Long story short: blog has been silent for the past two weeks because I didn't have the InterWebs at home. Now I do. Regular blogging to resume shortly. In the meantime, I managed to score a ticket to the 1st round NCAA games yesterday. Saw Duke barely beat Belmont. Here's the thing: the crowd was so anti-Duke they booed the cheerleaders.
Read that again: they BOOED THE CHEERLEADERS. Who does that? Sure, Belmont is a great story. Boo our basketball players. But our cheerleaders? Jeez...
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Day 4 Photos
A little out of order, but here's what happened between Columbia, MO and Charleston, WV.
Ozarkland. We didn't go in, but it was the most interesting thing to take a photo of while filling up with gas. That and I didn't think that the Ozarks actually came that far north.
The Arch. I was surprised that the park is actually called "Jefferson National Expansion Museum." The brand "arch" and "gateway" aren't anywhere in the name. Go figure. Anyways, this thing is really cool, especially as you read about the history of the design (1947) and construction (not until 1960). Saarinen didn't know how to build it, and by the time they figured it out he had passed away.
Not much going on in southern Indiana, so we made a 7 mile side trip to Santa Claus, IN. They've got this and a huge wooden roller coaster. And farmland.
The profile of the Kentucky State Capitol from a hill way up above the heart of Frankfort. The Capitol building is nice, but the governor's mansion is off the hook.
Ozarkland. We didn't go in, but it was the most interesting thing to take a photo of while filling up with gas. That and I didn't think that the Ozarks actually came that far north.
The Arch. I was surprised that the park is actually called "Jefferson National Expansion Museum." The brand "arch" and "gateway" aren't anywhere in the name. Go figure. Anyways, this thing is really cool, especially as you read about the history of the design (1947) and construction (not until 1960). Saarinen didn't know how to build it, and by the time they figured it out he had passed away.
Not much going on in southern Indiana, so we made a 7 mile side trip to Santa Claus, IN. They've got this and a huge wooden roller coaster. And farmland.
The profile of the Kentucky State Capitol from a hill way up above the heart of Frankfort. The Capitol building is nice, but the governor's mansion is off the hook.
Fairfax Station, VA
And... we're done. Or, a week ago today, we were done. There was something refreshing about waking up to a "short" drive of only 350 miles or so, but it was also sad to be heading into familiar territory. Once I crossed into Virginia there wasn't a stretch of road in front of me that I hadn't driven at least once before. That was true for the first time since I drove south of Salem, OR.
View Larger Map
We tried to end the trip the way we started: looking for a giant hole in the ground. Turns out there is something called the Grand Canyon of the South in Virginia, but sadly it was way further south than we were going. After reading a terrible review of basically all of the BBQ places in Charlottesville we decided to make a break from smoky pork products and go after more traditional country food. Lunch was at the Southern Kitchen (surprisingly, no website) which probably has the best imitation of my Grandmother's food ever. The tea was similar, the green beans were very similar, the potato salad was very similar... the fried chicken was a little different, but not by much.
After lunch we drove to Middletown, VA, home of Route 11 potato chips. It's a surprisingly small little building where they make small batch potato chips. They are unafraid to use the word "chip" as a verb, and are very proud about their deals with Cracker Barrel and someone else (can't remember). The best part about the "tour" was getting a hot chip, which is a surprisingly pleasant treat.
With that we hopped on I-66 and made the familiar 50 mile trek home. The trip was over. We could stand up and walk around and not get back in a car. Fantastic.
To close, pictures from Day 4:
The WVa state capitol:
Home Sweet Home!
View Larger Map
We tried to end the trip the way we started: looking for a giant hole in the ground. Turns out there is something called the Grand Canyon of the South in Virginia, but sadly it was way further south than we were going. After reading a terrible review of basically all of the BBQ places in Charlottesville we decided to make a break from smoky pork products and go after more traditional country food. Lunch was at the Southern Kitchen (surprisingly, no website) which probably has the best imitation of my Grandmother's food ever. The tea was similar, the green beans were very similar, the potato salad was very similar... the fried chicken was a little different, but not by much.
After lunch we drove to Middletown, VA, home of Route 11 potato chips. It's a surprisingly small little building where they make small batch potato chips. They are unafraid to use the word "chip" as a verb, and are very proud about their deals with Cracker Barrel and someone else (can't remember). The best part about the "tour" was getting a hot chip, which is a surprisingly pleasant treat.
With that we hopped on I-66 and made the familiar 50 mile trek home. The trip was over. We could stand up and walk around and not get back in a car. Fantastic.
To close, pictures from Day 4:
The WVa state capitol:
Home Sweet Home!
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