Day 13 - Wright Brothers

 Thursday morning we drove up through Nags Head to the Wright Brothers National Memorial. 

Before leaving the campground I took a walk on the beach, it was around 50F with a strong wind, not sun bathing weather.

We drove by the light house on Bodie Island which was close to our campground but it is closed for 2023 due to renovations. 

We arrived at the Wright Brothers Memorial around 9:30, we definitely beat the crowd. We toured the museum and displays, they are very well done and really conveys the effort the brothers put forth over a 4 or 5 year period to realize powered flight. 

We got our morning walk in touring the outside displays and reading about the historic 1903 flight and the 4 years of glider development that led up to the powered flight. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. 

The full size statue of The Wright Flyer and the people present that day is made of bronze or copper.  It is impressive. The people were getting pressure washed when we visited. 

After touring The Wright Brothers National Memorial Jean and Ed set off on their own since they were going directly home.  June and I plan to make another stop or two but will not be long behind them as we make our way north. 

June and I booked another Harvest Host in Charlottesville, VA, the Wood Ridge Farm Brewery. We got 'googled' on the way there, I am still unsure what happened but we ended up on a narrow road that no RV should be on and then when it said turn left on a goat path, we knew it was not right. We got back on the right route, but even that has a turn that definitely is a sobriety test for anyone leaving the brewery. 

The Wood Ridge Farm Brewery is set on 300 beautiful acres, surrounded by mountains.  They raise their own grain, veggies, beef, pork etc. The food truck uses their stuff. 

They have a driving range, corn hole, volley ball, etc. I had a nice conversation with the manager, he said they want people to come here and be outside, not sit at the bar. 

The place is huge, they have several bars, outdoor areas and you are surrounded by gardens. They have banana trees planted everywhere that they say provide lots of shade in the summer, they cut them down each fall. 

I found my namesake at the door to the main bar. 

When we arrived around 5:15PM, there were few people around, but it was corn hole tournament night, and it did fill in.  They lit a bon fire and played corn hole well into the night. 

It was a fun place. 

Jean and Ed drove to Hagerstown MD and booked a harvest host at Think-N-Thin Brewery (TNT). We heard from them this morning, their experience was not that positive, mostly due to the parking situation. They ended up moving to a CB for the night and got the full dumpster experience, at least they got on the road early.. :-).

Friday we plan to stop at Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson Plantation. We were informed by one of the patrons that it is pronounced "mon-ti-chel-oh", he said it will save us the embarrassment of being corrected (but he just did). It was all in good fun. 

After visiting TJ, we will make our way to our friends in Fairfax, VA. 

Day 12 - Driving to OBX

 Wednesday morning it was in the low 50's and breezy when we woke up. We debated taking the scooters downtown to go see Fort Sumter and maybe a plantation, but decided it was a bit cool for that. I guess that means we will just have to come to Charleston again in the future, oh dang. We decided to head for the outer banks of NC.  The drive was uneventful, traffic was light and we booked a campsite at the Oregon Inlet campground on Hatteras when we stopped for lunch.

We arrived a bit after 6PM and our sites were reserved with our name on them, for the federal government, it was pretty efficient. With the senior parks pass, sites are $14 per night, hard to beat that. 

The ocean was just over the dunes behind our site, but there was a pretty strong breeze, as there always is on the outer banks. 

We decided that it was time to get some seafood, and headed back north to find a good place to eat in Nags Head.  We picked Miller's Waterfront Restaurant, which is on the western shore of Nags Head.

We were seated a window table with a unobstructed sunset view. We would definitely dine at Miller's again. 

The sunset was beautiful.

It was mostly a driving day, but it ended nicely. 

Thursday, we will continue to make our way north, we will likely stop at Kitty Hawk since it is on the way.

Day 11 - Charleston, SC

 Tuesday we set out for Charleston. On Monday we decided to request a HH stay in North Charleston at Tideland Brewing.  Ed was approved, but it must have filled them, because the date was blocked when I tried to put in a request. I sent them a message and they said come anyway, nice folks. The funny part was when we pulled in, it appeared that they were closed.  We found two guys making beer and they were the owners, Hunter and Jonathan.   It turns out they are closed on Monday and Tuesday, but accept HH anyway. They gave us directions on where to park downtown and we left one RV at their place while we checked out Charleston. 

We parked at Battery St and walked the streets of Charleston to the French Quarter and the open Market. 

The parks with shade trees are beautiful. 

We basically wandered the streets, we stopped at St Phillips Church built in 1836, the ladies at the entrance were very nice. 

