We left Stony Point around 8 on Sunday morning. We probably got a little bit of a later start than we had planned because we were up until about midnight Saturday night. We knew we had a long day ahead of us; we had to make it all the way into Kentucky by Sunday night. We also knew that the Sunday after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the worst days of the year to travel. We expected there to be lots of traffic. Because of this, Chris chose a slightly longer route to Alabama. Instead of heading down I-81 through western Virginia, where there would surely be tons of holiday traffic, we decided to head a little further west, across West Virginia and into Kentucky before turning south towards Alabama. The route we would be taking was about 130 miles longer and about 2 hours longer assuming no traffic either way. We figured there would be traffic through Virginia so we hoped our way would actually be quicker. We figured we only had to get through Jersey and Pennsylvania and we would be home free in terms of not hitting traffic.
After leaving Stony Point we made two stops. The first stop was at the parents’ house to drop off Red. We dropped him off and stayed for about 15 minutes before heading out. We then headed for Rockland Bakery to pick up some breakfast for the road. We are not fortunate to have a bakery quite like Rockland Bakery back home. We cannot go and pick up fresh out of the oven rolls and bagels whenever we want. Instead we have to wait until we are visiting Rockland to pick them up. Today we stopped by for a couple of egg sandwiches and some bagels for the road. The smell of the bakery is always amazing and just like every other time we were there, the place was packed. We got our sandwiches, bagels, and some Snapple and we were on our way.
Traffic was not bad at all. In fact we made pretty good time. We stopped once for gas in NJ and still made it to the PA border in about an hour and a half. While traffic was heavier than normal through PA it was moving pretty quickly and we continued to make good time. However, once we got near the I-78/I-81 interchange east of Harrisburg, Chris noticed on Waze (traffic app for phone) that there were two accidents up ahead, along with the nasty backup of traffic that accompanies accidents. We were able to get off of the highway and take a detour around the accidents. We estimate that we saved ourselves easily a half hour of sitting in bumper to bumper traffic by exiting the highway.
We left PA, entered MD and headed west on I-68 across the top part of the state. A little before hitting the West Virginia border we stopped for an unusual attraction. Just off of the interstate is a replica of Noah’s Ark being built to biblical proportions. Back in 1976 a local pastor started building the Ark. His main inspiration for building the ark came from a three part dream highlighting Noah's Ark and his vision of salvation for the people of the earth. Today only a steel frame has been built and the pastor believes it would take between $30 and $50 million to complete. The completed ark will hold anywhere from 1,500-1,700 people with a gymnasium and theatre. The ark will also contain a Christian grade school, high school, and bible college. The church today is still receiving donations which are funneled into a building fund supported by the church and surrounding community. While we did not make any donations we did take some pictures. Maybe we will return in 20 years or so to check on the progress.
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| You can tell just how big the ark is..that is our car to the left! |
After leaving the Ark we continued heading west. We stopped for a quick bite to eat someplace in West Virginia and saw snow for the first time this season. While there was only a dusting on the ground it reminded us that winter is coming fast.
We kept driving across West Virginia towards the WV/OH border. Somewhere in western WV we got off of the interstates for the first time all day, which felt nice. When we take our trips we try to avoid interstates as much as we can. However when we want to make time we usually take the interstates highways. The only exception would be in the western states where we have found that you can make better time by avoiding the interstates. The speed limit on interstates out west is typically 75 but you rarely are able to maintain that simply because there are always slower moving vehicles that just won’t get out of the way. On top of that the cops tend to stick to the interstates for the obvious reason that there is more traffic and more probability of revenue. The back roads out west typically have little to no traffic, little to no cops and speed limits around 70 which means you can drive 100 if you are comfortable doing so. In the east though the back roads typically have more lights and traffic along with lower speed limits so you often don’t make good time at all. If you are not in a hurry that is just fine but if you need to be somewhere then the interstates are for you. The last 3-4 hours of our drive was off of interstates.
It was already dark by the time we reached Point Pleasant, WV and we had no intention of stopping. However on our right side as we were finally reaching the end of West Virginia we saw lots of Christmas lights set up around a lake. We made a U-turn and drove back to check it out. Turns out the town sets up lights around this park that you can drive through, looking at the decorations. We drove through the park looking at the lights and taking pictures. We then got back in the car and crossed into Ohio. While we were driving towards our hotel we saw one more unusual thing right in somebody’s front yard. Someone took their old beat up mini-van, dug a hole, and drove the van right into it with its back end sticking out of the ground. They then filled in the hole so all there was left was the back end of a van sticking out of the ground. This was pretty interesting. We were disappointed that we could not see this in the daytime but even in the dark it was pretty interesting. We soon crossed into Kentucky and arrived at our hotel in Ashland, KY around 8.
