We drove to Morgantown, West Virginia where had I booked us a hotel right near I-68 which would take us to Maryland the next day. We checked into our hotel and I was at peace. There was a warm round lobby area that looked so inviting. Behind that was a glass wall that looked out on the outdoor swimming pool. I have not laid out in the sun for several years now and thought to myself that it would be a delightful treat for me to do that. Alas, as we got to our room and settled in, a large group of bikers also arrived. Now, we have been bikers and having bikers was not the problem per se. What was a problem was these were loud bikers with lots of cigarettes lit up. A quiet nap in the sun would not be in my future.
Back in the room we searched all resources for a place to have dinner. We finally settled on two potential places in town. Maps and GPS on the cell phone at the ready we made our way into Morgantown. We couldn't find the first place but we did find the Pita Place. Claude parallel parked and we walked down to our really good dinner. Then we walked back to the Cold Stone Creamery for dessert.
Here is a sign Claude noticed on the ice cream case:
Friday, July 26th we were up and ready but not in time for the free breakfast offered by the hotel. This would be the theme for our trip. After all, we were on a loosely planned vacation and getting up early was not part of that plan at all. So we found a Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast in Sabraton, Maryland. This would become our pattern all our trip. We should have found a frequent user card for Dunkin' Donuts.
After our donuts, Claude headed across the street to fill up with gas. This interesting motorcycle was parked in front of us.
I was on the lookout for something near Frostburg, Maryland. There is a church there (I believe it is the Jehovah's Witness) that started trying to reconstruct Noah's ark. When we left 9 years ago only the framework was made. Alas, there has been no progress since we left.
We called Fred and Bevy and determined to meet them in Cumberland as they wanted to take us to lunch in Cumberland. Their son-in-law has opened a restaurant and they wanted us to eat there. We parked in the Shriner's parking lot and road back into Cumberland with Fred and Bevy. It is always so good to see them. It will often be a few years between visits but we just pick up like it hasn't been anytime with conversation. Just love that kind of friendship. The restaurant is named 'Mezzo' and the food was delicious. The interior reminded us of Galvin's here in Georgetown, Kentucky. Shannon, Bevy's daughter was able to come and visit with us. Then we went back to Fred and Bevy's for the afternoon.
About 5:30pm we decided we should head on into Germantown, Maryland where we were hoping dinner would await us. Pelican Pete's was one of our favorite restaurants because of their crab cakes. Fred told us there was some bad press about the manager and Pelican Pete's might not be open. Yike! We quickly pulled out the Kindle and started searching. It seemed there were charges against the owner for sexual harassment or something of that nature. There was still a restaurant listed. I tried to call and kept getting a busy signal. Well, what do you do? Why, you just go anyway and hope for the best. And, while you drive the 2 hours there you talk of alternatives in case Pelican Pete's is really closed.
We were delighted to find Pelican Pete's open and doing a light business. It is definitely under new management. I thought the crab cakes were not quite as good as before but Claude didn't see any difference. The steamed shrimp were excellent. You could tell the trouble with the previous owner shrank there business. For a Friday night one dining area was completely empty and the other side was only partially full. We enjoyed our meal and were satisfied with it.
Saturday, July 27th at 6:30am I heard the loudest, most obnoxious noise I have ever heard in my entire life. I was in a deep sleep and this noise blasted in my ear and I awoke quickly but didn't know what the heck was going on. It took a second to realize the fire alarm was going off in our hotel room. We quickly got up and got dressed, grabbed my purse and our cell phones and headed for the door with that noise still blaring. We found the stairwell and headed down from our third floor room. Outside there were lots of others similarly dazed and in various attire.
We really didn't want breakfast because our next meal was to be in Arlington, Virginia at the Italian Store. We took the George Washington Parkway along the Potomac River. As we got on the GW Parkway I asked Claude if he could get there without having to correct his drive any. From Maryland, you drive the GW Parkway taking the exit to Arlington Cemetery then making the traffic circle at the base of the bridge over the Potomac into DC so you pick up the GW Parkway going back the way you came being sure to take the Spout Run exit into Arlington, Virginia. With traffic and several possibilities for error it would not have surprised me to have to loop around a couple of times to get there. Claude took my question as a challenge and the game was on. He did every turn and lane change perfectly and we got to Spout Run without having to retrace any steps. Yeah Claude!!
Now we would drive to Ocean City, Maryland. We patted ourselves on the back for finding a different way out of Arlington to the Beltway and then off the Beltway when it clogged up with traffic to Hwy 50. This would take us to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake Bay to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The problem...this was Saturday and summer. I was surprised Claude wanted to have this as part of our trip for this reason. But we were not on a time clock and determined we could patiently wait out the traffic issues. This included an hour and a half in the queue to get on the bridge. The drive over the bridge was fine but the bottle-neck in traffic revisited us on the Eastern Shore side of the bridge.
