Sunday, November 7, 2021

US-17: the first of our routes

The United States Highway system was created in 1926 by Congress to help standardize the way roadways transition from state to state.  They mostly follow a grid pattern, in which odd-numbered routes run generally north to south and even-numbered routes run generally east to west, though three-digit spur routes can be either-or. Usually, one- and two-digit routes are major routes, and three-digit routes are numbered as shorter spur routes from a main route.  With US-40, aka The National Road, and US-1, the Atlantic Highway or the Old Post Road, running straight through Baltimore we are familiar with the system.  Motorcycling has brought our love affair with the old highways to the forefront and we have tried to shun the interstates with their uniform blandness when possible.

Our plans include travelling some of the "unloved" US highways as Route 66 has been done to death and the Lincoln Highway (US-30) having documentaries devoted to them.  To whet our appetites, we thought we'd start with a "little" one: US-17.  Stretching from Winchester, VA to Punta Gorda, FL it traverses both the piedmont region as well as the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.  Our trip will be broken into two main segments as we stop at Jekyll Island, GA for a bit; conveniently just off US-17.  

Day One:  Baltimore to Winchester via I-70 and US-340.  340 heads southwest from Frederick, MD and crosses into VA briefly before WV near Harpers Ferry.  Here along this stretch of road carved into the hillside we wind up getting stuck for 44 minutes in the Potomac Narrows on 340 near Harpers Ferry for roadside work.    Made the day roughly an hour longer than originally planned.

Winchester, VA: 0 miles


US-17 begins with a yellow check engine light and a Spot tracker with dead batteries.  Spot got fresh batteries in the spring but all the riding just plain ran them down easily fixable with a quick stop at Walmart near Warrenton.  The check engine light was a little more troubling as the truck had recently been serviced with no surprises.  After fumbling around a bit and updating the ODB reader app on the phone we discovered the light was a result of a misfire on the #4 cylinder;  cleared the code and all is well.  If it happens again then we'll have it looked at by a professional.  

17 rolls through the Virginia countryside as mostly a dual lane, divided highway, aka country highway, with occasional traffic lights outside of the major towns.  A quick off route diversion in Fredericksburg to return some supplies from the Fill in the Void Ride to Eat back in October and we back on the road that will be our friend for the next couple of days.  

Our hotel in Newport News is average at best.  Like most businesses in the hospitality industry they are finding recruiting and retaining employees problematic; given the long history of low pay, long hours and being treated like crap by both management and clients doesn't help either.  Dinner is had at a Mexican restaurant within walking distance.  The "regular" sized Margaritas are gigantic; probably all of 24 ounces with the right balance of tartness and sweetness along with a heavy dose of tequila.

Newport News, VA: 201 miles

Day Two: US-17 southward to Jacksonville, NC

Our hotel breakfast kinda sucked and we resorted to stopping at an IHOP thereby breaking our "no chains" rule.  It had been several years since we've been to an IHOP; the pancakes were just as we remembered them, fluffy.  Although the the difference between over easy and over medium was nonexistent, we enjoyed our IHOP experience.  A quick spin through Christopher Newport University to scope out the venue for the upcoming Alton Brown show in April and back to 17 we go traipsing through a whole bunch of navy towns on the way to the Great Dismal Swamp.


Mostly a steady, dreary rain fell today which was fitting for the trek through the Swamp.  Unseasonably cool, downright cold for early November with temps never getting out of the low 50's, the incessant then cold rain forced us inside the truck for lunch.  More cold continued as we finally escaped the rain near New Bern.  

We finish this leg off near the entrance to Camp Lejeune with a fabulous dinner at a brand new restaurant across 17 from the hotel.  Flavor Hills is a gastropubby type place; high end food, made from scratch with a ton of craft beer on tap.  One the walls are painted various phrases including "Waffles are pancakes with abs" and "Brunch (n)- a reasonable excuse for day drinking.

