VOID 13- Deja vu all over again

We have been part of the Void Rally since its inception in 2005.    We are Plankowners; a term reserved for the original crew of a ship when it is first put to sea.  We are Riders Number 4.  That being said, our participation as riders has been sporadic at best.  We rode 2-up for the first couple/three Voids, including the one where it was below freezing as we left Lynchburg.    Rick decided to ride again this year; first time since his Yahtzee disaster.    He: 1) needed miles to complete the MS5000 challenge to support Paul Pelland's million mile chase for the cure of MS, and 2) he needed to go for a good ride.

Choosing to start in Kingsland was a no brainer as it solved both nicely.  Also, rallymasters have a history of eliminating unpopular or under used things, like starting locations in a spider style rally of which the Void belongs to.  The "southern" starting location is historically the lowest attended, usually under a dozen leave from the south; not sure why other than the Void has a reputation for just nasty weather for the southern starters: hurricanes,tornadoes the usual.
To compound the fun, Hurricane Florence dumped feet of rain in the Carolinas, destroying homes and businesses, wiping out roads, bridges and livelihoods.  As a result, Rick was planning his routes to avoid the coast despite having some juicy bonus locations.   Travel to Kingsland was uneventful; most of the businesses along 95 have reopened unaffected but there is ample evidence of water/mud that covered sections of the Interstate.
The rallybook didnt make any major changes to the physical bonus locations.  Convinced the winning routes went through Atlanta, he dialed in a route that hugged the coast to Hilton Head then went basically due north through Columbia to Winston-Salem for the massive rest bonus

At this stop, Rick realized that using Bubbler on the clock would involve using his right hand to take pictures; normally he holds the camera with his left hand, but the HammyHolder is lefthanded so the camera must be held in the right hand.

  Uga was gone!!

worlds smallest church- one of many to make this claim

He located his pocket knife and cut the right index glove tip off to allow smart phone acceess.

globe water tower

great white

yup, this guy is walking a gator  

worlds smallest police station

coffee pot diner

peanut on a stick

hope the dogs arent to scale

carolina pottery- lots of lawn oraments

 Dizzy

King Richard- feet not life sized

another coffee pot

Having been burned before trying to find a decent motel to take a weekend night rest bonus, Rick booked a room at a Rodeway Inn that was along his planned route that he would arrive at between 10pm and midnight, to maximize the value of the rest bonus at 6 hours.  Unfortunately there was no real close place to get a good receipt to start the rest bonus so he snagged some food at a 24 hour McDonalds about 3/4 a mile away and checked in to possibly the worst Rodeway Inn ever.  The first room was already occupied which surprised the clerk as well as the occupants.  The second room was around back of the motel on the second floor; it came complete with a soaking wet carpet from A/C condensation and lots of interesting characters on the parking lot.  When Rick checked out at 3:30 am, they were still going strong.  Back to the 24 hour Mickey Ds to find it closed.....    yup, it's open 24 hours, just not in a row.  2 miles later, he found some gas pumps that were still active which yielded a good receipt but cost a couple of minutes in grief.

back on the road, the bonus locations piled on- at this point, the last time he saw a fellow rally rider was in Savannah;  that is always expected to change as riders approach the finish line.

Wilbur the pig and a Squatch

milk carton on a stick

WTC steel flagpole

junk art

giant flower pots- watering can on the other side

sizing up the buttthis was only available from 9-11 for some reason so Rick went to the butt bonus above first rather than wait 45 minutes for it to become available

Rick was forced to bail on his only optional bonus pickup for the planned route which were the wolfs in front of the Williamsburg Great Wolf Lodge.  Eastbound traffic on I-64 was all backed up heading towards Williamsburg; who knew besides everyone.

 Taken this Ice cream Cowboy's photo at least a dozen times in the past three years.

Pre-scoring for the Void is done on the clock; it's a real motivator to get your shit together and make sure it's correct before it goes into that envelop.  Rick was using Bubbler GPS Pro and a Spotwalla trip to submit his photos for scoring.  He wanted to try it under rally conditions to get better appreciation for what 20-20 riders go through while the stress of the rally clock running.   While it was a pain short term, he got used to it; it was just  a change to his rally routine.

Scoring itself was a breeze and made so much smoother when the bestest hostess in the world was corralling riders.  Rick got the dogs settled, the car and bike unpacked plus a quick nap and a shower before the banquet.

Salty revealed why Deja Vu; it was last year's bonus list with new values since nearly every rider did the exact same route last go round.  Of the Kingsland starters, Rick had the lowest score which meant he came home with the first place trophy which was a shock considering how few miles he rode compared to the other Georgia starting riders.

  spotwalla trip with photos embedded

thanks to Salty and his crew for a fun way to close the official rally season.... well sort of close.  see the next post.

