Smoky Mountain Hiking Trip - Day 1

I got up early (0530) and Mollie woke herself up while I was getting bags ready.  We finished packing the car and then got on the road, bound for Virginia (0630).  We used I-89 and I-91 to get to South Deerfield, MA and met Johnny for breakfast at the Whatley Diner (0800).  We spent about an hour there, mostly talking about his UMass semester, and gave him a birthday gift.  We got back on the Interstate by 0900 and continued south.  Mollie and I had lots of good conversations throughout the day.  We switched to the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut and followed it until we reached I-287.  After entering New York, we crossed the Hudson at the Tappan Zee and continued southwest into New Jersey.  We switched to I-78 and stopped for gas at a Phillips 66 in Lebanon, NJ (1205).  We took US-22 back to I-78 and then crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania (1245).  We stopped for a break at the Welcome Center there and then got back on the road.  Mollie and I had even more fun talking in the afternoon.  We followed I-78 to I-81 and then I-83 to PA-581.  From there, we drove via US-15, I-270 and I-495, making good time to Alexandria.  We arrived at Nicky's by 1630 and I dropped off Mollie and all of her stuff.  I got to see Erin (she gave me a bag of food and mail to take to Brenna's) After leaving, I called Brenna to make plans to meet her for lunch in Harrisonburg the next day. I also called Sabrina and we decided to meet up to have dinner at a new restaurant (Tequila and Taco) in the Eisenhower area of Alexandria.  We were there from around 1715 to 1845 and had a nice meal and then talked for another 30 minutes when I dropped her off at her house.  I then used US-1 to get to Fort Belvoir (arrived at around 2000) and checked into my hotel.  After getting things settled in my room, I took a walk nearby for just under an hour.  Finished the night by reading my book until around 2300 (had trouble sleeping because of car alarm going off throughout the night).