After Thanksgiving Trip

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.

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.



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.

"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.

view from rest area

our car



Monday's Route



Last Day

After staying at our favorite hotel in one of our favorite cities, we needed breakfast before hitting the road.  We went to two different places which were recommended, both of which had 1 hour wait times, even at 9:30 in the morning.  We settled for the second of the two but we got take out instead.  The wait for that was only 10 minutes.  We enjoyed a fried egg BLT and sweet potato pancakes with pecans on top.  We found out the reason for the long wait was because the city was packed with people for an Oktoberfest celebration.  We wished we had known about this sooner; we would have stayed in town two nights instead of one.  After breakfast we headed for the Biltmore estate, or more specifically, the gift shop at the Biltmore.  The last time we were there, in April, we especially enjoyed one of their wines, so we decided to get some more.  After loading up on wine we made the trip towards Chimney Rock State Park, which was only about a 40 minute drive outside of the city.  We had first heard about Chimney Rock State Park on our Blue Ridge Parkway trip in the spring.  At the time we skipped the park so that we could stick solely to the parkway.  This time, with the amazing fall weather, we wanted to check out the park.  Chimney Rock State Park is named after a granite rock formation which looks like a chimney.  This is the highlight of the park.  We arrived at the park and were surprised not by an entry fee per vehicle, but by a $15 per person entry fee.  We thought this was steep for a state park but we paid anyway.  Since it was so crowded they did not allow us to drive to the top, instead they were using shuttle busses.  We boarded a bus and got close to the top.  Near the top one had a choice: either take an elevator the rest of the way up or walk.  We chose to take the elevator up and walk back down.  The wait for the small, 8 person elevator, ended up being much longer than we had anticipated.  We estimate we waited in line for about a half hour.  Once we got to the top, where they dump you into a gift shop, we walked out to Chimney Rock.  The rock, which stands alone, separated from the rest of the mountain, is connected by a staircase which seems to be suspended in mid-air.  We walked out, enjoyed the amazingly clear day, and just looked at the view for awhile.  After getting off of the rock we explored the area a little more, first walking up hill to a cool little viewpoint called Opera Box, which is kind of a cave in the side of the mountain but overlooks Chimney Rock.  We then walked further up the trail and up a bunch of stairs to the highest point in the park called Exclamation Point.  From there we saw a plane flying through the valley, below us!  The views from there were just as great and we rested for awhile after getting a nice workout. 

The view from inside of the Opera House

Airplane flying below

View from Exclamation Point

After making our way down the mountain, we got back in the car and started driving northeast towards home.  It was already about 4 in the afternoon and we had only driven about 35 miles since we started.  We had spent that much time on the mountain.  We wanted to make some good time because we wanted to be in NY early in the afternoon on Sunday and it was already 4 PM and we had over 700 miles to go.  We had no idea where we would be spending the night, we figured we would just drive until we got tired, then we would find a place to stay.  However, we were starving.  While we had a nice breakfast, we had nothing for lunch and already it was getting close to dinner time.  We read about a great fried chicken place called Keaton’s in Cleveland, NC, so we headed that way.  It was unfortunate that we had so little time because North Carolina is famous for its excellent BBQ.  Had we had more time we would have tried more of it.  We arrived in Cleveland about 2 hours after leaving Chimney Rock.  The place reinforced the fact that we are not snooty.  Located pretty much in the middle of nowhere, from the outside it looked like a dump.  Inside, however, there was a long line of people talking with local accents, which was a very good sign.  Keaton’s is home to some of the best chicken we have had.  The menu calls it barbecued, which it is, sort of, but it is also fried. The hot sauce penetrates the crust and meat of the chicken and caramelizes all around its outside edges, resulting in pieces of chicken that are hot, sweet, and savory all at once.  We split an order which consisted of two wings, two breasts and two thighs.  We also got side orders of spicy slaw, green beans and mac and cheese.  We also drank nearly a pitcher of sweat tea.

