Day Four: North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia

In 2014 my family took an 18-day trip to 20 states (in the shape of a heart across America). During this trip, we did 1,000 acts of kindness. And then, I wrote an ebook about it. Which you can find here.

BTW, It’s only a $2.99 book. Super affordable and fun!

Snow is magical. Especially to children. My kids love snow! I love snow too…

BUT…

The snow on this trip ended up being a scary amount of snow; especially for someone who had never driven in it before.

I remember driving with the snow coming down so hard that I couldn’t see the mountains in front of me. We drove into a tunnel through one of the mountains, before I realized the mountain was even there.

It was a very stressful day. AND it was a very exciting day. My kids saw mountains for the first time and got to play in the snow.

We were rushed by an incoming winter storm, so we did not get to do our originally planned act of kindness, which was to visit with residents at an elderly care facility, but we were able to leave them some little goody bags we put together before trying to outrun the blizzards.

Along this journey, there were a lot of stops at McDonald’s. Some stops to eat, most stops for the kids to play, and the occasional stop was to bum their internet so we could get mapquest directions to the next stop. I am not a huge McDonald’s fan, but I don’t know what we would have done without them during this trip.

I am always super thankful for the people who work at places like McDonald’s.

It’s not an easy job.

I used to work in fast food, and believe me, it’s a thankless job. So it felt nice to be able to share a little gratitude to the employees who helped prepare and serve our food at these stops.

Here is the blog entry I wrote on day Four of our trip:

Day Four: North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

<Most of my day was covered in snow>
But, before we get there, let’s talk about how great the day actually started!
This morning, before we left North Carolina, we delivered 36 goody bags with socks, candy, candles and little handmade hearts to the Hillcrest Nursing Home of Durham. We had originally planned to stay all day and visit with the patients, but with Winter Storm Pax rolling in, we needed to get rolling.
However, we met with the activity director and asked if it would be okay if we could just drop off the bags, and she was more than delighted to help us distribute them!
I would have loved to stay and visit, but I felt really great about getting to leave the treats.
I remember when I was a little girl and my mom would bring my Girl Scout troop to visit the local nursing home back home. I remember just how happy the patients were to have someone visit them. Sometimes it is just nice to have a reminder that someone out there loves and cares about you, no matter the circumstances.
But, I do have to add that Hillcrest seemed like a beautiful place for anyone to stay, and they are blessed with some pretty wonderful staff members!
Right after our short visit at the nursing home, we headed to the open road…and lots of snow!
But right before the snow, we found our first mountain of the trip.
Julien, my 4 year old wanted to stop and climb it…but we had to settle for another form of entertainment…
Thank you Mc Donald’s for saving the day! The kids had so much fun climbing and sliding, and it was a nice break from being in the car.
I also made the day for the crew working when I gave them some candy bags!
Shortly after leaving this Mc Donald’s, we crossed into Virginia. Where it started to snow…
And continued to snow….very heavily….
In fact, so much so, that my only kind act in Virginia was to say a prayer for those who were traveling in this bad weather with me.
But then we made it to West Virginia, and I was able to pay the toll for the car behind me on 3 separate occasions.
And we will have some time in the morning to do some more kindness here….
Also, since the snow had died down a bit in West Virginia, I was able to get a few nice pics…the mountains were so amazing. It was my first time ever seeing such massive mountains. We even got to drive through two of them. I don’t know who was more excited about that, me or the kids…lol.
All in all a pretty exciting day.
Let me just say that I am so thankful that I made it through the snowy mountains today. It was a rough drive, and I pray for all that are on the roads this evening. Please be safe out there!
It’s time to get some sleep!
Be kind, and thanks for reading,