Sunday morning started out a tad creepily. As I began to load up the car, a guy pulled up and started to chat me up. I ignored him as best as I could until he began to really speak to me, asking me my name and where I was going. I told him flat out to leave me alone and he finally left. My radar was screaming by this point and I rather regret not mentioning the incident to a police officer parked at the Dunkin’ Donuts down the hill.

I had breakfast at the Dunkin’ Donuts (AWFUL coffee; Americans need Tim Horton’s and/or more Starbucks!!!), then I tanked up. I was on the road much earlier than planned Sunday morning.

My friend values her privacy, so I won’t go into details as to exactly where I was heading in Virginia, but I will say that a good part of the easy drive to her area was on a fairly rural route. I arrived much earlier than planned, at noon. The motel offered free wi-fi, so I decided to play a joke on her and email to announce my arrival instead of calling as planned. It worked; soon as she saw my ‘guess what?’ subject line, she assumed that I wasn’t going to make it. This was a valid assumption. I’d had to bail out of visiting her at least three times before. Last time was Katrina’s fault.

But, I was there! At last! She didn’t waste anytime getting to the motel.

Even though we had been friends a long, long time (five years at least, isn’t it?) we had never actually met in person or spoken to each other! So I was a bit nervous about our first face to face meeting. I didn’t need to be. We had a most splendid afternoon and evening. We gabbed and gabbed and gabbed some more, she introduced me to Cracker Barrel restaurants (which caused an instant addiction to their mac ‘n cheese and hush puppies), and we exchanged presents. The day was exactly what I’d hoped it would be and I’m so pleased that, this time, our plan to meet came to fruition. I know you’re reading this, so let me say that I adore you even more now than I did a week ago, not something I thought could be possible!

I had a very good night at that motel; it was very quiet.