There was still several hours of driving to get to Ocean City. We made one stop at at Dairy Queen for a smoothie along the way and a break from being in the car. We determined to take the northern bridge over to Ocean City which deposited us right in front of JR's where we wanted to have dinner. Wonderful meal again. No wait because we got there just before the dinner rush started.
After dinner we determined we had about one hour before we should head out to find our hotel for the night. We would use that to walk the boardwalk in Ocean City. Claude had to have a slice of pizza because that is what one does on the boardwalk. We also found a Kohr's Brother's frozen custard stand and had dessert. We purchased the obligatory salt water taffy. Then we headed to Princess Anne where our hotel for the night was located.
It was dark when we found our hotel. I know I booked a non-smoking room with a king bed. Imagine our surprise when we walked into a room with a king bed and a huge whirlpool tub. My poor hubby had earned that whirlpool as relief for his back after all that tense driving. Nice surprise finish to the day.
Sunday, July 28th we again missed breakfast at the hotel and found another Dunkin' Donuts along Hwy 13. We were going to use the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to get across the Chesapeake Bay to Virginia. The bridge is at the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware/Maryland/Virginia). It is part bridge and part tunnel. There are actually two tunnel spans in this system, one for each channel for the ships. They are the Chesapeake Channel and the Thimble Shoal Channel. We paused at a lookout before driving this bridge and tunnel system.
We navigated that mass of humanity that is Norfolk/Virginia Beach/etc. Then pointed the trusty Buick south toward Rocky Mount, North Carolina where we would spend two nights.
When we were checked in we again did the search for potential places to eat in a city with which we were unfamiliar. We really like to eat at local places when traveling. We both agreed it would be a good night for Mexican food. We found two restaurant possibilities and headed out to locate them. One was not open. The other looked very questionable as we pulled up and parked. I looked at Claude and said, "Let's give it a whirl." We entered the little place and found a booth. There were two ladies working there and a couple at the booth next to ours. Clearly we were the only anglo's in the place. We were able to communicate to the server what we wanted and they set to preparing it for us. In came others and again we were looking very anglo. Our food was served and it was yummy. Two young men came in and put money in the new computerized jukebox. It was relaxing and so very pleasant to listen to. Claude paid the bill and tipped nicely. I worked at communicating to the young men that their choice of music was delightful. We left full and happy with our choice for dinner.
Monday, July 29th, we planned a drive along Tar Heel Trace. I found this drive on the Internet and could only find a little about it. It sounded like the kind of drive that Claude and I would enjoy. Monday morning we again missed breakfast at the hotel. We stopped for gasoline before our ride. I went in to see if I could find us a muffin for breakfast. The nice lady at the counter talked to me and I asked her if she ever drove the Tar Heel Trace. She had never heard of it. She did tell me that Rocky Mount was noted for its violence. She warned me that the mall across from our hotel was ruled by gangs after 3pm each day, the burger place across the street from the gas station had shootings every Friday and Saturday night. She stressed the gangs ruling the area after 3pm each day and to be very careful. When I got back to the car and shared this information with Claude we just looked at each other and remembered our dinner experience the night before. We both felt we probably entered a gang area restaurant and didn't have a clue. I have to say the neighbor was neat and tidy in all respects.
We headed out to find the beginning of the Tar Heel Trace in a town named Wilson which was south of Rocky Mount. Then we just followed Route 42 and Route 142 to Williamston. It was a lovely drive through farm land. They grow tobacco, corn, cotton, peanuts and soy beans. We didn't see one big black barn like we have in Kentucky to hang the tobacco plants in to dry it out. The cotton plants had little blossoms on them.
We also found a neat store called Mackeys Ferry Peanuts. I've heard many people share their love of 'boiled peanuts'. I don't remember them ever being offered in Louisiana and had never eaten any. The signs advertised boiled peanuts at Mackeys Ferry Peanuts. I asked Claude to stop so we might try them. Fortunately the lady offered a sample of them to us. She gave us each one and told us how to eat them. You are supposed to crack them in your mouth and suck the liquid out of the shell, spit out the shell, then eat the peanuts. I opted to crack the shell and take the peanuts out and eat them. I just didn't like them. Turns out Claude was underwhelmed by them also. Thank heavens we didn't buy a bunch to eat. I think the charm would be that salt water they are boiled in all day. We did purchase a little container full of peanuts covered in milk chocolate. We also learned about 'muscadine grape cider'. This we did like. My grandmother's sister, Aunt Rachel, had muscadines growing where she lived so I was a little familiar with them although it has been many years. We loved the sample of muscadine cider and purchased some to bring home.
As we neared the end of Tar Heel Trace I was checking the maps on my cell phone and the old paper map I brought and noticed that this Hwy 142 went right out on a peninsula like piece of land and was called the Albemarle Highway. It went from the edge of this peninsula across a bridge to Roanoake Island where the Lost Colony was lost. Having never been there I suggested to Claude we try that for a drive. He was intrigued and we took the Albemarle Highway from Williamston.
