Brenna had decided to take the entire day off from work but I still needed to preserve my leave for an upcoming vacation. So, I was up by 0530 and started teleworking immediately. I took a break for breakfast (in hotel lobby) at 0730 but was quickly back to teleworking. Brenna got up at about 0900 and then headed down to eat. During this window, I was able to talk with Eileen and Mollie during another break from teleworking. I was finished with my main work day by 1100. Next, Brenna and I packed up the car and checked out of the hotel. After that, we drove north on US-11 and took side roads to US-460. We then backtracked (a little) to the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove north. During the scenic drive, we stopped a few times for the view. Once again, we had very nice weather - feeling very fortunate. At one pull-off, we met some Quebecois who'd been all the way to Key West and were one their way home - Brenna was fascinated by their stories. We continued north to the Peaks of Otter Lodge area (arrived at about 1130) and ended up eating lunch (grilled ham and cheese, beer) in a little café there. We were finished eating by about 1245 and then went walking around Abbott Lake. We saw a lot of birds, pretty peaks and an old "Ordinary" (Inn). We also found some comfy Adirondack Chairs, which we used to continue one of our great talks. Back on the road (still Blue Ridge Parkway) by 1400, it took us a LONG time to reach I-64. On the way, Mollie called and talked to us for a little bit before losing signal. We continued west until we were able to merge on I-81. Since traffic had started to build, we used back roads (in the direction of Weyer's Cave) to reach Brenna's apartment. After arriving there, I teleworked from 1645 to 1800. Once I was done working for good, Brenna and I drove to Purcell Park so we could play basketball. That turned out to be pretty fun and we had some more good conversation. Next, we walked for a while in the park, encountering deer and a funny groundhog. After going back to the apartment, Brenna made a nice salad and I cooked some leftovers in the oven (Brenna's microwave was broken). We ate dinner and continued our conversations. Since she had a new machine, Brenna gave me some of her old computers (I will use them as backups for my own). At about 2100, we started playing card/strategy games. One was connected to Monopoly (fun) and then we tried a more complicated game called "Coup". The latter game took several tries to get correct but we had a good time with that one by the end. At 2230, we were done playing and (both being tired) said goodnight. I meant to go to sleep but got distracted with some texts and didn't fall asleep until after midnight (0015). It was fun to hang out with Brenna!