Jacksonville, NC:  232 miles, 433 total

Day Three: southward to Charleston, SC

The intermittent cold rain has returned; just enough to be annoying.  We have plans to visit Brookgreen Gardens near Murrel's Inlet.  First visited 33 years ago this month, the statuary gardens have grown to include several art galleries, a museum of the Low Country as well as cafe's and restaurants.   The doggies get to have some day camp at a nearby kennel- A Dog's Way Inn- while the humans patrol the grounds of the gardens.











We had lunch on the grounds at the original kitchen building for the old mansion house just to get out of the cold breeze.   The gardens are lovely as we remember them, more extensive and there are a host of new sculptures.  The grounds crew is getting ready for "A Night of 1,000 Candles" their holiday light display that runs from Thanksgiving to the New Year.   Consisting of 1,000+ actual candles and 1.2 million LED lights, even in daylight as the tests were run, it looked impressive. They have been setting up lights since Labor Day........  It will take them until Valentine's Day to get them all packed away for the summer.











In the new Low Country Museum there is an exhibit of African/ Gullah Textiles entitled the Sankofa Exhibit; this travelling group of pieces represents numerous artists and multiple techniques.


After we fetch the doggies, it's back on 17 to Charleston, just a couple of hours away, where we have our night's lodging at Ginger and Paul's house; they're up in the mountains for a long weekend and we get the place to ourselves.  The rain picks up overnight and is downright cold, even for us "northerners".

        Millers All Day in downtown of Charleston


Tucked in behind the passenger seat

Charleston, SC: 237 miles, 670 total

Day Four: onward to Brunswick, GA

The rain has switched to well past annoying.  The windshield keeps fogging up and the constant switching between fan settings with the heat/cool balance is a real trick.  As we chat, we decide that days like these are best for the interstates since you really can't see much.  Just before we cross back over I-95 for the last time in South Carolina, there has been an accident involving a tractor trailer and a car, right on the northbound entrance ramp, blocking all 4 travel lanes.  35 minutes and we're released to continue the trek through a confusing ribbon of roads that is Savannah.

Lunch is inside again today at a local taqueria with a yummy red sauce.  We've driven this section of 17 before just to escape the rush of 95 so other than a couple of roadway improvements, it hasn's changed much for us.  A quick grocery stop in Brunswick proper and off to Jekyll for the next month.  Our rental house is just about a block from the beach and half a mile to three of the four golf courses.

Jekyll Island, GA: 201 miles, 871 total
To be continued.....

[insert Jekyll photos] 


our rental on Odgen


Golf course ranger


Too windy to fly

After nearly 5 weeks of relaxation on the jewel of the Golden Isles, Jekyll Island, we return to the target of finishing US-17 end-to-end.  Part 2

Day Five: Brunswick to Winter Haven, FL

After getting the whole family back together from "the girls week" on Jekyll, we hit the road.  The day started uneventful until we hit Yulee.....    They were having their Christmas Parade and Festival right on US-17.  There were no signs warning travelers to avoid the road [unlike Maitland].  Traffic was showing it was stopped on the Google maps.  We could see the flashing lights off about a mile ahead of us but didnt know what was going on.  There is no "old road" to follow either, so we tried to make up a detour around what we thought was an accident only to get caught up in the parade assembly area directly in front of the Yulee School.   Before a state motorcycle trooper interceded, we were following Santa on the firetruck through the school grounds.  One hour later, we finally clear Yulee, get back on 17 proper and head south again.

Can we have an adult talk about what unfettered sprawl looks like?  If you think the Tysons Corners area of northern Virginia as a baseline, the greater Orlando megaplex is essentially the same level of sprawl just spread out over dozens of square miles.  It was truly AWFUL.  Relentless traffic lights, strip malls, shopping plazas and ranch style home developments [from the low 300's!!!].  It went on for miles and miles of miles and miles.   

We had another small detour, this time marked with officers directing traffic, around the night parade through Davenport, FL.

Our hotel has a really good Mexican restaurant attached- San Diegos if you ever get to Winter Haven. 