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| Sunday's route |
We slept in a little bit on Monday knowing that our drive was much shorter than it was on Sunday. We only had an 8 hour drive ahead of us instead of 11 like yesterday. Plus we would be crossing time zones so we would pick up an hour along the way. This gave us a little bit of time for sightseeing along the way. We headed west along I-64 through Kentucky. Over the past few years we have spent quite a bit of time in Kentucky. In fact we have probably spent more than 3 nights there at least 4 times in the last 3-4 years. Today we would be going through a section of the state we hadn’t been through yet. We got almost as far as Lexington before we turned south on I-75. We exited at Corbin, KY which is famous for two things. The economy is pretty much based around coal. Everywhere you look are signs of the coal industry which dominates the area. The second thing the town is known for is Kentucky Fried Chicken. In this town is the original KFC which today is a regular KFC (with old fashioned wooden seats and tables) along with a museum. The sign out front still says Sanders Café, which is what the original KFC was called. According to a foursquare tip (another app), the guy behind the counter named “JR” is the great-great grandson of the colonel himself. We did not think we would see Jr. today but when he waited on us we couldn’t help but wonder if it were true. We did not ask him but Jackie ended up asking a woman who was cleaning the tables. She laughed at us and said that Jr was not related to the colonel. We think Chris was more in shock than anyone not so much because JR was not of the Sanders bloodline, but because we had stumbled across something on the internet that was not true. Chris likes to believe that everything on the web is true. After thinking about Jr. possibly being the great-great grandson of the colonel we figured Jr. was not the right age. Jr. looked to be about 50 and the colonel was born in 1890. If the colonel and each generation beneath him each had a kid at age 20, then the great great grandson would be no more than about 40 today, this guy was definitely older. Great grandson or even grandson would have been more believable, even though we were fooled.
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| "Jr." not working at the family business |
After leaving Jr. and the original KFC we meandered our way through rural Kentucky through a countryside where you would expect nothing more than people to be dressed in coveralls and driving mud-covered pickups with confederate flags in place of license plates. While we didn’t see anyone like this we did see plenty of houses with 5 or 6 cars on cinderblocks in the front yards. This is where we coined the term, “trashville”.
We got back on the interstate and entered Tennessee, where we started seeing very cheap gas. We filled up for $3.15 per gallon, we only wished we had a bigger gas tank to fill up at such a great price. It was really nice to be able to fill the car for under $40. After wandering through Tennessee’s version of trashville for a little while we stopped to buy Christmas stamps at the post office in Oliver Springs, TN. This was another small town where everyone either knew each other or were related to each other. We headed south towards Chattanooga along a route we had taken a couple of times in the past two years, which also avoided interstates. Once we hit Chattanooga we briefly got back on the interstate for about 20 miles as we dipped into Georgia, then back into TN and ultimately into Alabama. We stopped at a rest area which was built on an island in the middle of a the Tennessee River. We found a couple of geocaches at this rest area and used the facilities. We then headed towards Scottsboro, AL and the unclaimed luggage store where we had to buy a couple of ties for Chris for work this week (we forgot ours at home). We also wanted to check out the prices of the ipods while we were there. Turns out they are a better bargain at Walmart. After browsing the Unclaimed Luggage store we headed to Huntsville where we turned in our car at the airport and picked up a new car. We would have been happy sticking with one car for the whole trip but one way rentals are charged at a higher per day rate than regular rentals, so we had to rent a car one way from Boston to Alabama at one rate, rent a second car at the cheaper rate for the week, then return that one and do another one-way rental to Houston, our final destination on this trip. We swapped our Equinox for a much roomier mini-van. We won’t get too comfortable though because we will be getting something new in 4 days. We then went for Mexican at Rosie’s, our favorite Mexican restaurant in Huntsville, then we headed for our hotel.
We got back on the interstate and entered Tennessee, where we started seeing very cheap gas. We filled up for $3.15 per gallon, we only wished we had a bigger gas tank to fill up at such a great price. It was really nice to be able to fill the car for under $40. After wandering through Tennessee’s version of trashville for a little while we stopped to buy Christmas stamps at the post office in Oliver Springs, TN. This was another small town where everyone either knew each other or were related to each other. We headed south towards Chattanooga along a route we had taken a couple of times in the past two years, which also avoided interstates. Once we hit Chattanooga we briefly got back on the interstate for about 20 miles as we dipped into Georgia, then back into TN and ultimately into Alabama. We stopped at a rest area which was built on an island in the middle of a the Tennessee River. We found a couple of geocaches at this rest area and used the facilities. We then headed towards Scottsboro, AL and the unclaimed luggage store where we had to buy a couple of ties for Chris for work this week (we forgot ours at home). We also wanted to check out the prices of the ipods while we were there. Turns out they are a better bargain at Walmart. After browsing the Unclaimed Luggage store we headed to Huntsville where we turned in our car at the airport and picked up a new car. We would have been happy sticking with one car for the whole trip but one way rentals are charged at a higher per day rate than regular rentals, so we had to rent a car one way from Boston to Alabama at one rate, rent a second car at the cheaper rate for the week, then return that one and do another one-way rental to Houston, our final destination on this trip. We swapped our Equinox for a much roomier mini-van. We won’t get too comfortable though because we will be getting something new in 4 days. We then went for Mexican at Rosie’s, our favorite Mexican restaurant in Huntsville, then we headed for our hotel.
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| view from rest area |
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| our car |
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| Monday's Route |
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