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Published: August 11th 2015
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Pilot Mountain
not my picture, but just the view we had from the road Road Trip!!!!
The one about, Just Call Us Thelma and Louise.
My dear friend, Barb, has been talking for a very long time about making a trip to her family Cottage in Port Austin, MI. her only visit since moving to Wilmington was by plane, and she wanted to drive. The trip from her prior home in NY was about 500 miles. But, from Wilmington it is closer to 1000 miles. That's a long ride, as you know I know all about. By yourself it is even worse, if you are not used to it, and don't travel in your house, like I do.
About 2 weeks ago, I told her if she still wanted to go I would make the drive with her.
Today was departure day.
Winston went to the kennel yesterday, Barb found a house and dog sitter (she has a houseful of rescue puppies right now) and at 6:00 am we headed north and west. I am excited. We are going to pass thru states I have never been to, well, I drove across the bridge to Ohio once, turned around and went back, but I have never been to Michigan.
Pilot Mountain
what it must look like when it's not foggy I was navigator. After a lot of research I decided on a route, but I couldn't force Siri or Garmina to go the way I wanted, so I broke the trip down into segments.
First segment, Wilmington to Winston-Salem. It was just daylight at 6:15 when we left my house, Barb driving, and we made excellent time. I have downloaded about 8 audiobooks to my iPod, and we browsed thru 2 before settling on David Sedaris' Holiday on Ice. It made us laugh. At Winston-Salem the rain started. Periods of downpur, then sun, repeat and repeat. The weather map looked awful. About an hour down the road, an idiot passed us, and he had to be going over 90mph. About 15 minutes later we saw a Statey had pulled him over. justice was served. We stopped briefly when I saw a sign for 'Biscuitville' and had to try it. $4.24 for a bacon egg cheese on a great biscuit and a cup of coffee. 4 slices of bacon, egg over hard, melted yellow American. Bliss.
Next segment, W-S to Chaleston, WV. As I was studying the map, I saw we were passing Pilot Mountain, and had to know
what it was. Plagiarized from their website: Pilot Mountain is a remnant of the ancient Sauratown Mountains. A quartzite monadnock, this rugged mountain rock has survived for millions of years while the elements have eroded surrounding peaks to a rolling plain.
Pilot Mountain is capped by two prominent pinnacles. Big Pinnacle, with walls of bare rock and a rounded top covered by vegetation, rises 1,400 feet above the valley floor, the knob jutting skyward more than 200 feet from its base. Big Pinnacle is connected to Little Pinnacle by a narrow saddle. Visitors have easy access to the top of Little Pinnacle where the view encompasses hundreds of square miles of the Piedmont and the nearby mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. To the native Saura Indians, the earliest known inhabitants of the region, Pilot Mountain was known as Jomeokee, the "Great Guide" or "Pilot." It guided both Native Americans and early European hunters along a north-south path through the area. The Sauras were driven southward by the Cherokees, who subsequently occupied the area. Further settlement in the area was led by Moravians, but the population remained sparse during colonial times due
to frontier turbulence created by an alliance between the Cherokees and the British. it was raining and foggy as we passed by, but I took some pictures from the Internet for you to see. It is quite an impressive sight to see from the road, as one of the pictures shows. We passed over the Shenandoah Mountains, and under the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the fog and rain. We stopped a few times to stretch, change drivers, bathroom break, etc, and passed thru Charleston, WV in the pouring rain. I remember the view of the state Capitol building and its stunning gold dome From previous trips.
Next segment, to Columbus, OH. The terrain was hilly and I can only imagine the coal miners in them thar hills of WV. It started to level out as we got Closer to Columbus, and large grain silos dotted the fields, in the rain. The interstate passed thru Ohio University. Go Bobcats!
This was the point we had to make a decision. Blast thru the entire way to Port Austin....almost 400 miles still to go, or stop for dinner, drive a little more, and find a place for overnight. My back was spazzing, my butt was sore, we ate at Texas Roadhouse, (under $10 for salad, small steak, baked potato) and drove another 100 miles thru clouds So bad I thought a tornado was going to come down from them. We landed at a middle grade hotel in Findlay, OH, bone tired, and happy to be out of the car. Free bkfst, free wifi.
All in all a successful day, we drove 708 miles today, not bad for a couple of older ladies, right??
Kat Out
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