The Final Frontier!

Wow, where did the time go? Our final full day of the trip and the weather was obligingly kind. We'd previously decided to drive to the other side of Dulles Airport, to take an overnight stop in Annapolis, Maryland ..... a journey akin to 'Wacky Races'! But we eventually arrived at Main Street before noon and by luck, rather than judgement, we parked in 'tight' (and expensive!) multi-story car park. Annapolis is a very quaint place by the sea and oozes wealth. Nevertheless, its a good place to visit. We took a stroll around its historic buildings, including the first United States Capitol building.

Next, we poked around a few antique shops before stumbling upon the Navel Academy. Now, I'm not sure what would happen in the UK if we turned-up at its equivalent, but here once passports had been inspected, we were given free reign to wander about at our leisure and its very impressive! At any one time, there are around 4,500 mid-shipmen studying towards BSc degrees prior to serving in the Navy. We took a guided walking tour and were shown just about everything there was to see. Then we returned to shoe-horn our car out of the car park and headed for our Hampton Inn. A nice way to spend our last day! Finally, if you have read and enjoyed reading our latest chapter of our wanderings across this great country ..... God bless you. If not ..... I'll try harder next time!

And my final musical choice? Kraftwork and "Autobahn!"

A wet one in Winchester!

We counted our blessings when we saw it would be a grey and drizzly day on the whole, for at least we had had the best of the weather when it mattered. We decided to explore the historic downtown area of Winchester, once the headquarters of General Stonewall Jackson, a base for George Washington,  and the home of Patsy Kline, only to find that most places round here open at 11:00am ..... a bit like the Florida Keys, but not as warm!

So, having meandered around this quaint hub, noting the stark contrast to the previous evening, when it was both sunny and crowded, we decided to make for the Apple Blossom Mall and find sanctuary in its cinema. Fortunately, it was a classy new cinema and we caught the first weekend of Jersey Boys ..... a good film. I've resisted the urge to include a Four Seasons track, opting instead for the Spencer Davies group and "Keep on Running".

Reach for the Sky!

Friday began with misty conditions and even mistier prospects for the England team. Fortunately our day turned out better than the latter's! We left the Doubletree and on our third attempt, located a functioning Starbucks ... the busiest ever! Fuelled with bagels and coffee we set off for the Skyline Drive, supposedly one of the most scenic routes in the US. We entered the southern entrance via I64 and were soon travelling at 35mmph along the-tree lined, 100+ mile-long, byway. At first we feared the worst as everywhere was shrouded in mist and the greyness suggested that rain might be on its way ..... but not so. Within the hour, greyness vanished, being replaced by blue sky and sunshine, revealing the most amazing vistas.

Its inevitable during any US road-trip that, somewhere, some seemingly endless views with the widest horizons will be encountered. Today was such a day. The local wild-life was obligingly evident too. We saw several, crossing our path at various times and then we half-spotted a bear in some trees. Just after passing the half-way point on our route and having pulled into yet another pull-off, we noticed some people trying to photograph a bear in the forest. After a while they left, but we waited. Just ahead of us, a Black Bear climbed over a wall, crossed the road and began to picnic on berries!

As we neared Fort Royal, we noted similarities between the today's drive and that undertaken previously along the West Coast ..... except that we were viewing a 'sea of green', rather than 'blue'. Stopping at the next pull-off, the similarity was underlined as a fleet of Corvettes (rather than the Prowlers we'd previously encountered in Cannon Beach) pulled-in. A great bunch of people from New Jersey who were making their way to Tennessee, to discover how their favourite cars are made.

And does 'Skyline' deserve its favourable reputation ..... definitely, unmissable! As we listened to 'Sixties' music today and encountered som Jersey Boys, I guess something from the Four Seasons is appropriate!

Hot in Downtown Charlottesville

With a high threat of sporadic thunderstorms today we elected to drive to the Historic Downtown Mall and take-in what was on offer. It was reminiscent of Santa Barbara, with the retail outlets occupying refurbished historic buildings.

