Ron and Bill's Excellent Adventure - We're Home!

Me at Tallulah Gorge, Georgia
That sure is one big crack.

We made it!  We got home safe and sound yesterday afternoon.  What a wonderful trip!

Thursday night we stayed at a Hampton Inn in South Hill, Virginia.  This was without a doubt the dirtiest Hampton Inn I've ever stayed at in my travels.  From the time I walked into the lobby and saw the dirty rug and encrusted dirt around the baseboard, I knew this wasn't going to be your typical, clean Hampton Inn.  It wasn't.  However, we were too tired to travel further so I decided to stay anyway.

When I got to my room my worst fears were confirmed.  The bathroom had a low counter (for midgets or short women?) and the rug was filthy.  I didn't expect much more from the TV and again, I wasn't disappointed.  It took three tries to even get the TV to stay on and once it did forget any HD TV.  This was the old fashion blurry TV images.  Oh well.

One of the reasons I wanted to stop at this Hampton Inn was because I was a Cracker Barrel nearby and I wanted to eat there.  No more taking chances with the local cuisine.

One good thing about this Hampton Inn, the breakfast was actually very good.  However, they were undergoing a renovation/upgrading so maybe that explains the shoddy, sticky decor when I checked in.

After breakfast we got out of there, headed towards Norfolk, Virginia.  Norfolk would be the last difficult leg of our journey.  We I always have trouble getting through Norfolk.  Too many signs and they are confusing.  This time instead of taking I-264 we opted for the old interstate US-58 (I think).  That didn't turn out any better.  Bumper to bumper traffic plus we were delayed for some time when one of the drawbridges had to open to let several sailboats (high masts) through whatever river runs through Norfolk.

When we finally got over the bridge, we inched our way up US-58 to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, not one of my favorite places.  After seeing Robin Williams character turned into road kill in a Holland Tunnel crash (from the move "What Dreams May Come"), I am as leary of tunnels under bodies of water as Janet Leigh was leary of taking a shower after performing in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".  When taking the Bay Bridge tunnel not only to you go under the bay once, but you go under TWICE!  Mother of God.  But we made it.  I took a video with my iPhone but I was so shook up I took the video upside down so I had to delete.  Someone else will have to post their video of going under the Chesapeake Bay.

Once we to the other side of the Chesapeake Bay our trip was easy sailing.  We go up Rt. 113 then cut over to Rt. 13 until we get to Millsboro then we go through Millsboro (after a pit stop at BJ's to stock up) and turn onto Rt. 30 and we were on our way home!  I no longer had to give Bill directions from the shotgun seat.

Along the way up Rt. 113 in Virginia I spotted a few cemeteries along side the road so Bill stopped and let me do my thing.  I'll have to do another whole blog posting about those cemeteries.  Some of those graves had collapsed and I was afraid I would fall in.  Wouldn't that be something?  One grave I could actually walk in like steps going into the ground.  I took pictures.  Those pictures look like they could be on the cover of the old comic book "The Crypt Keeper."  Thank goodness yesterday was sunny, no vampires out and about to sink their fangs into my scrawny neck.  But I digress.

We're home and we're safe!  This was a hairy trip.  Bill isn't as confident driving and I never have been confident driving in unfamiliar territory and heavy traffic.  Neither one of us likes to drive on the Interstate highways with all those tractor trailer trucks boxing you in.  Dangerous stuff man.  Not fun.

I'm not a religious person but I do thank God (or whoever) that got us home safe and sound.  Maybe that Person was my guardian angle, Wesley (yes, that's His name).  Thank you Wesley.

Bill is out mowing the grass now on this beautiful, sunny, 72 degree low humidity Saturday.  I'm going to have a Ron prepared lunch, my favorite.  Restaurants are nice and all that but I much prefer what I make for myself.  That is until Panera finally opens its doors down here in Rehoboth Beach Land.

We accomplished a lot on this trip and we both have many new memories but this is probably the last trip we will make like this again.  I would like to go again and look for those cemeteries up in those Smoky Mountains that I missed.  I haven't ruled out another trip but for now we just want to relax and get back into the old routine.  Both of us are so tired.  We need to de stress.

Ron and Bill's Excellent Adventure Day Four

Me after my dining experience this afternoon

We're at the Hampton Inn in Franklin, North Carolina tonight.  We checked in this afternoon.  We wanted to extend our stay at the Hampton Inn in Johnson City, Tennessee but they were full.  So we had to go to our backup plan.

Since we're a day ahead ourselves (today seems like Wednesday and not Tuesday just like Sunday seemed like Monday and Monday seemed like Tuesday).  We wanted to get on the other side of the Smoky Mountains to position ourselves to make a run for Talluhah Falls Georgia.  Bill wants to visit his hometown of Toccoa Georgia on Thursday.  This will probably be his last visit.

