Our early departure was at 8:57am, quite reasonable since we ordered a breakfast... The temperature was only -10ºC, with significant wind, and the roads were dry.
The car is now caked with white salt, just like all the other Ontario, Québec and a few maritimes cars. A car wash will be a definite destination real soon...
While it warmed up to +9ºC, road volume was incredible. Trucks, more trucks, cars and RVs of all sizes. There were many slow stretches with no visible reason: most dispelled as quickly as they appeared.
Eventually, all signs of snow disappeared, the horse farms looked larger and wealthier, and the traffic increased some more. The scenery changed from mountains to large hills, then to rolling farmland. All this under a very warm sun that just helped to cake the salt on the car.
Later in the afternoon, we decided that our 5:30pm arrival in Columbia SC would be too early to stop for the day. We asked Carmen [our Garmin] to find a Ruby Tuesday; many were found, but most were behind us. We thought there might be one beyond Columbia, or we hoped there would be one. By 5pm we were a paltry 50 miles away, and out ETA turned to 6:30pm. The traffic began to crawl and it was starting to get very dark. We ended up stopping in Orangeburg where the first two hotels were full. Suddenly, we saw the Ruby Tuesday, just in front of three or more hotels nearby. We stopped in at the Country Inn & Suites and started a parade. We got a room, and while we were signing in, couples just kept coming in. By the time we walked to the restaurant, there was still a line-up of new people. Out timing could not have been better. Ruby Tuesday has a great salad bar and is always busy. Our projected wait was about 20 minutes, the actual wait was less than 10! Again, timing, timing, timing...
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