Archive for the ‘Virginia’ Category

It’s weird how unweird things are sometimes. Like how you can spend a night hanging out with someone you met in a bar in a foreign country two years ago and hadn’t seen since and how it’s weird but not really that weird at the same time.

Like Wednesday.

Wednesday I woke up in a cheap Super 8. I bided my time watching Food Network as I got ready for the day and didn’t check out until right before the 11am check out as I still had no idea what the actual plan for the day was.

Determined to get coffee that wasn’t something I could get anywhere I headed to the downtown area and got myself an iced mocha.

By then I’d gotten a text from Will saying he was in, and I quote, “bum fuck,” so I figured I had a little time to kill. SO I headed out of the way to Natural Bridge, which is a town filled with crazy stuff…unfortunately I totally failed at figuring out where that stuff was! Ah, next time!

I did manage to find a replica of Stonehenge though…

I headed back towards Charlottesville and wasted some time by stopping at all of the scenic overlooks and a rest stop.

And then I got back to town and had no idea what to do…so I pulled into a Target parking lot and was just going to walk around but as soon as I got out of the car I got a call from Will! He gave me his address and it turned out I was only about 3 minutes away. So I raced on over there.

And wow. Was that crazy. Because I hadn’t seen him since Amsterdam two years ago when we met. If I haven’t mentioned it.

We got in his car and headed back towards the downtown for some coffee. And then he showed me around the college campus that took up much of the area.

And then we got back in his car and went for a drive.

And it was awesome.

Because I didn’t have to drive.

Because we were in the mountains.

Because the windows were down.

Because he had the perfect soundtrack to listen to while driving through the mountains with an uncomplete stranger with the windows down.

And then we picked a random town to explore that had nothing open but a tattoo shop. Because in all small towns it seems like the tattoo shop is the only thing open.

And he almost killed us by running a red light.

But we’re alive.

And then we went back downtown to get some dinner. And I had a fish that tasted like a taco but wasn’t.

And then we went to a bar called the Southern and listened to 80s cover bluegrass band. And you haven’t heard an 80s cover band until you’ve heard Don’t Stop Believing done in bluegrass style.

And then we watched Wristcutters a Love Story. And it was good but weird.

And awesome.

By the way…

Sometimes a trip seems a day or two too long. It can happen when you need to get from point A to point B to point C and point B is only in town on a Wednesday and point C is going on on a Saturday and there was no reason not to leave point A on the previous Saturday. And so you just have all this extra time and not enough planned out to see. And let me tell you, I’m a planner.

Yesterday and today were just those days. When I set out planning I wasn’t sure where or when my friend Will was going to be available. And it turned out only Wednesday. So that meant two days with not much ground to cover and no plan…

Monday I woke up in time to say goodbye as Rob headed off to work. Christine and I sat on the couch for a while and watched I Didn’t Know I was Pregnant until I hit the road. I want to know who lets their babies act on that show?

I really had no plans at all for the day. And, really, I don’t do well with not having plans.

My first stop of the day was a Jiffy Lube because I was about 500 miles and months overdue for an oil change. But at least I did it before my car started yelling at me to get one this time…

With some new oil and a washed window I took off. The night before I read about the NRA’s National Firearms Museum…and how could I pass that up?

It was an interesting place to say the least. They had walls and walls and walls of guns. Old guns, new guns, historic guns, toy guns, movie guns…

Did I mention I’m kind of scared of guns?

Afterwards I decided to hit up a winery someone told me about that pairs the wine with music: Notaviva. As I knew nothing of wineries in the area I’d take one suggested to me any day.

The wines were delicious and it was interesting to hear that the wineries in the area share grapes as an insurance just in case something happened to their crops.

Unfortunately since I am just me and me is driving a car and me is also a real lightweight a real wine tour of the area was out of the question.

So I left the wine area and headed in search of a giant roller skate. And a giant roller skate was found.

I wasn’t really sure what to do next. As a road tripper it’s hard not to want to see everything and fill your day up completely, but I really wasn’t sure what to do.

So I drove towards Richmond. But really didn’t know what to do in Richmond. And I didn’t stop for coffee that morning so I had a headache. So I ended up turning around as soon as I got there and finding a hotel and finding food and throwing up the food (OK, you didn’t need to know that, but headaches make me nauseous) and falling asleep watching TV and then waking up and raiding the vending machine for cookies.

Does anyone else feel giddy at hotel vending machines? I do. It stems from my childhood road snacks of grape soda and pretzels and as a tween (before tween was a word) sneakily getting oatmeal cream pies from them when my parents weren’t around when we’d visit my sister at college.

I woke up this morning feeling much better.

And my first stop of the morning was Starbucks and a pumpkin spice latte. And the barista was just as excited about the pumpkin spice latte being back as I was. And it was delicious. And it had caffeine in it so I was good to go for the day.

I decided to take a drive to some nearby roadside attractions. None of which I found, but the journey to not find them was simply gorgeous.

Let me tell you a secret. Going in search of roadside attractions isn’t just about the end, but the means to the end. You don’t know how many country roads, county highways, and unpaved paths my Garmin has taken me down. And because of that I have seen some of the most gorgeous farm land that most people would never bother driving through.

Afterwards I decided to hit up a cavern. My friend mentioned there were caverns in Shenandoah so a quick Google of course led to Shenandoah Caverns. And their pixie mascot sold me.

So I drove through the mountain to get there and quickly realized that I had less than a quarter tank of gas and was kind of worried that this mountain road wouldn’t have a gas station. But alas it did.

More driving and I found my way to the caverns.

I decided to skip all the museums they had and just do a cavern tour. It was really beautiful…

and even had bacon!

Since I still had time in the day and wanted to save time on my trip Thursday towards North Carolina I got a head start by heading to Roanoke and seeing a big frying pan from my window and a Muffler Man!

And now I am in Charlottesville. In a cheap hotel. And am really excited to see Will tomorrow!

I made the decision this morning to b-line for Alexandria. I had a few stops scheduled but nothing really stood out and I figured I’d rather make it to Virginia early. And by early I mean early afternoon.

I did drive by a giant cross which was not as impressive as the world’s largest cross.

And I stopped off to see the world’s largest apple.

We’re just spending a chill night with TV. And I have no idea what I am doing yet tomorrow.