Winston-Salem, NC (USA)

[we woke up at 0500 and got ready for our trip to North Carolina - Mollie made breakfast (English Muffin) but didn't end up eating it - we left my apartment at 0545 and used US-1, I-95 and I-85 during our drive towards the Notre Dame-Wake Forest football game - Mollie slept almost the whole trip (!) - we stopped for gas near the VA-NC border (South Hill, 0825) and then continued on I-85 until we reached I-40 - continued west until reaching Business I-40 and drove to Winston-Salem (arriving at US-52 by around 1015 - in addition to encountering construction delays in the area, we had a lot of trouble locating the parking lot for the campus - we got parked by 1115 and entered the stadium in time to watch the opening ceremonies (Army Parachute Team - wow!) - we also picked up some lunch (chicken sandwich combo from vendors) and Mollie helped me pay with money from her Nielson Ratings surveys - the game started at 1200 - it was very sunny and hot but we managed to stay in our (good!) seats for the entire first half - we spent much of the third quarter in the shade (under the stands) and ended up being noticed by the mom (and dad) of one of Erin's old roommates from JMU (and Virginia Beach) - with more thoughts about getting away from the sun, we found a place under a shady tree where we could watch more of the second half - Mollie got herself a snack (Dippin' Dots) in the afternoon - with about 10 minutes left in the game (1510), we went back to our car and headed out of town (listening to the game on the radio as we drove) - I'd originally planned to spend the night near Grayson Highlands (VA) but Mollie said she had too much homework to be able to really enjoy more than a few hours of sight-seeing - knowing that, I decided to take her to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park (near Greensboro) so she could get a NPS Passport Stamp - we used Business I-40, (normal) I-40 and I-840 and arrived at the National Park by 1545 - after watching videos at the Visitors Center, we drove around the park and even took a walk to pay our respects to Nathanael Greene's statue - we finished our visit just after 1700 and drove a short distance to have dinner at Taco Bell (1705, ate in the restaurant) - we then backtracked on I-840 to I-40 - we used the latter and, later, I-85 to get back to Virginia, stopping for gas near the border (Oxford, NC) at 1900 - the weather was not very nice during the last hour of our trip (on I-95) but we managed to reach Alexandria before 2230 - we unpacked the car and went to bed almost immediately (around 2330)]