Winter Haven, FL 285 miles, 1156 total

Early this morning, like 5am early, the dogs wanted to go out.  Our room has direct access to a large grassy area with a sliding door.  Leashes in hand, we headed outside so they could do their business.  The neighboring room has a large dog, unsure of the breed, but he went straight for Taffee, grabbing her by the head.  Totally freaked out, Chili took off; we later corralled her near the pool.  Rick started to wail on the dog while the dog's owner tried to pry its jaws open.  The dog finally relented and Rick wrestled it to the ground while Jean snatched up Taffee.  Quickly made arrangements to see the emergency vet and she will be fine- a couple of staples, some meds with a promise to visit our vet when we get home.  The couple next door reimbursed the ER visit in cash.  It's all good, but the US-17 end to end sill have to wait; we are heading home.

 

               Taffee's staples  

            the gash in her harness



Sunday, October 3, 2021

The Smokeys

 Time Shares Sales.   Yup, their hitting us up.  Not sure when they got the data that we were retired but somehow they know.  We figured for 200 bucks, we'd take the tour/presentation and gain a 4 day stay in the Smokey Mountains out of the deal.  Not bad considering a decent hotel room is easily 100 a night these days.  More on the weekends which we discovered on our trip to Rhode Island where the 129 per night on a Thursday is 490 on Friday and Saturday.  Sadly, this company markets itself as family and pet friendly hoteliers, no pets are allowed, so the doggies get a vacation at Miss Judy's in Martinsburg which is sort of on the way to Pigeon Forge.  

Doggies get dropped Friday morning, and we set the google machine to "avoid highways" and off we go.  Again, we plan to have our lunch on the road at a park or the like straight out of our picnic basket.   Funny story, we got this picnic basket as a wedding present; it had all the usual picnic basket stuff including 2 plastic champagne glasses.  Everything has slowly been replaced but the wicker basket remains and it's starting to show its age.  The roads we wind up on are epic and we stick to old WV-55 until we hit 220 and head south for a long time.  Lunch was in the Franklin Town Park adjacent to the river while the maintenance guy is mowing the grass.   

Back onto some of the most scenic roads in this part of West & plain old regular Virginia, as our route takes us across the state line several times before we get to our motel in Princeton, adjacent to I-77.  Over dinner, we discuss our options for tomorrow: get on 77 for a couple of exits to go through the tunnel OR take a local road up over the same ridge the tunnel goes through.  We decide on the road and boy howdy, are we glad we did.  This is the view northwest from the little park that sits on the West Virginia side of the ridge:




It's the annual fall festival in Burkes Garden, which explained the relatively large number of cars heading up the mountain.    Burkes Garden is a delightful spot in the Appalachians where the valley is slightly below the surrounding mountains, spread out like a large shallow bowl.   If you have never been to BG, go.  There is a general store, a couple of campgrounds but it is still mostly a farming community.

The festival makes the main road one way with the return loop along the northern edge of the bowl.  It is a wonderous place and we will be checking out any southern loops to get the entire valley plus leave or depart from the dirt road that approaches from the east.  Rumor has it there is a car in a tree, like 20 feet off the ground in a tree just past one of the switchbacks.

