D.C. Trip - Day 1

My dad started every family road trip with a rousing verse of Willie Nelsen's "On the Road Again." I started our trip with "On the road at last..." After months of planning, we were finally on our way and on the road all day.
We had a good laugh at our first gas station, but they had the cheapest gas prices and the bathrooms weren't too bad.
We found a pretty good BBQ place for lunch. It was a little mustard heavy for everyday eating at my house, but still tasty.
We divided the first drive length into 2 days. We told everyone we did this for the kids' benefit, but after an hour on the road we realized that we had been lying. Dividing the drive was definitely for our benefit. 7 and a 1/2 hours of "He's bugging me," "Leave me alone," and "Stop touching me," were more than enough for the parents. We figured that we could let the kids get all of their travel anxiety out in a hotel swimming pool. We checked into the Americas Best Value Inn only to find out that there was no pool. We, being the good parents that we are, found an alternative activity. We threw the kids back into the car and dragged them out for ice cream. We arrived downtown only to discover that most of Old Town Rock Hill, S.C. is closed on Monday nights. We did find one real thing of interest, a light pole with a sock or maybe it was a scarf. Any guesses?
So, we went to one of our favorite standbys instead. The kids eventually recovered from the pool disappointment.

The process continued...

Lucky for us my husband has a very flexible work schedule, because once we started telling family and friends the plan, they all had ideas of things we could do along the way. Friends from church suggested gem mining in North Carolina and my parents suggested visiting extended family in North Carolina. So...we decided that it would be a good idea to spend a couple of days in North Carolina on our way to D.C.
First, I stared researching gem mines. I never imagined I would be a treasure hunter, but it sounded like fun and there are so many options. My husband and I finally agreed upon Emerald Hollow Mine because it is the closest location to family and it seemed reasonable in price. Other mines that we looked at were: Emerald Village, Gem Mountain, Old Pressley Sapphire Mine, Elijah Mountain, Cherokee Ruby and Sapphire Mine, Gold City Gem Mine, and Rose Creek Mine.
The only problem with our mining scheme was that we needed to be well rested in order to dig for treasure. Tired kids digging for treasure might not be any more fun than bored kids raking leaves at home. So it was determined that we needed a resting point along our drive. Rock Hill, SC looked good for the final resting point (at least for day 1 of our trip). It shortened day 1's drive and it's not too far from buried loot.