Back on the Road- Last day of travel!

Our last day of travel was our longest yet.
We were going from Nashville, TN all the way to Fayetteville, NC approximately 550 miles.
9-1/2 hours.
This was also our most eventful day.

At one point we were driving and we smelled burning rubber.
Then we saw smoke.
Traffic slowed, but we still didn't seem to be getting any closer to the smoke.
Bud was cautious, especially as we started to see pieces of burning rubber on the road.
He called 911 and they said they had already been notified of a fire in our area.
We continued to drive, switching lanes to avoid the small pieces of burning debris.
Finally, after about 10 miles we caught up to and passed the horrible site.
I didn't have my camera ready so I'll do my best to describe what I saw.
An RV with the passenger side window shattered.
It was towing a van that was engulfed in flames.
This RV had continued to drive and that was why we had such a hard time catching up and passing it.
From what I saw I'd like to deduce what I think happened.
We were in an area where "Watch For Falling Rocks" signs were numerous.
I'm guessing a rock fell and hit his passenger window.
That in turn probably caused him to swerve, in turn causing the van he was towing to fishtail and have both tires blow out.
The effects of the metal rims being dragged on the pavement are that it cause sparks which eventually started the fire.
I'm assuming that since he was upwind from the fire-portion of his vehicle he may not have even realized that it was on fire, or maybe he was hoping to find a safer place to pull over.
The towed van was a horrible site.
I can't imagine how scared he must have been.
We passed and as we continued on the road we said a prayer, asking God to protect all the travelers involved.

After that the rest of the trip went rather well.
Bud got a little drowsy at one point and for the first time in the entire trip I took over.

Driving while hauling a U-Haul wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
The good thing was that where we were driving it was a max speed of 55 anyways so I didn't have to worry about busy traffic.
Bud slept for about an hour at which point I needed him to wake up and take pictures as we entered our new home state.

 Interestingly enough, the North Carolina state flag....is VERY similar to the Texas state flag!

Mountains.  Bud & I haven't lived near mountains....ever.
It was so green everywhere and absolutely beautiful!

Everyone was enjoying the scenery.

Bud took the top off Mr. Stubbs travel cage so he could show how chill he was.

 Cappy literally watched out the window the entire time.
I swear he thought that if we got lost he'd be able to tell us how to get home.

 Pup...well Pup was asleep.
As usual!

 And when you let your husband use your camera there are bound to be pictures such as these that follow.
He has too much fun when left to his own devices!

 Of course we partook in the tunnel challenge.
Basically, you take one deep breath before you enter the tunnel and then see if you can yell the entire drive thru the tunnel.
I failed on our first tunnel because Bud made me giggle.
But I rocked on the second tunnel.

We had it in our head that we only had a few more hours once we hit the mountains, but as it turned out we were off.

We continued to drive thru the afternoon and into late evening.

Exhausted, we arrived at our hotel, unloaded and promptly passed out.

We had made it, safe and sound!

I hope you had a Blessed Saturday!