburg, NC (got the truck at 1440). The kids were really excited about riding in the truck (a 14 foot, newer model). It had an Alaskan Osprey on the side and seating for three in the front. We had no problems getting home, although I took many back roads to get back to Hampton Roads - needed to save the miles for the drive to Fort Worth! We stopped to fill up the gas tank in the truck in Tarboro (1520).  With high gas prices (almost $4 a gallon) everywhere, I was only able to pay a flat amount (max allowed) of $100 at the station - this is going to cost a LOT...  The best part of the trip was when we were driving near the town of Ahoskie - lots of peanuts and cotton.  We then got on US-13 and drove through the Great Dismal Swamp.  I had expected to see some of the fires but all we got was heavy smoke. After searching for commercial scales for about an hour, we finally found one in Emporia - it turned out that there are actually only two in all of Hampton Roads!  We arrived in Virginia Beach around 1800 and I treated everyone to Dinner at Denny's.  After that, we back to the house to load up the truck.