After leaving Maine in our rear view window, we spent a night on the outskirts of Boston, in Danvers, MA
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| A little cart fun in the hallways |
In New Jersey we spent the night with Maureen (Aunt) and Joe. There were gracious enough to arrange a small gathering of other family members. We were able to see Dave (Uncle), Judy (Aunt), Connie (Aunt), and cousins Jeff, Eileen, Neil, Ellie, and Tom.
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| Picture taken after Aunt Connie left |
Next stop Pennsylvania, we spent time with Dad and Mom. As always she feeds us delicious meals.
Time to move on, we arrived in North Beach, MD on Thursday, September 2nd. The plan was to stay for a week with our good friends Lance and Nicole.
We were able to attend a Herrington Harbour South event, thanks to our friends Rich and Pam. The event allowed us to see all of our friends from the marina, even Nick and Shae joined us.
We had dinner with Heather, Chris and David at The Pier in Edgewater. While there we also seen friends Beth and Mike, and Rich.
We spent time at the pool, enjoyed crabs and corn, and watched football with our friends Lance, Nicole, Giovanna, Rosella, Gemma, Christin, Christopher, and John.
We were really bad about taking pictures with family and friends this time.
After leaving our friends, we headed to Skyline 🏙 Drive via Front Royal, VA. We began our scenic (leaves have not changed, but still beautiful) drive 🚗 at the Shenandoah National Park Front Royal Entrance.
As we entered the park we seen our first wildlife sighting, no not elk or bear, just a deer.
We stopped at the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, to get a map, and did our first hike of the trip at Fox Hollow Trailhead, an easy 1.2 mile hike 🚶♂️🚶♀️, I was breathing heavy for an easy hike.
We stopped at several overlooks, I did not make Rob stop at everyone, just every other one.
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| Little Devil's Overlook Iconic Dead Tree |
We had reservations at Hawkbill House in Luray, VA for 2 nights. It was truly a hands-off bed and breakfast. We received a code to access the building and another to access our room.
There was a small Kitchenette with help yourself breakfast, we had the option of cereal, pre-made frittata's, oatmeal, bagel's, and English muffins. We pretty much had the building to ourselves.
Our second day in Shenandoah National Park we hiked Mary's Rock and drove through Mary's Rock Tunnel.
Mary's Rock, a 3500-foot granite peak, to create the tunnel workers blasted through 600 feet of solid granite in 15 foot increments using an average of 1000 pounds of dynamite daily. After three months, daylight streamed through the tunnel.
Our first night we had Mexican for dinner at Rancho Viejo and our second night we enjoyed Italian at II Vesuvio Italian Restaurant and Pizzera.
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| Margaritas 🍹@ Rancho |
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| Meatball Appetizer |
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| Linguine Al Frutti Di Mare |
On the morning of September 16th, we entered Skyline Drive 🚗 at the Thorton Gap Entrance and our first overlook was Hazel Mountain ⛰.
We saw more overlooks and more deer 🦌 before coming to the end of Skyline Drive T mile marker 105, Rockfish Gap Entrance.
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| Too foggy to see over |
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| The end for us, but the beginning for someone else |
On September 17th, we started our adventure on The Blue Ridge Parkway. Our first stop was the Humpback Rocks Visitor Center, had to get my map. Several overlooks, hiking and fog.
We enjoyed lunch at Boston Knob Overlook before continuing on through the Bluff Mountain Tunnel. We stopped and explored the James River and Battery Creek Lock.
Our next stop was originally on my list, but I decided we could skip it (we were tired), until we got close and seen people sitting on the side of the road, we had to stop. It was the Hawks Migration Overlook. It just happened to be the time of year when the hawks migrate south. People had chairs, binoculars, and cameras 📷 set up and they were watching the sky waiting for the migration. As you can imagine we saw no hawks migrating.
At this point, The Blue Ridge Parkway was closed for repairs. We took our exit and headed to Mount Royal for the evening.
On September 18th, we left Mount Royal and headed back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our first stop was Mabry Mill. The mill was built around 1910 by Edwin B. Mabry, he was a chairmaker, a miner, a coal company blacksmith, and a farmer. He and his operated the mill until 1936, grinding corn and sawing lumber.