After wandering the streets we made our way to the east shore.

We had a great view of Fort Sumter. 

We walked roughly 4 miles, according to Ed's watch, our dogs were tired, so we headed back to our HH. 

The boyz at Tideland Brewing were still hard at work, brewing and cleaning but they stopped to serve us a few brews. 

They are a pretty new company, opened on 27March2021, but have built a beautiful facility.  The bar is polished concrete and is just beautiful, as is the polished/epoxy floor. 

Hunter and Jonathan spent at least an hour with us and we had a very nice conversation about their business.  They even said come back and stay another night if you want to, they were very welcoming people. 

We got back to our RVs and pulled out the grill, cooked burgers and had a nice dinner. It was a good day. 

What we do today, Wednesday, is yet to be determined. 

Day 10 - Chillaxing on Tybee

 Monday we spent the day mostly on Tybee Island.

After breakfast we walked the beautiful beach for about 2 or 3 miles. It was sunny and warm with a nice breeze. 

We found this guy, he was a slow mover, I expect he is a future seagull meal. 

This guy was giving me a pedicure.

After walking the beach, we toured the old Tybee Light house. It has quite a history going back before the civil war and for $10 you can climb the 178 steps to the top and tour the museum. This picture is my creativity coming out, showing the light house and our tiny scooters. 

The museum is basically a preservation of the homes of the light house keepers, it is a bit like walking into yesteryear. 

After the lighthouse and museum we rode our scooters around the island, it doesn't take long, but I would not want to have to walk it. Ed and Jean finally got to use their new ride, I think they like it. 

After checking out the island we went back to camp for lunch, we knew the weather was turning but were not sure when, the thunderstorm warnings were abundant. We decided to take the chance and jumped on the scooters to go tour Fort Pulaski. Pulaski is on Cockspur Island, between Tybee and Savannah. The short version of history is that during the civil war the Confederates took Pulaski to control the port into Savannah.  They spent 14 months fortifying the fort. The Union snuck their latest technologically advanced rifled cannons onto Tybee Island. The Union blew thru the 7 1/2 inch thick masonry walls in about 30 hours. The fort was surrendered. All masonry forts became undefendable over night, due to the rifled cannon. 

We looked west and said oh s__t, and sprinted for the scooters.  As we left the Ranger was telling everyone to get off the walls due to lightning. We made it to camp with less than 5 mins to spare before the heavy rains hit, we lucked out. 

We planned to go downtown by scooter after the rain passed, but it never completely passed, so we took the Serenity Falcon downtown. Over the winter I put hydraulic levelers on Serenity, it makes it really easy and quick to setup, so it is really no bother to take the RV when we need to. 

We stopped at the only Brewery on Tybee, Back River Brewing, it was nice but the beer needs further development. Downstairs from the Brewery was a Mexican Restaurant, this we highly recommend. It was one of the best Mex places...ever.

After dinner we went to camp and chilled out.  It was my birthday and it was good. 

Today, Tuesday we will start north, our first stop is Charleston, which we skipped on the way south. 

Day 9 - Moving...South....West....South....West...South...East

 Sunday we left Eric and Myra with plans to drive to Charleston,  We wanted to avoid I95, basically taking I40 to the coast and working our way down past Myrtle Beach. Unfortunately Google always thinks it knows better than you, it is constantly trying to change your route to what it thinks is better, such a PIA. 

We were watching the weather and trying to decide where the weather would be best and without tornados. We stopped for lunch just outside Wilmington and decided that the weather looked better farther south so set our sights on Tybee Island, Ga. Google insisted it was better to go back on I95, but after looking at our track and experiencing the pot holes in I95, I am pretty sure it was a poor choice. We arrived on Tybee around 7:30PM, so far the weather is nice. 

We last visited Tybee in 2015 to attend my niece's wedding, it is a cool place. We may hang here for the day or take the scooters into Savanah, decisions, decisions. 

Day 8 - Visiting Fam

 Saturday we left Greensboro, NC and arrived at Eric and Myra's around 11AM.  It was cloudy but 80F.  Ed's scooter is spanking new, he had not even ridden it.  So we unloaded and took the scooters around the block just for the heck of it.  There is nothing like the smell of a new engine burning off all the paint, but all was good, it runs great. 

Ed wanted to make a modification of his scooter rack and needed some material.  Since Eric works at a welding fabrication shop part time, we took a ride to his shop and Lowes for some material.  Ed and Eric got the mod done quickly.

