So, some days you just don’t know how things are going to pan out and today was just one of those days!

Today was a driving day, from Gatlinburg to Charleston, with the drive scheduled to take about five hours. However, that five hours turned into eight hours due to a slight diversion!

I’ve been meaning to post a pic of the current ‘beast’ and this is it.

The ‘Beast’ – at least I can get in and out of this one without the need for a ladder!!

It all started when we had been driving for about an hour when I happened to pick up Si’s mobile and noticed that he had an email from a lady called Denise. Now who’s Denise you may ask and I will tell you!

Some of you will know that Si’s a member of Flickr (the photography site) and way back in May 2012 one of Si’s friends on Flickr, Denise, won the landscape picture of the year in the Sony World Photographer of the Year Competition (sorry Denise if I haven’t got that 100% correct!) and together with her sister Desiree, they were both coming to London so that Denise could collect her prize and her photograph was to be shown in an exhibition at the same time and Si and I went to London to meet them both.

Now both ladies live in North Carolina and when they knew we would be visiting this part of the world said they would drive down to meet up with us here in Charleston and I’m very excited to say that this will be happening this Saturday.

Well, back to my story. The email this morning was from Denise and as she knows I’m a movie buff, was telling us that if we didn’t mind a little deviation from our planned route to Charleston, that we would be within driving distance of ………………….. heads up you Hunger Games fans …………… the location that was used as District 12 in The Hunger Games!! Well, what were we to do, of course we deviated from our route and went immediately to Hildebran in North Carolina to check it out. I am pleased to report that I am now the proud owner of a District 12 Tribute t-shirt! Am I a happy bunny or what!!??

Sand at Peeta Mellark’s Family Bakery

Sand at Peeta’s bakery

House in District 12 of The Hunger Games

House in District 12

Thank you Denise.

The drive from Gatlinburg went through the Foothills Parkway, a very lovely area.

Foothills Parkway

We’ve been a little worried about how the weather was going to be as Tropical Storm Bonnie touched down here earlier in the week and caused flash flooding. Fingers crossed, it all seems okay now although on the way here we had a scary ten minutes as we drove through the most horrendous storm. There was thunder, lightening and the rain was so heavy and hard that cars were pulling over until it passed. However, our British bull dog spirit endured and forced us to carry on regardless! Thankfully, the rest of the trip was dry and sunny.

We are now ensconced in our hotel and looking forward to exploring Charleston over the next few days.