Our first stop in North Carolina was the Lump Overlook.
We celebrated David's birthday at the restaurant where we were staying, Park Vista Inn, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the dinner was okay but not spectacular. We started by ordering martinis, vodka and lemon 🍋 drop, Rob's vodka martini was served with salt on the rim. Our dinners consisted of their "specialty" beef brisket with mashed potatoes 🥔 and a side salad 🥗, shrimp and grits with a side salad 🥗. Neither meal was impressive. Sorry, David we will do better next year.
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| Chocolate cake |
David, I hope you enjoyed your birthday celebration 🎈🎈!
Our fist stop on Sunday morning was the Elk Mountain Overlook, from there we headed to the Julian Price Picnic Area where we hiked 🚶♂️🚶♀️the very easy 2.3 mile loop around Price Lake.
We were like two little kids crossing the creek and climbing on rocks.
Price Lake was literally just a mud puddle. The lake was closed due to damage to the dam caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm, Fred. No fishing or boating allowed.
We had not made reservations so we ended up staying at the Alpine Inn, we had a room with a shared balcony overlooking the mountains. I have to say the worst choice of places on our trip south, the shower was horrible and no TV in room (we knew that before paying), no AC, no coffee maker, and I felt like we were going to fall off the side of the mountain, the building was slanted.
I do have to give them credit, the owners were very nice, room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and breakfast was delicious. We had the "living room" all to ourselves and we were able to watch the Ravens / Chiefs game. The view of the moon was absolutely awesome, along with the Sunrise.
After leaving Little Switzerland 🇨🇭, we headed to Maggie Valley to Jonathan Creek Inn and Villas. We went through several tunnels (they amaze me) and stopped at several overlooks, before the fog rolled in.
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| 1st Twin Tunnel |
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| 2nd Twin Tunnel |
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| Laurel Knob Overlook |
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| Craggy Pinnacle Tunnel |
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| Craggy Gardens Overlook |
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| Another Tunnel |
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| Another Tunnel in the fog |
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| Haywood Jackson Overlook |
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| See that temperature 55 degrees, freezing for us |
We booked a creekside fireplace room, luckily we did not need a fireplace, but the room had a lovely creekside view and a sofa.
One thing we have discovered is restaurants are closed either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, sometimes all three days. We have to figure out whether we want to drive a distance to an open restaurant or improvise. We decided to improvise, rotisserie chicken, a salad 🥗, and wine. Perfect!
When getting off the Blue Ridge Parkway to go to Jonathan's Inn, we were so close to the end of the Parkway. The next morning we completed the Parkway by going through a couple more tunnels and seeing a few more overlooks, all in the fog.
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| Lockstep Ridge Tunnel |
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| Rattlesnake Mountain Tunnel |
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| Oconaluftee River overlook |
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| Entrance to the Great Smokey Mountains |
Our exploration took us to Cherokee, Bryson City, and Dillsboro. Cherokee is very touristy, Bryson City was a cute town, Dillsboro had a really nice Christmas shop.
We also went to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, had to get my map. We walked around the village and down by the water. You could hear the Elk but we did see any.
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| The Meathouse |
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| Apple Trees |
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| Hogs |
Since we had rain for another day we decided to stay an additional day at Jonathan Creek Inn. We were able to do laundry before heading to Pigeon Forge. When leaving we stopped at the Indian Death Tiki of Awesomeness. I like the Roadside America Attractions and Oddities.
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| My first elk! |
We spent the afternoon in Gatlinburg, pretty much just like Pigeon Forge, but condensed and walkable.
Rob had road rage 😳😳 today (Thurs Sept 23rd), it was really bad. The young lady (not Rob's description) would not make a left hand turn, she waited for the green arrow. I was afraid 😨 someone was going to get out of their vehicle and shoot 🔫 us (Baltimore thing). Then an old man 🧓couldn't decide which way to go so Rob made him more nervous by laying on the horn.