Plenty of eating places with accompanying al fresco seating. A quick coffee in the Mud Hole and then a visit to collect maps at the Visitor Information Centre. Forearmed with inside info we took the free shuttle to the Rotunda Building and Gardens, the centrepiece of Virginia State University's camps. The University was founded by Thomas Jefferson, a feat that he attributed to be one of his three finest, in life.

Back to the Mall and a quick lunch at "Five Guys" and then back to the hotel via Walmart ..... the clouds were grey, the temperature hot, and England was about to face Uruguay! Is it or are they 'coming home'?! And for a musical conclusion, 'Donovan' and "Try and Catch the Wind".

A visit to the home of one of America's finest!

Tuesday evening in Roanoke comprised our eating a nice meal in a convivial 'TGI' atmosphere. We'd originally planned to reacquaint ourselves with a local 'Carrabas' Italian eatery, but having driven there to find it had closed-down and then got lost, resulting in a several-mile drive in frantic traffic, we ate close to or base. Today we hit the road shortly after 9:00am and headed further north towards Charlottesville, Virginia. The journey took about two hours and we passed some remarkable mountain scenery. As we closed-in on our final destination, we first visited Monticello, the beautiful mountain home and estate of Thomas Jefferson. Anyone finding themselves in the area should make a similar visit.

Jefferson's house is built along classical Roman lines and took forty years to build. Not showy, but a very liveable, spacious, abode ..... and full of original artefacts. Its small wonder that this is a World Heritage site, especially as Jefferson drafted and co-signed the Declaration of Independence, was President, and founded the University of Virginia .... amongst other things!

Mid-afternoon, we drove the short distance to the Doubletree in Charlottesville, to escape the heat and catch the World Cup. Since we listened to Sirrus XM Sounds of the Sixties today, I decided to post an appropriate Kinks' hit "Sunny Afternoon", today.

Moviing on to Roanoke

The early morning view from our balcony was spectacular, as the sun streamed across heavily forested mountains for as far as the eye could capture ..... with some of that smoky mist!

I managed to bag a luggage cart before the post-breakfast dash and once loaded-up, we headed down the perilously steep hotel drive one last time and headed north. We passed through Gatlinburg Downtown and on to Pigeon Forge, before hitting the Interstate. Now, driving through the latter place was 'interesting'. A town of only six-thousand residents, its spread along miles of highway and in short, its similar to Blackpool's Golden Mile, on steroids. Magic Castles, a tower surmounted by King Kong, dozens of race-tracks, and other assorted amusements designed to part visitors with some of their 'hard earned'! Having left the bling in our wake, we stopped off at a small town and called-in the local Ingles super-store for refreshments ..... I picked up my latest discount card! Back to the Interstate and a drive of some 150 miles to our Best Western, which is both of a high standard and has a laundry! All in all, a quiet day, but one deserving of some Blue Grass, as we leave Tennessee behind us ..... Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys!

Dollywood!

Today was set to be hot and sunny and after Jenny's browbeating via Skype we determined to visit Dollywood, as her proxy! We arrived at 9:30 am and already there were cars in the car park before us. Swap Dolly Parton for Mickey Mouse in Disneyland and there you have it. Actually, there are a number of differences and all visitors are told to have a happy day, just like Dolly. Our visit began in the bakery as we'd missed breakfast, so coffees and a muffin were in order. Waiting in-line we noticed the fruit pie on display ..... each slice four inches deep and weighing a pound, at least. Just outside was a stand selling milk-shakes, one offering being a 'Pie Shake'; ice-cream, cold milk, and pie, blended to perfection!!

We stopped to admire one of Dolly's early tour buses and then took-in the 'My People Show'. This involved a number of the singer's friends and close family singing her hit songs in sync with an interactive video of  Dolly Parton. A great show, following which we chatted outside with a her cousin and one of her nieces ..... nice people.

Dollywood is a very family oriented park and the staff are all friendly. You certainly get the impression that the singer has done an awful lot for the area (the park employing 2,400 people) and she funds a book program, through which all children in the County is gifted a book on their birthday, up to the age of five. Dollywood also boast several neat roller coasters.