The entrance to Keaton's

After dinner we started driving again.  Only about 5 miles from the restaurant we had a choice to make.  Make a left turn onto US 64, which would take us to I-77 north to I-81 north, through Virginia and PA, a trip that would be 640 more miles and about 11 hours; or make a right onto US 64, and onto I-40 toward I-95, a trip that while longer in mileage at 651, and longer in time at 12 hours, was probably better since we would be driving at night and Chris thought the extra traffic would keep him more alert.  We opted for the busier route with a twist.  At Greensboro, NC, we headed north on US 29.  We had taken this router before as an alternate to I95 and we enjoyed it.  While the speed limited alternated between 65 and 55, there is little to no traffic, compared to I95 to the east that can back up for no reason at all.  We drove into Virginia and then headed east on US 360 towards Richmond. After driving for only about an hour and a half, it was already 9 at night and we knew we were not going to make it very far that night.  We pulled over, switched drivers, and Chris took out his phone to start looking for places to stay in Richmond.  We found a Fairfield Inn and using our General Dynamics corporate rate (wait a minute, neither of us work for General Dynamics), we booked an inexpensive room.  We arrived at our hotel after driving through the night and likely picking up a dozen more counties, just before midnight.  At one point before we got off of the interstate, we almost hit something in the road.  It was dark and we didn’t see it until we nearly hit it, but in the right lane of the interstate was the contents of someone’s house, or so it seemed.  There was a bunch of broken furniture all over the road and just up the road, an empty pickup truck with its flashers on and the tailgate open.  We suspect they were overpacked and they hit a bump and everything fell out.  We figured this was a good reason to rent a U-haul if we ever move.

Saturday's route

On Sunday we had only one real goal: getting to NY as early as we could.  We wanted to beat the Sunday afternoon traffic plus we wanted to have a few hours to unwind and unpack the beast and re-pack the truck before we headed home on Monday morning.  Our decision to head towards I95 last night probably came back to bite us: now we had to travel up 95 from Richmond, through Washington, Baltimore, Philly and NJ, all the way to NY on a Sunday.  This surely would not be good.  Google maps said it was a 369 mile drive which would take us 7 hours.  If you have ever driven that stretch of I95 at any time other than the middle of the night you know that 7 hours would be amazing, 8-9 would be more like it.  We quickly looked for alternate routes and found one.  Anyone who ever travels towards Florida from the NY area should take note.  You can avoid the I95 corridor from Washington to NY by doing what we did.  Just outside of Washington DC we took US29 north towards Baltimore.  At first there were a few lights but mostly it was 60 mph driving.  We picked up I70 and I695 outside of Baltimore, then headed north on I83.  We took that into Pennsylvania, then hit US30 heading east then US222 through Reading and joined I78 just west of the PA/NJ border.  The route was advertised at 404 miles and 7 hours 45 minutes but we made it in a little under 6 1/2 hours including a stop for gas and a quick stop at McDonald’s for lunch.  We absolutely recommend that route and we will surely take it again ourselves when we travel south.  While we were driving through Washington we passed through some construction zones where they were adding tolled HOV lanes.  We have seen these in California where the regular interstate is free but the HOV lanes have a toll.  Not only that, the price of the toll increases as traffic in the regular lanes becomes more congested.  So you end up paying a premium for zipping around the stalled traffic in the regular lanes.  If traffic is moving freely in the open lanes then the HOV lanes are usually free as well.  We know that if we had this opportunity we would pay to not sit in traffic.  We finally arrived in Stony Point around 2:45 and started unpacking.  We unpacked the beast, packed our truck and went and filled up the beast.  The final fill up cost us a staggering $106 at $4.15 per gallon.  NY gas prices are too high.

New HOV lanes to the left



One of the 2 chimenas that took up our backseat



The Beast

Back in NY just in time for fall

Sunday's route, all in under 7 hours!

Our entire route



New counties added this trip are in blue