We did it! Spent the day at Dollywood. Bought our tickets at full price and reserved our space ahead of time online. Found out we could get a military discount, when we arrived at the park we went to a ticket 🎟 window 🪟 and the nice gentleman refunded over $56 to my card, wahoo.
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| First woman conductor @ Dollywood |
The best part of the day was when we walked off the Tennessee Tornado 🌪🙃, I could tell Rob was not his normal self. I was surprised 😮 when he agreed to ride not one, but two more coasters. 🌪🌪 🙃🙃
Finally, hiking on the Great Smokey Mountains.
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| Maloney Point |
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| Schoolhouse |
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| Our disappointing trailhead |
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| Portion of Walker Sister's Cabin |
We left Pigeon-Forge and headed to Chattanooga via Knoxville. In Knoxville we headed to the Bicycle Arch, the large basketball atop the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, James White's Fort, Rowing Man Sculpture, Mom-ument, Vaccinating Big Baby, and walked the Pedestrian market square before going the World's Fair Park where a Latin festival was in progress.
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| Part of the Bicycle Arch |
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| Basketball 🏀 |
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| Wished I could have left him there! |
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| Mom-ument |
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| Sunsphere |
In Chattanooga, I booked us at a room at a renovated old motel. The room was not bad, had a few minor issues, but it was clean and a convenient location for our plans.
Our last full day in Tennessee, we scheduled the Cavern Walk at Ruby Falls for 10 am, all set to go and I received notification change in plans due to elevator 🛗 maintenance. We could reschedule or get a refund, so we rescheduled for 2 pm.
Our next stop was Lookout Mountain Battlefield ⛰ Visitor Center and Point Park. Point Park is part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. We walked 🚶♂️around the park and then hiked to Sunset 🌇 Rock 🪨, about 1.5 mile hike.
Time for lunch before heading the the falls. Guess what, yep elevator still not working, rescheduled for Tuesday morning at 10:40. Change of plans headed into downtown Chattanooga.
We seen the Chattanooga Choo Choo, Renaissance Park and Coolidge Park before walking across the Walnut Street Bridge 🌉.
Guess what, yep Ruby Falls was rescheduled again for a time we were unable to make, very disappointing. Next stop, Montgomery, Alabama!
This part of our trip we enjoyed time at The Staybridge Suites, our room was very comfortable with a king size bed, sofa and Kitchenette. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays they have a social in the evenings from 5:30 to 7:30 which includes free appetizers, beer, and wine. Breakfast was also included in our stay. Score for the Crow's budget.
On Social night we met Pablo, from Argentina, he was very informative and happy to share information with us on what to see and do in Argentina. Rob and Pablo exchanged emails, he was going to send us additional information. We also met a gentleman working for the State of Alabama (did not get his name), but he knew, fellow IRP staff (Jay and Renee) that I also knew.
Spent the day exploring downtown Montgomery. We walked🚶♀️🚶♂️, and walked🚶♀️🚶♂️, and walked🚶♀️🚶♂️ some more, to see the River Walk, the Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium (Home of the Montgomery Biscuits), older homes in Old Alabama Town, the Hank Willams statue, Rosa Parks statue, a replica of Wrights Brothers' plane, and The Capital. We did get to enjoy some pool time 😎.
The staff were so friendly, we even got a hug when we left. Would definitely stay at this location again.
Our next stop was Mobil, we had a night booked at the Malaga Inn, an old 1862 twin townhouse with a courtyard. It's located in the downtown historic district. Easily walkable to Dauphin St (Mobile's New Orleans). Also, close to the Mobile Carnival Museum.
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| Queen of Carnival |
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| King of Carnival |
I told Rob the Inn was supposedly haunted, he was afraid to get out of bed in the middle of night, we did not see any ghosts.
We explored the USS Drum Submarine and the USS Alabama Battleship before our last stop in Alabama, which was Orange Beach, we booked a hotel right on the beach ⛱, definitely a splurge.
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| That's a Kitchenaid |
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| Beach time |
It is so nice to be back by the water, I could sit on the balcony all day and listen to the crashing waves.
Finally, we are in our home state. I am so looking forward to spending a week in one place. I told Rob, I am so excited to cook, do laundry, and rearrange the Land Yacht.