As we drove down the highway the cars were throwing up grass clippings. It was like being in a severe snow storm only it was grass. They were cutting down the grass along the side of the road and we happened to be behind the process.
There was a bridge that takes you across the Croatan Sound to Roanoke Island. We were held up on this bridge so it could open and a freight ship pass through.
The clouds started to roll in and we knew rain would happen this day. We had threats of rain in the weather forecast for a lot of the trip and had not had any. If we had some this day, we would consider ourselves fortunate for dodging it until then. Sure enough the rain came as we crossed the bridge and while we were on Roanoke Island.
We found Big Al's for dinner. It was a diner with a Coke interior design and old rock and roll music playing. The food was delicious and we totally enjoyed our meal.
After dinner we headed to the northern end of Roanoke Island to the Raleigh Historical Site. There is a museum there with a film and park rangers. We enjoyed the museum and the park rangers talk but didn't get to walk outside. It was literally pouring down buckets. We actually waited a bit for it to lighten up before we headed outside to the car. Then we drove back over the bridge at the northern end of Roanoke Island and found the Albemarle Highway around the southern side of the peninsula and made our way back to Rocky Mount. The cute thing I noticed was the Alligator River with a community named Stumpy Point nearby. Just seemed a little interesting to me.
Tuesday, July 30th was my birthday. We would have Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast and point the Buick toward Asheville, North Carolina. We checked into our hotel and again analyzed available resources for where to have a nice birthday dinner.
We settled on two potential places. One was named Burgermeisters. It was closed and being turned into a different restaurant. The second was The Moose Cafe and it was very open. It offers Southern home cooking...and lots of it. This is my dinner. I had chicken fried steak with pepper gravy, green beans and carrot casserole. We had a perfectly delightful server. She was frank, loud and totally honest. I asked her how they made the carrot casserole before I ordered it. She looked at me and said, "Honestly, I can tell you it is not healthy at all." I just laughed and told her I was not worried about that on this night. Then she explained it has carrots, mayonnaise, butter, brown sugar, crumbs and was baked. I'll just tell you it was absolutely yummy. Claude chose the tomato pie which seemed to be a lot the same except it had tomatoes instead of carrots. It was a wonderful meal at a unique restaurant.
The restaurant was on a hill and I walked to the edge of the parking lot and took this picture of where we were going to be driving the next day. Great Smokey Mountains. This
trip turns my thoughts to Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that he had
made, and, behold, it was very good."
Wednesday, July 31st would be a travel home day. We deliberately had no breakfast. The plan was to drive through the middle of Great Smokey Mountain National Park and end up in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We should arrived around lunch time and have our last big meal of the trip at Bubba Gump's in Gatlinburg.
As we drove I sent this picture over Facebook as it showed the reason the mountain are called 'smokey'.
We drove through clouds covering the tops of the mountains. It was like being in a scene from Lord of the Rings a lot of the time, even when there was sunshine. I kept expecting the Queen of the Fairies to come out of those woods at any moment.
My Facebook post after viewing the scene below:
Think Karen and
Richard Carpenter singing
"I'm on the top of the world looking down on
creation..."
Drove thru the clouds on winding roads searching for
the
yellow line that is supposed to be in the middle of that road.
Came to a sign
"spiral
turns and bump".
Poor Claude began to reflect on the guy that
designed the road.
Went something like
"I bet he thought 'their brakes are
already hot,
let's add a few spiral turns and a bump'". An adventure.
On one side of the park the Oconaluftee River ran along the roadway.
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At our last pull off stop, I was taking pictures (see two above) of the beauty of this park. As I returned to our car, I found Claude looking at the stone wall along the edge of the pull off. He pointed this out to me...several stones had declarations of love and commitment...
then there was this stone. Poor Matthew. We did chuckle.
We made it through the park. We were the first lunch customers of the day at Bubba Gumps. After lunch we headed to Sadieville with a stop in Georgetown for another smoothie at Dairy Queen
When we got to the house, I loaded up my arms with things from inside the car and opened the door to the kitchen. I was greeted with this fun birthday gift from the Marx family. Andie and the Mini's came to the house on Monday the 29th with a stop in Georgetown to visit with Papa for a long while. Then Tuesday they headed home with a stop in Georgetown to take Papa to Dairy Queen with them. It was a relief for me to know she checked on Papa while I was gone. Then to get this happy banner and a cake make out of cans of Dr. Pepper. It was a fun and touching moment.
We traveled over 2,000 miles on this little trip. I prefer being quiet about my birthday. Getting away like this was a perfect. We enjoyed those Dunkin' Donut breakfast, every restaurant we ate at was an original and had great food, and Claude deserves a medal for driving us all that way with nary a mishap.
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