Having made our way around the Park and visited its many attractions, we took in one last show, by The Kingdom Heirs. What can I say, they've been entertaining in Dollywood for twenty-nine years and most of the packed audience had seen them before. In effect the group comprised four close-harmony singers plus three instrumentalists and their style? Southern Gospel, of course!

I guess it was a case of sit back and feel uncomfortable for us, although for the majority of the audience it was just what the doctor ordered ..... 'Amen' being vocalised loud and often. As for me personally, I formed the view never to trust any post-1960s group that wears grey trousers and matching Oxford shirts. A matter of personal taste, I guess. No surprise then as to my musical closure note, today ...... Dolly and "Smoky Mountain Memries" 

Holy Smoke!

The title of today's posting is a cheap shot on my account, as our ultimate destination was Gatlinburg, Tennessee, gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We exited Asheville around 10:00am when it was already warm and sunny, with temperatures set to hit ninety. Along the way we slowly gained altitude as the trees surrounded us. In fact there are more tree varieties in the Smoky Mountains than in the whole of Europe. The drive was a relatively short one and we pulled into the Doubletree Park View before noon. Fortunately we could check-in early and after a Father's Day Skype with Jenny, we decided to visit the Park and drive the 33 miles from Gatlinburg to Cherokee. We called in the Park's Visitor Centre where we watched a film and Pat bought a Country Music CD .... unfortunately not the melodic sounds that we heard playing there, but something akin to the sound-track for the film 'Brother Where Art Thou'! The journey took us through some stunning vistas in this Southern Appalachian region. Bluish-topped mountains with trees, lots of them. This is bear country!

Reaching Cherokee, we were impressed with the welcome we received at the Visitor Centre, but it has to be said that Cherokee Downtown is a little tacky, but its clean and well-serves the many tourists who were their enjoying themselves. It has to be said that the '5D Shoot'em-up Cinema Ride' and the 'Hill-billy Wedding Service' leaves something to be desired! For today's musical conclusion, here's a taste of Bluegrass:

Biltmore Estate

The overnight rain ceased and the day got off to misty beginnings, but we placed faith in the weather forecast and it was rewarded. We left the Holiday Inn behind as we drove just a few miles to reach the Biltmore Estate Ticket Office, close to Asheville Downtown. For the uninitiated, the Biltmore Estate was established by the Vandebilt family back-in-the day, after this famous Dutch immigrant family had created a vast wealth from rail-roads and shipping etc. (They also owned Fifth Avenue!)Anyway, they took a vast track of land in North Carolina as their canvass and employing one of the best architects of the day, built a house and gardens in the mountains.

They also established a working estate with vast well-managed forests and latterly, vineyards, winery, and hotel. The Estate is magnificent and the 250-room house rivals any of its European counterparts. The inside of the house is lavishly furnished ..... complete with 15th Century Flemish tapestries and an entire painted ceiling extracted from a Venetian palace! Despite its impressive grandiose appearance, it didn't feel cold and you felt that it would be easy to live in it. After having taken the tour of the house, we walked its fabulous gardens, catching glimpses of the Blue Ridge Mountains and then visited Antler Village, for free wine-tasting and hot dogs at the Smokehouse Barn.

We ordered the small (kids-size) dogs ..... should be labelled kids and Europeans! The wine tasting went well too, but would have preferred more generous measures!! And to round-off today ... before England kick-off their World Cup campaign ..... here's the Monotone with 'Who wrote the book of love'!

Mountain Air!

This morning we continued our journey in a North-Westerly direction, as we headed to Asheville, North Carolina. The drive was uneventful and along the way we stopped for coffee at The Last Coffee Pot (it wasn't actually!) where two coffees and a piece of pie cost $5!! The scenery was very green and soon the Blue Ridge Mountains could be seen in the distance. The closer we got to Asheville, the more the traffic resembled Wacky Races ..... fast and furious around an Expressway not dissimilar to the spiralling roads new Portland! But we arrived at the Holiday Inn Downtown safely just after noon. Discovering that our room was not ready, we decided to take a hike downtown.

Asheville is a very cool, arty, town which boasts lots of its original architecture, which has been adapted to a newer age, like the old Woolworth's store that is now a trendy arts & crafts market with a cool burger bar too.