We stopped for lunch in a small picnic area/ park near the VA/TN line.  At the entrance, there are six different historic markers ranging from information in the 1600's to a primary school in the 19teens.  Our inner retired rallymaster cackled with delight over this find.
Our hotel is bright modern and really cool.  There is a separate sitting area adjacent to the door and it has a walk in closet.  Checking online, this room normally goes for 159 a night so the 200 cost for three nights is worth the time share spiel that will be coming on Sunday.  Fortunately, we get to trade into an earlier presentation and find ourselves at the welcome/ presentation center at 845 and not 1145 as originally scheduled.    Turns out, these arent the time shares or our parents' generation; there is no week somewhere on some specific property.  Instead, you buy the real estate equivalent in points, which you can use at any one of their hundreds of locations plus associate partners over the globe- almost every one of them is a resort.  We're not resort people- strike two.  Strike one was the 'no pets' policy despite advertising as family inclusive.  Our presenter, done one on one mixed in with a powerpoint presentation covering all the benefits of the program, nonchalantly to go on Amazon and just get our dogs a "service animal' vest: Strike three.   The weird part was at no point was the cost of the program discussed until the "offer guy" came to our table.   Let's just say the know how to hard sell and we saw exactly how folks get into these programs; the offers sound to good to be true and you can finance almost the entire purchase through them.  But the offer is only good today; when you walk out the door, the offer is void.   Their price you ask?  More than the estimated cost of our new truck which we plan to purchase next year.  Like a lot more, oh and no discount for paying in cash.  Sounds like they make their money on both unused programming and the financing.
After we say 'no', the 'exit interview' guy shows up to make sure we understood the material we were presented and to rate our overall experience.  Then he flips over the exit questionnaire with a new offer, different from the first which looks suspiciously tailored to different clients. Our was for retired persons as 'you have no business wanting to get into a 20 year program' [duh].   Our guess is they have these prearranged depending on the status of the potential client with younger families getting longer terms and more flexibility.  There were several young families in our group of 10, one with an infant in tow.  That prospect of using this program at Disney must have been really hard to turn down- FYI Disney for a family of 4 for a week is just short of 10 grand now and that doesnt include any travel costs.
After extricating ourselves from their sales pitch we talk over the presentation during lunch figuring that at least two families bought into the program and another three probably took the second offer.  That second offer was very tempting even for us, but again it was centered on resorts and we are NOT resort people.  Speaking of resorts, Pigeon Forge is one giant tourist trap/ resort.  We have heard for years about the epic traffic on this 6 miles of road; it did not disappoint.    After lunch we take in one of the many miniature golf courses before returning to our room for some pool time before dinner.

Monday is our last full day in Pigeon Forge; to complete the experience we have tickets to the Hatfield McCoy Family Feud Dinner Show, because of course we do.   Jean wants to go one of the local churches for Monday morning service and she drops me at the Gatlinburg Golf Club with the intent of picking me up much later.  The tee time is 850; the drop off is at 730 and the bar doesnt open until 10.  You do the math.    It is an amazing track with elevation changes that are truly breath taking. 
View from the 10th tee box
The 100 foot drop to the green at the 12th.

We fully expected the dinner show to be absolutely cornball humor ripped straight out of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour material.  We were not disappointed.   Dinner was served in metal buckets on metal plates by servers in coveralls.  Drinks were in mason jars just like at the Phyrst in State College.  We wound up on the McCoy side of the audience and some canned responses to shout at various times including "None of you darn  business",  Arguably, the best bits of the entire show was when things didnt happen as expected and the actors who played the mayor and sheriff ad lib a cover for the mistakes were just downright funny.  
We took a combo of the google machine's avoid highways and fastest route settings after crossing through the Smokeys on 441.   If you have never travelled on 441, the trip is highly recommended.   We met some friends for dinner in Lynchburg on Tuesday night.  Good times.
View from our hotel room in Lynchburg
Picked up the dogs just after lunch and we arrived home just as our biweekly cleaning crew got started.  

https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/6903-1474dcb2-683a/view


follow up- another invite for a time share weekend from the same company just appeared in my in box

Friday, September 3, 2021

Camping- August 21

Camping!!!!

It's been since our trip to Newfoundland-Labrador that we have been camping.   Dusting off the gear, checking all the batteries, replaced one of our Byer cots and a new EZ up secured, we're off to the Finger Lakes, to the Finger Lakes Campground.

We thought we'd try the Sagan Planet Walk in downtown Ithaca;  this would be our second scale model of the Solar System adding to the spectacular one along US-1 from Presque Isle to Holton Maine.   This was a walking path that seemed to snake it's way around several city blocks before running along one of the many gorges in town.







Saturn is located in a construction site for now.


It was a bit of a let down.  Cool definitely but a let down and we give a 4 on a ten point scale.    Lunch was entertained at Kelly's Dockside along a major inlet into the lake.  A fellow a few tables over sketched this of our two doggies.

Last night in camp was very buggy, but the dew was light overnight.  We packed up, headed home into the remnants of Hurricane Ida.