Day 2 started out so foggy and ethereal.
Somewhere out there are the beautiful mountains and valleys of West Virginia.
At the first rest stop in West Virginia, the outside vending machines were all caged up!
It was so peaceful and scenic. Me and the moms stood looking at the big map trying to figure out which rest stop we were at because there was no "You Are Here" arrow. A nice young bearded man with a smooth southern voice started pointing out where we were. I wish we could have stayed and talked longer. Or, rather, stayed and listened to him talk. And later we'd find out that perhaps Cheryl should have stopped to talk with him too!
We had passed this combo earlier. The back of the trailer was held together with a thin rope, and the Cherokee was so sacked out I'm surprised the hitch wasn't bottoming out.
The fog stayed with us most of the day. Little did we know, because Cheryl wasn't with us when the nice local was giving us a map tour, that we had actually missed the turn off. I didn't know we were going to be leaving the Interstate for a state road to see a fabulous gorge. We probably wouldn't have had much of a view, and the route we took was quite a bit longer (think: we would have taken the hypotenuse to go see the gorge, but the way we went was the A and B sides of the triangle).
Instead, we were taking a longer route, and going through the capitol, Charleston, W. Va is not at all the same as the other Charleston. Rather dingy, the fog made it surreal and the capitol dome was the only bit of colour.
We wished the rest stops/welcome centres had plant plaques.
I think this was near where I77 crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway
The sun was trying to peek through as we crested the hills and crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway. I would love to do the BRP from one end to the other some day.
Earlier in the day we had seen a billboard for a "Beef Jerky Outlet" and thought, That's interesting, wonder what it is.
Well, what it is is a chain of 100+ stores that specialize in beef and other jerkies. We stopped at the next one in Lewisburg, WV. The ladies were SOOO nice. If you do this trip, stop in! Samples, and information, and lots and lots to choose from. Even though we paid separately, they gave us the multi-item discount! I bought Cherry Maple Beef. So yummy!
Then we went across the road to try Bojangles. We each got something different to try. I liked the spicier chicken, but there wasn't' enough in the salad. Cheryl had the spicier tenders as her meal and liked them but said later she had heartburn and tummy issues. The sausage on a biscuit was good. Everyone liked the biscuit. The seasoned fries were good, but overall, everything seemed a little salty. A couple fries were okay, but by the end, we were salted out.
A lovely welcome center as you enter North Carolina. Beautiful gardens.
A beautiful rainbow appeared with this American flag
The South Carolina welcome center was large and nice...but closed. The washrooms were open and the wifi was on.
Our must-reach destination was Columbia. They had warned us at the North Carolina welcome centre that Charlotte could be slow because it is a "big city" of 850. "850 Thousand?" I asked. Yes. Okay, we're used to dealing with Toronto with 3+ MILLION and no good bypass. This would be a piece of cake. It ended up that a combination of rain, Friday rush hour and construction made it quite a slow trip through the city (the GPS told us to stay on the interstate through the city, not the loop highway around it). We really needed to get to Columbia, South Carolina. We hadn't wanted to drive much, if at all, after dark so we wouldn't miss anything. However, days are short in December and really, by this point, we were out of the mountains. We picked the Best Western Plus on Two Notch Road. Not the best location...
No comments:
Post a Comment