(Historical Notes: So, one of the weird things about AWA became the fact that, due to the sheer travel distance involved, it quickly became hard for me to find travel buddies to go with me from North Carolina.  Really, though, that was only a “bad” thing when it meant I had to ask around a lot more before finally tracking down a hotel room.  I know I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I very quickly got over the weirdness of not having a caravan of dorks to travel with and started to really enjoy making the drive solo.  But yes, the biggest problem of being on my own is having the freedom to just randomly pull over for some stupid whatever, both because the drive ends up taking longer and because I WILL end up getting lost as a result.  Heck, when I made a loop around to take THIS picture, I think I even wound up getting shot at.  But I did manage to get the picture, dang it!)