Lots of restaurants, art and crafts galleries, and guitar and banjo players.

No surprise then that it pulls in tourists in their droves ..... ironically, it was droves of livestock which originally made this town famous. Along our walking tour we met a really friendly fire-crew and a local lady, Kate, who had once lived in Handforth, Cheshire!

Tonight we've chosen to eat in the Outback Steakhouse and to post Chubby Checker's 'The Hucklebuck' as our musical post-it note!

Athens ..... for another music lesson!

After a showery night, the morning felt fresher as we packed-up and pulled-out of Macon. It has to said again that we enjoyed our Macon experience even though dinner in the local Olive Garden turned out to be a slightly surreal experience. It was clear from the off that things were way behind in the kitchen and our trainee server tried manfully to explain away the delay, without specifying that all hell was breaking loose 'off-stage'! (Actually, our food was very good when it arrived ..... and all the other guests had 'left the building') The journey to our next destination, the university city of Athens, took two hours and on arrival we docked at the Visitor Centre.

There we met two charming ladies who supplied appropriate maps and guidance, to enable us to tour the City on foot, absorbing its musical heritage. But first, it was off to Jittery Joe's for coffee!

Now, the backdrop of Athen's artistic culture and particularly the contribution made by certain of its past art students has produced an array of bands, perhaps most notably 'The B52s' (originally formed as a 'performance' group) and 'REM'. Of the the latter, Michael Stipe is still often seen around the centre of town and we saw the theatre featured in REM's 'Smiley, Happy People' video.

 Janet from the Visitors Centre had met Michael Stiope whilst waking her dog and he'd commented that he thought her dog was 'cool'. He had also visited the Avid Book-store the week previously, where we happened to call in, chat with Tyler, and make a purchase.

With the clouds gathering, we hiked back to the car and made our way to the Country Inn and Suites, our bed for the night and a very nice place (with best luggage carts ever!) As for a piece of music to round-off the day's posting ..... well it has to be some of REM's Best!

Macon's got talent!

We enjoyed Savannah, but like all good things our stay had to end. For the first time this trip we couldn't find a luggage trolley and had to execute several trips to load and stow cargo! Job completed we set of on I14 and I16, driving around 140 miles to Macon. Now it has to be said that Macon was to us a very unknown quantity ..... merely a stopover on our way to Asheville or so we thought! On route we discovered that Macon was home to Georgia's Music Hall of Fame and decided to pay it a visit before checking-into our next hotel. Arriving down-town we made several unsuccessful passes attempting to locate our goal. Plan B was invoked and we pulled into the Tubman American African Museum. Initially, our prime aim was to seek directions, which we did, and discovered that we were three years too late ..... it had gone! However, fate had dealt us a winning hand in the form of Ivy, one of the charming and super-helpful ladies at the Museum.

For a start, we were introduced to the very piano that Little Richard played whilst in Macon ..... yes, he really lived there and worked in the building that is now the Visitor Centre and played in the nearby Tick-Tock Room.

Ivy then kindly drew-up a walking tour for us and after we had spent some absorbing time touring the Museum ....... a 'must-do' for any tourist ...... we set off on our walking tour of the centre. And what did we discover? Macon is an oasis of interesting houses and buildings It boasts three active theatres, one of which we got to see inside, thanks to a chance encounter with a wardrobe assistant! And it also has the most incredible musical connections. For instance, try these: Lena Horn was born there; The Allman Brothers lived there and their house 'The Big House' is now a museum of Allman Brothers memorabilia; Otis Reading lived in Macon and was discovered in the Douglas Theatre; Billie Holiday and a host of greats regularly played in there; and two members of REM lived in the City. And the list goes on!! During our tour, we called at the Otis Redding Foundation (run by the singer's widow and daughter) and there met Layla, a charming young lady originating from Buckinghamshire and now a Macon resident and Foundation helper.

Macon is definitely an untapped wealth for the tourist and we'd love to return!! (Incidentally, if you're in the area and want lunch, go to the Market City Cafe .... best Caesar Salad around!) Finally, my musical choice today is a tough call, but Otis won-out in the end with a live rendition of his early hit 'Shake'