We left Savannah in beautiful sunshine and blue skies at 10am. The power cut (outage) only meant we didn’t get a receipt.

We set off up I-95 at a leisurely pace. Having cruise control is wonderful and makes the driving so much more relaxing. And being able to use it for long stretches make it so much better. Imagine how often you’d need to turn it off on a journey from London to Inverness (which is about what we did today). We might even have made it to Washington DC had it not been for very black clouds appearing as we passed Richmond, Virginia. The sky was very dramatically lit up by frequent flashes of lightning. The last time I saw an electrical storm like this was in Edinburgh in 1975.

So now Marianne can add the Carolinas and Virginia to her list of US states visited.

We had several stops on the way, at rest areas and filling stations. The hospitality of the southern folk was very pleasant to see.

So we arrived here in Fredericksburg at about 7.30pm. First things first, I got the iBook out to check there was a decent internet connection and then found out the score in the Spurs-Slavia Prague game at White Hart Lane. Seems that, after spurning numerous chances, we won 1–0 and so go through to the group stages 2–0 on aggregate. So I’m feeling very happy tonight.

It’s was still pouring with rain, so we just popped next door to Sam’s Pizzas and Subs. Marianne had a chicken salad and I had mushrooms and pepper steak sub. It was the smallest and was huge! I had my first glass of root beer. Reminiscent of the mouth wash you get in the dentists!