This is the shop owner's little truck under construction. I told Eric that I want pictures when that beast is done. 

Eric has many hobbies and is always making things. This trip he made us Christmas ornaments on his laser table.  Very cool. 

The weather was so nice Ed and I even got a short ride on our mountain bikes. Eric and his neighbors have made lots of trails around the area.   Later in the afternoon Ed and I took the scooters for another spin, June gave me a list so we set out to find the grocery store. The wind here is pretty constant and strong, into the wind the scooters top out at about 55 mph, downwind....they go way faster. We had a good ride and got the necessary supplies. 

For dinner Eric and Myra put on a feast. Eric had been cooking ribs for 2 days and they were amazing.  Myra made a dessert that even after all those ribs, we could not help eating it all. It was a family filling day, we all had a great time catching up. 

Sunday, Myra and Eric set off for Church, we loaded up and are setting off for Charleston...maybe. 

The weather for the next few days is forecast to be rain, so we are still waffling on our direction from here, but most likely it will be south. 

Day 7 - Taking the Blue Ridge Parkway to visit Andy

 Friday we left Ashville with the intention of taking the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to Mount Airy. Google maps is not very good at letting you take the roads you want, I won't blame it all on google but we got the extensive tour of downtown Ashville on or way to the BRP. 

It took about 30 mins to get to the BRP, and we climbed our way to about 3500 feet for the big views. 

We were only on the BRP for a few miles when we ran into the road closed barrier.  Apparently they close sections in the winter, they just don't tell you what winter is. Google detoured us around the closed section but it was not good at getting us back on the BRP.  We finally pulled over and routed ourselves via a paper map. We got back on the BRP but did not drive all that much of it. It was probably the wrong time of year being very grey, it would be a great ride on a motorcycle.  We also wanted to get onto Mount Airy with enough time left in the day to see a few things, so we bailed off after only about 75 miles. The BRP reminded me a bit of the Great Smoky Mountains, but not quite as scenic.

We made it to Mount Airy around 2PM, there is free parking in town...nice.  Mount Airy is where Andy Griffith grew up. It is synonymous with Mayberry since it was the inspiration for the Andy Griffith Show. 

This was across the street from where we parked. This town clearly appreciates what Andy Griffith did to put them on the map. 

We walked the town which is a mixture of today and yesterday, you can get tours in the 60's cop cars like Andy and Barney drove.

Don't try to take the car your self or you get to see the inside of Andy's court house. 

We spent about 2 1/2 hours walking the town, touring the museum and getting ice cream. It was worth the stop and being 80F with sun made it all the better. 

Our next stop after Mount Airy is Pikesville, NC where we will visit Eric and Myra. Eric is June and Jean's nephew. We debated the 3 1/2 hour drive but decided to stop in Greensboro for the night, yep..another Cracker Barrel. 

We dropped one RV at the Cracker Barrel and drove 4 miles to the Oden Brewery.  The place was hopping, the beer was good, the food was good and the music was just awful.  I know we are old, but what they were playing was just terrible, if you looked around no one was into the music, only the entertainers seemed to even know what it was.  Other than the music it was a great venue. 

Today, Saturday, we will have breakfast at the CB and head for Eric's a bit over a 2 hour drive, we should be there before noon. 

Day 6 - Eastward

 Thursday we left Nashville around 10AM and set out east. Our intention was to drive to Winston-Salem, NC and spend the night at a Harvest Host Brewery. It was going to be a long day and the brewery was in the city.  They were very accommodating and accepted our request but one of us would have to park on the street. June also noticed that if we took the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville we could make our way to Mount Airy, our next stop, and get off the highway.  We decided to cancel our HH (they were again very understanding) and park the night at a CB in Asheville.  We drove 2 miles from CB to a the UpCountry brewery and sampled one. On the way back we picked up Domino's pizza and had a late dinner in the parking lot of CB, you can only eat so much CB food.  After that we called it a night, it was a bit of a boring day, but sometimes you just have to drive to get to the next stop. 

Just because this post is so boring I attached a video from our dashcam when we passed thru a tunnel on I40. 

Today, Friday, we plan to make our way to Mount Airy via the Blue Ridge Parkway, it is only 180 miles but Google says it will take us almost 5 hours.  We will see. 

Day 5 - The Grand Ole Opry

 Thursday when we got up it was raining, we decided that we would drive over to the Grand Ole Opry and see if we could get tickets to the evening show. It is less than 3 miles from the KOA and you can even take a back way with basically no traffic. We would have taken the scooter if it was not raining. We were able to get tickets for the evening show with decent seats. 