Chihuly Nights at the Biltmore

As we approach retirement, our travels will probably be more extensive and more frequent.  Historically, we've done one big trip a year with a couple to long weekend excursions.  With the Jean's parents needing more attention, our long weekend trips have become less impromptu; it's part of adulting.  

This past summer before we left for Newfoundland, we kicked around a trip to the Biltmore Estate near Asheville, NC to see the Chihuly Art Glass exhibit, but at night.  Jean had seen the Chihuly exhibit when it toured through Pittsburgh a few years ago at the Frick Conservatory. 

Between the four of us, the biggest vehicle is Rick's Ranger, but it's not really suited for more than 2 adults when it comes to travel; the remainder are small cars again not suitable for more than 2 adults for travelling.  We decided to rent a Hyundai Santa Fe for the week; only a couple hundred bucks, easily  seats 5 with reasonable fuel economy.  Biltmore tickets were secured as well as two nights of lodging at classic motel in downtown Asheville.  Our plan was simple, get on the road early, drop the dogs at doggy camp when they open and high tail it to Asheville in time for dinner on Wednesday, Biltmore Thursday night and start home on Friday making it a 2 day return.  We picked our rental on Tuesday to find out we now have a VW Atlas- upgrade.   Nicknamed "the beast", this thing seats 8, easy. so handling 4 adults and a long weekend's worth of luggage should be a piece of cake. 

Wednesday morning goes exactly as planned; we meet our friends at the Mount Airy park and ride, the dogs get dropped at camp and traffic on I-81 is light and moving fast.  We arrive in Asheville mid-afternoon, get checked into our funky motel and make decisions as to which brewpub dinner will be had.  Asheville is a mecca of brewpubs; Sierra Nevada has even set up shop here.

We decide on the the Jack of the Wood an Irish style pub with a name that sounds as if it came from a Jethro Tull album.  The other choice is the Thirsty Monk which has great beer reviews but limited real food offering according to its Yelp reviews.  It's open mic night at the Jack of the Wood and a local string band has taken up residence playing some pretty funky blue grass.

After dinner, we retire to the motel's breakfast area for a spirited round of board games and an early night.  With a early evening reservation for the house tour at the Biltmore and the expected twilight showing of the art glass, we headed out for a walking tour of Asheville, an urban trail that traverses various neighborhoods, geographic features and places of note.    All in all, it took us a just under two hours to walk the entire length, took in some really interesting places along with a brief visit to the Thomas Wolfe house to find out we all had a different Thomas Wolfe in mind.

Still with a couple of hours to kill before we head to the estate itself, a nap is in order.   We loaded up and drove the beast over the estate planning to take in some of the side exhibits before heading to the house proper.  The estate bills that it has the most visited winery in the country, so we HAVE to give that a try- we love wineries.  Turns out that claim is a bit of a stretch; more like the most visited winery tasting room since you really never get into the winery.  Some of the offerings are quite tasty and within out pallet and wallet range so several bottles get lugged back to the beast for safe keeping while we continue to tour the various shops in the Biltmore Village.   We head to the house and park in the designated areas to wait for a shuttle bus; luckily we got a spot adjacent to the bus stop.  We've been warned that this bus trip can be long depending on crowd size and what parking area you embark from.  10 minutes later the bus makes the right turn onto the grand promenade of the Estate where the first of 16 separate Chihuly exhibits stands.  We have more than enough time to circulate through the entire gardens during daylight, so we wander all the way along the meandering paths to the Conservatory and hung out until it started to get dark.  

The lights came on at 7:30 as we started the trek back to the house.

It's been a long day, we walked almost 9 miles between our urban hike and stomping around Biltmore.  Collectively, we decide to sleep in, lounge around a bit in the morning and see if we can take the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way back to Front Royal.  Portions have been closed since just before Florence and they have been reopened as the Parkway gets cleared.

Side trip to Mount Mitchell, aka "Black Mountain" to the highest spot east of the Rockies.

Now that's a view

The Parkway was open all the way to Skyline Drive; we jumped off at Roanoke for the night.  The weather got a little nastier the further north we drove.  The beast performed excellently to the point we looked at home much Atlases cost [a fair chunk but not nearly as much as their Audi sisters].  Skyline Drive was free for the weekend as the Park Service had waived the fees after the roadways were re-opened after Florence.
We reversed the process picking up the doggies and dropping our friends at the Park and Ride where they parked their car during the trip.