The final leg

For completeness, I want to finish updating the highlights of my roadtrip with SS. After the day of plant hunting described previously, we started hotel hunting. We had about the same success rate, in that the first two towns we stopped in did not have hotels. Ok - one did, but the door to the office was locked with a sign that said, "Please call 555-1234 from the pay phone (there will is no charge)". But then there was this semi-scary guy who was involved in a conversation on the pay phone. We decided to move on to the next town. Finally, in Elizabethon, TN we found a decent hotel that just happened to have a Long John Silver's. I know LJS is not the best food for you, but I think SS and I have eaten there for every roadtrip we have been on together. I might be wrong, but it is kind of a tradition. Plus, we were too tired to do anything more elaborate. So we brought our fish, chicken, hush puppies, and cole slaw back to the hotel, watched a couple of episodes of "Top Chef" - a real treat since neither of us have cable at home, and knit. In a phone call to her husband that evening, SS learned of the 4.5 feet of water in her basement.

Despite knowing that a hard day of work lay ahead of us, we had a lovely time on the second day of driving.

We stopped at a winery (which I cannot remember the name of) and took a few minutes to knit on the patio overlooking the vineyard. Most of the wine was pretty good and we ended up bringing some home to Mr. SS.
We did not stop at too many places - we were both tired and we needed to be at the car rental place by 3 pm. We did stop at Tamarack, a huge store featuring crafts and products made in WV. We had also thought about eating lunch there, but the line was really long and none of the food sounded particularly tempting. In retrospect, I think we should have taken the time, because instead, we drove around the sad downtown of, I think, Beckley looking for a local restaurant. We finally found a place (again, I don't remember the name - I need to write my travelogues much closer to the actual days of travel), but it was not good. At least it was cheap.

We took a brief stop at the New River Gorge to view the bridge. You have to walk down lots of stairs.We did find a bird's nest on the way down.
You are rewarded with a wonderful view of the highest vehicular bridge in North America.


All in all it was a great roadtrip. I love traveling with SS. We have covered a lot of miles together and have always had a great time.

The next day - I helped SS and Mr. SS with basement cleanup. It was wet. And messy. And dirty. The national guard came by to pick up garbage from the flood. The fire department came by to wash the layer of mud off the streets. I swept up a lot of water and mud. We were all tired at the end of the day. But, we were all too muddy to take any photos.

The next day, we went to Pittsburgh (I flew out early the next morning), where we ate brunch, watched a Pirates game, and ate Indian Food.

Thanks SS and Mr. SS for your hospitality.