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.


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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!