Since it was raining, we decided to check out the Opry Mills Mall across from the Opry. The mall has some cool restaurants like the Aquarium and the Rain forest where it is like eating underwater or in the Jungle. 

The Bass Pro Shop is just crazy, it is huge with displays of wildlife and fish tanks.

 I have been in the Mall of America in Mn but this is by far the second biggest mall I have been in. According to Ed's tracker we walked over 3 miles in the mall. We even all bought shoes, I guess it was all the walking that made us want new shoes. 

After shopping came back to camp and laid low for a few hours. The show starts at 7PM, it is a radio show so it runs on time. We left camp around 5PM to have dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory, in the mall. Ed was looking forward to having Penny as a waitress. There was no Penny, but we had a nice meal and got into our seats at the Opry as the opening act was starting, we had no extra time. 

At the Opry we saw Rhonda Vincent (opener), Drew Parker, The Whites, Brit Taylor, Larry Sparks, Carter Faith, Killer Beaz (comedian who was hilarious), Old Crow Medicine Show and Jelly Roll (Closer). They were all good but Jelly Roll is something. As he said "look at me, I have taken the scenic route of life to get where I am today". His music is all about raising yourself up, he was amazing. 

We had decent seats with unobstructed view. This is The Old Crow Medicine Show Band, they were extremely energetic to say the least.

Jelly Roll was very good.

It was a fun evening, today we will make our way east. 

Day 4 - Corvettes and Nashville

On Tuesday we planned to explore Nashville. Since we were only about an hour away we decided to take the morning and visit the Corvette Museum that we passed on the way to the Bowling Green CB.  We had a CB breakfast and headed back north about 5 miles. The Corvette Museum is not something we would normally seek out, but going by it on the highway got our attention. The design includes a large spire or cone that can be seen from the highway. The designer did it “To establish an interstate presence” , I guess he knew what he was doing because it drew us in and we were not disappointed.

The National Corvette Museum

Of course the museum is filled with classic Corvettes but it has much more. There is all kinds of interesting history and stories about cars, not just corvettes. They have a whole section on designs of Carl Casper including the car he did for Batman Returns (Michael Keaton). This vehicle is huge and even more impressive in person than it was in the movie. 

Most people remember seeing on the news that a sink hole swallowed a bunch of rare corvettes back in 2014. We did not realize until we were in the exhibit that it was this museum. They have created an exhibit that tells the whole sad story.  The sink hole swallowed eight of the rarest and most special Corvettes on Earth. Of the eight, five were put back on display unrestored, and three were brought back to their original condition by  General Motors. They change the displays often but we really only could identify one of the cars from the sink hole. Anyway, it is an interesting story and they did a great job with the display, some of the pictures would make you cry. 

 If  you buy a Corvette you can get it delivered to the NCM and take delivery at the museum. There were about 6 on the floor with the new owners each getting a personal introduction to their new Vette. They literally drive them out of the museum, we watched as one left, it was very cool. 

If you have some time, the National Corvette Museum is worth the stop, you can spend an hour or all day, there is plenty to see and do. 

Around noon we headed for our campground in Nashville. The highway was under construction for 50 miles and jammed with big rigs, but at least it moved along without traffic jams. 

We arrived at the Nashville KOA around 1:30PM and they checked us in early, nice.  They have a shuttle that runs downtown every hour ($10pp) so we took the 3PM shuttle. 

We walked the streets a bit, it was about 60 and a bit chilly but Nashville was hopping. 

We walked the typical tourist streets, like Broadway. We eventually stopped for music at Tootsies Honky Tonky Orchid Lounge.

From the roof top bar you can see what a great place it is to hang out in better weather. 

We stopped for more music at Honky Tonk Central, we got drunk table #2 according to the lead female singer.  It was a fun bar with a great band but we had to pace ourselves so only stayed for one. 

From Honky Tonk we walked some more and then had a nice meal at Martin's Bar-B-Que. It was the best brisket burger I have every had, great place. They also had good beer on tap.

After dinner we tried to get into FGL and  Kid Rock but they were just too crowded, so we stopped into the Whiskey River Saloon. They have about every bourbon or whiskey on the planet. It was nice but when they charge $25 for a shot of Bulleit bourbon on ice it takes a bit of the shine off. 

The shuttle picks up downtown on the half hour, we caught the 9:30 shuttle back to the KOA and called it a day. It was a fun day.