Hash Browns, Ice Rink Drive-By's, Fabulous Eats and a New Car Compass: How Virginia and East Tennessee Entertained Us for a Whole Day Before We Even Hit Graceland.
Day Two started a bit later than we hoped, owing to the flood and we ended up not being able to stand leaving the Savory until early afternoon. a scenic drive of DC and monument viewing from the car led us out of town and down route 66 to 29, a nice scenic drive down to lovingston, where we had dinner at the lovingston cafe. i learned here that in virginia, sweet potato gnocchi bear no resemblance to the potato pasta i enjoyed in Italy- here they are little puffs of thanksgivingy goodness.
we stayed in an Econo Lodge outside roanoke where Bernard caught up on his reading. he is checking out places we can use our tent that are outside the safety of people's yards:
the next morning- this morning- brought us breakfast in the Omelet Shoppe next door, which we enjoyed, but later we figured out that it was part of a chain, thus breaking rule #1 of the road trip:
no chain restaurants. here ian seems to know we are breaking a rule even as we first sat down.
we will not make that mistake again, we hope.
other rules include: no turning back on previous routes, no sitting in traffic, take small roads when possible and camp as much as possible.
we did much enjoy the conversation and coffee, even though there was not internet access as the friendly folks at econo lodge had told us there would be. sigh. thus all you readers had to wait precious hours to get this new update. i do apologize. we also got a little compass in walgreens so now we know which way we are going. i love it so much.
tennessee has proved to be quite lovely with rolling hills and invariably friendly people. not like in virginia where someone tried to run us down, gave us the finger, and flashed his brights at us in a morse-like pattern when ian accidentally hit the brights for less than a second when turning on the wipers. scary.
in farragut,tennessee we made friends with an ice hockey player, who was not in the least disturbed by my manic photographing of the lobby and ladies' room of the ice rink when we found we were not going to be able to skate. We encouraged him to pursue his dream of heading to the west coast to travel. Thanks for the hospitality, Icearium!
Our greatest find in Tennessee, however, has been Steph's Tea Room and Dining in Crossville. We found it purely by accident since i was hungry and tried of main roads and ian suggested an alternate route. a small sign lead us to the most delicious meal i have had in ages. please see separate review below this post.
nashville proved to be a bit of a drive-by. it is huge and we saw a lot of big hair and a big stadium as well, it turns out. there were no rooms of any kind in town as everyone was there to check out the somewhat new and very successful football team. we were warned, kindly of course, that the place would be a madhouse tomorrow. we opted to stay outside of town, remembering that memphis is our mecca at the moment.
that's right. tomorrow we will pursue the orgiastic joy that will be graceland and surrounding areas.
rain has prompted us to stay indoors yet again, but we are not to be swayed as mary in memphis tells us that we can have a cabin tomorrow night right behind the heartbreak hotel. i am sweating with anticipation.
more from memphis.
stats:
tuna melts: still 2. states: 3, plus one district (columbia). nights slept in tent: 1 of 3
average house price in roanoke, va: 250k (that stat for my dad as we like to play the real estate house price guessing game). new eating experiences: 2- steph's tea room and a little style of meal we like to call "7-eleven tapas."
and finally, theme song(s) of the day:
9-8: "eye of the tiger" survivor
9-9: "macarthur park" richard harris
nice.
check out ian's take on things here.
Loving this virtual journey although had hoped you would see Hope in Ark. If you stop in Midland, TX, I'll know you are a closet Republican. Lots of love from Balto.
Posted by: Anne | 11 September 2006 at 18:35