PaulGraz's Daily Blog for The Great Ice Cream Run!

Day 2, Sunday June 10th: Savannah GA to Statesville, NC:     This is going to be a big day in the trip.  Sometime during the day my car will roll over 100,000 miles!  I realize that it's not unusual for a car to go 100K miles these days, but mine has done it and still seems so new!  I've had the car 4.5 years now and it just doesn't seem that long...

We gathered at the hotel to leave, and found that our night in Savannah last night was well documented in the Sunday morning paper!  We cleaned out the newspaper vending machine at the Denny's as a result as everyone bought a $1.25 souvenir.

So we leave GA and start heading north.  The backroads in the south are really scenic.  There aren't any ice cream stops until we get up near Charlotte, NC, but that's OK - we can just drive and enjoy the view.  Driving through little towns in SC we notice there really isn't anyone around - until you pass a church.  These little towns are really deserted on Sunday mornings and almost NO businesses are open.  We did stop at a small store briefly to use the facilities, and get some cold drinks.  Not long after that, we got our first police escort.  A county sheriff seemed to be waiting for us, and once the line of 8 or 9 MINIs went by, he joined in.  I was the last car in line, and I can tell you he was following VERY close.  Tailgating would be a more accurate term.  And that continued for about 20 miles, until we neared the county line and then he turned around.  Later on that morning we had another member of local law enforcement follow us for a little while, but that was only a mile or 2.  I guess a bunch of MINIs driving together through pickup truck country kinda appears out of place, huh?

As we approached Charlotte, NC, my odometer was about to hit 100K, but we were now on a busy highway.  I wanted to pull over and take a picture, but that wouldn't be safe - especially if the rest of the group waited for me - so I told them to go ahead and I found an exit.  I left the group, hit 100K, took my pics, and returned to the highway - it was about then I got a phone call from our group leader that the ice cream stop was in a bad part of town and we wouldn't be going there.  So the only thing I missed by leaving the group was a tour of the Charlotte ghetto.  I caught up with them later as we met up with some local MINI owners - they guided us up to a nicer ice cream stop in a MUCH better part of town. 

While we were there - with our MINIs all parked in a row, a guy with a brand new Infiniti drives in and starts backing into a parking spot.  Only he wasn't really paying attention, he was gawking at our cars instead.  So, the next thing we know - BAM - he backs into a pole!  No real damage, but the guy was rather embarrassed.

After that we continued up to Statesville, NC.  There, a former NJ resident opened up his "Ice Cream Bar" for us, we hung out there for a while, letting people check out the MINIs, and then we all went out to a steakhouse for dinner.  Murray had us all go around the table and each tell a story about how we got our MINIs.  It was a great ice-breaker...

Upon leaving the steakhouse I realized that one of my headlight bulbs was burned out.  Damn!

I then returned to my hotel, apparently the worst Days Inn in the entire chain.  Gotta write them a nasty-gram when I get home...

See my pictures page for all my pics from the day...

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