The picture at the beginning of this blog is of me in the front of a local barbecue restaurant just below the Hampton Inn where we're staying.  Willy's Barbecue, notice that there isn't a line waiting to get in.  This isn't Panera Bread or Outback Steakhouse.  Oh well.  Bill had French Fries.  He usually get soup but they didn't have any (of course).  I got a grilled chicken (OK), French Fries, and barbecue backed beans (which were very good but probably because I was hungry since I haven't eaten since breakfast).  I'm eating a chocolate decadent brownie that I stocked up on from the Chick A Fil A in Johnson City.  My sweet tooth is insatiable.

This morning we had time so I took advantage and visited the 3,000 grave Evergreen Cemetery in Erwin, Tennessee.  Erwin is located on the Tennessee and North Carolina at the base of the Pisgah mountains where I spent the last two days visiting those small family cemeteries.  I have Tipton relatives also buried at the Evergreen Cemetery.  I found them!  Mission accomplished.

After taking about 800 photos of headstones, I got back in our rented Dodge Caravan and headed south to Asheville, North Carolina.  My great-great grandmother is buried in a small church cemetery just outside Asheville.  Again we had great stress traveling on unfamiliar roads.  I used my iPad Map to navigate and Bill drives.  Bill is depending on me for step my step driving instructions but by the time I give him the turn instructions he's already passed the street or exit.  Part of the problem is that he has a hearing aid which he refuses to wear.  He also has trouble seeing the road signs because he's concentrating on driving.  I think this is probably our last road trip unless we can figure out a way to go where we avoid heavy traffic patterns.  We're just too old to contend with all these stress.

We found the Berea Church Cemetery in Ashville, were my great-great grandmother Tipton is buried.  What a thrill!  I never thought I would even know where she was buried let alone visit her grave.  Her husband John, my great-great grandfather was killed by Confederates in 1864 during the Civil War in those North Carolina mountains where I have been visited the past two days.  My great-great grandfather has an unmarked grave somewhere up there in this mountains.  When he was ambushed and killed by a Confederate Calvary, his body was delivered to his widow and she and her neighbor buried his body on their property, the location of which is no lost to history.  I feel fortunate that I found her grave and was able to visit it today.  I am having a very productive vacation.  Now it's Bill turn on this vacation.

After spending a couple of hours this morning in that cemetery taking pictures we both loaded our weary bodies back into our rented van and headed to the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway.  This is the first time we have been on this road.  What fabulous views!  I took pictures which I will share on a future blog posting.  We wanted to get over the mountains and find a nice clean, comfortable place to stay for the night. We found it!

We're staying in a beautiful Hampton Inn which has a lobby that looks like a mountain ski lodge resort.  We got in at around 3 pm, washed up and they headed out looking for a place to eat.  This Hampton Inn is located off of the I-26 highway so our choices are limited.  We drove around a bit but decided to go to Piggy Wiggly's "Willy's Barbecue".  First clue was there was only two other folks in the restaurant (other than the cashier, waitress and cook).  And that person obviously was a friend of the waitress and a single mom there with her four year old boy.

Of course we were waited on immediately. Our waitress handed us our menu and the first thing I noticed was "Catfish Hoagie."  Uh....okay.  "We're not in Kansas anymore."  Panera Bread Wiley's Barbecue isn't.

Bill asked if they had soup.  Not surprisingly, our waitress said they didn't have soup.  Grease yes, soup no.

Oh well, Bill ordered a basket of French Fries.  I ordered a grilled chicken, French Fries and barbecue beans.  The barbecue beans were obviously out of a can but since I had not eaten since breakfast, the beans tasted great!  I filled my stomach up.  I was no longer hungry.  We could have went to the KFC that is on the other side of the Hampton Inn.  That's the problem with staying at hotels off the Interstate instead of in a city, dining options are limited.

Tomorrow we head south to the natural wonders of Georgia and visiting Bill's hometown of Toccoa, which is a dying dead town.  Toccoa's problem is that it isn't near a major road and what little industry they had (threads, like in sewing) was outsourced long ago.  Bill if fascinated walking down the deserted main street of Toccoa.  It's like "High Noon".  This is the third and probably last year we visit Toccoa.  There is NOTHING going on in that town.  Bill likes to visit his old haunts which I understand.  I like to do the same thing in my hometown of Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

After visiting Toccoa we'll swing up to Greenville, South Carolina and visit my brother John.  He wants to show me his new church construction.  I am so happy my brother has a job that he loves and does so well.

It is now 8:15 pm.  I am sitting at this wonder desk setup at the Hampton Inn.  Things have change at the Hampton Inn since I last worked there in the late 90's.  I love this setup.  It is so comfortable.

Bill is sleeping and I'm thinking about taking a shower and just vegging out watching TV tonight before I drift off to Dreamland.  We're leaving early tomorrow for the next leg of Ron and Bill's Excellent Adventure.  I hope we don't run into any more confusing, unfamiliar big city traffic patterns.  We'll be ready to veg out at home after this adventure.