Blogs from Roanoke, Virginia, United States, North America

Since we arrived at the hotel late from our Cass Scenic Railroad train ride yesterday, we were both tired when we awoke this morning. We had originally planned on staying last night back in Luray and resuming our ride down Skyline Drive where we left off, but the late ending of the train ride had us stay in Harrisonburg some 40 miles away. So our first hour this morning was spent just getting back to Luray to pick up where we left off. It did give us the opportunity for that one last ride up and over the mountain on US-211E. It's about 400 miles from Luray to Asheville, NC on what starts out as Skyline Drive while it's in Shenandoah National Park and turns into Blue Ridge Parkway when it leaves. We decided to split ... read more

Complementary breakfast. What's not to like? The answer: most of it. The so-called most important meal of the day was compiled of stale bagels, solid scrambled eggs and these circular slabs of an unlabelled bacon-like substance that we were forced to call 'breakfast meat' in lack of a clear animal of origin. After an entertaining but uneventful morning of driving we began to get hungry. Out of the multiple barbecue joints, sandwich bars and other mouthwatering restaurants we passed around lunchtime, my brothers decided it was best to a eat at an establishment of outstanding individuality that is almost unheard of in England. Burger King. That grease drenched patty was neither worth the $7 I spent on it nor the following two hours spent trying to digest it. No wonder there's an obesity epidemic in the ... read more

Well what can I say about Roanoke, errrrmmmmmm!!!!!! Not a lot really, the journey here was lovely about two and a half hours from Charlottesville, the trees are lovely at the moment,vibrant yellows, oranges, greens and deep reds. We passed by well manicured lawns with ornamental ponds, with a backdrop of rolling hills covered in autumn colours and behind that the blue ridge mountains. Paddocks with either horses or cows, neither of which I fancied riding thank you Mrs Player? ha ha can you see me on a horse!!! Wouldn't know which shoes to wear for that!!! People seem to use their front porches quite a lot here maybe we should adopt them in the UK then perhaps neighbours would actually speak to each other. The one good thing that they had in Roanoke at the ... read more

What a full and fun day today was. We did so much, and lots of it was unexpected. What a day. We began by driving to the Peaks of Otter recreation area on the Blue Ridge Parkways, where we were to climb Sharp Top Mountain. The drive was spectacular, with ups and downs and twists and turns right up and over the blue ridge. The hike up Sharp top was breezy and cool in the shade of the trees, but pretty much 1.5 miles up hill...a lot of it on rocky stairs. There were lots of breaks going up. At the summit we were greated by the old stone cottage, and all of the stairs and boulders that top this pointy mountain top. The views were literally 360 degrees...it was amazing. Jack was climbing on all ... read more

September 2 Travelled to Amish country today via Gettysburg. Very moving experience there. What a total waste of life. Amish people live a very simple life. No modern conveniences at all, but very happy with their lives. We stayed at our worst hotel, a Holiday Inn in York, which had dreadful lighting in the dining area, and where I tripped up a very hard to see small step. Only damage to pride, thankfully. September 3 Drove to Washington and checked into a magnificent hotel, the Omni Shoreham. Bill Clinton had his inauguration ball there, and many famous people have performed there. In the evening we went out to a restaurant in Georgetown, very nice, followed by a night tour of some of the monuments around. We are arranging a bit of a gettogether for a few ... read more