Roanoke - Trish's Trains!


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North America » United States » Virginia » Roanoke
June 30th 2010
Published: July 5th 2010
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Nearly forgot this one! When we stopped in Roanoke for a few days, Couch Surfing again (!), we had a great time. Our host, Rob, is a tennis coach for the US Tennis Association but he was a bit tied up with work so we never managed to hit any balls. We did manage to have a barbecue and drink a lot though! Lots of other local CouchSurfers came along which was great. The fireworks were a little underwhelming though. Maybe we expected something like we saw at Disney.

Rather than go back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, we decided to do a local walk and found ourselves in Happy Hollow. The trail is only a couple of miles long but it's through thick, bearless woods, and gave us the opportunity to see the second biggest oak tree in Virginia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was nice in the woods though, and we got the chance to sit in silence waiting for something to happen. It did too, a startled deer ran past us!

Roanoke itself proved to be a surprisingly nice place, once we had figured out how to pay to park. We had to find a vacant numbered parking space and put dollar bills and coins into a tiny mailbox-like slot for that number. It was strange not having a ticket or anything. Maybe the system is now defunct and parking was in fact free. If so, when rust eventually claims the box we put our money into, some hobo is in for a treat!!

The town was once known as Big Lick which was something to do with the salt marshes. The railroad is what made the town though, and its heritage has been preserved with a walk along the rails (not literally!) where many information boards and interactive displays have been placed. Ever wanted to sound the bell or hoot the horn? Roanoke's the place. Trish had fun making a barrier go up and down for a while but it was just too hot to play!

Instead we made our way to the visitors centre which was delightfully air conditioned. It's very close to the amazing Roanoke Hotel which looked too expensive even for a special occasion treat! We wandered over the bridge to get back into town and got a good view of the Roanoke Star. This is, apparently, the largest man-made star in the world, but quite why it is there we didn't find out!!

It is FIFA World Cup time and we found a nice Irish gastro pub, Annie Moore's, where we managed to watch the USA v Ghana. It was packed and very noisy, especially when the USA scored. It was all in vain though, and they didn't open early enough on a Sunday morning for England v Germany. Instead we watched it online and we were able to wallow in self-pity without the public gaze falling on us!!


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Space RocketSpace Rocket
Space Rocket

By the transport museum
Roanoke HotelRoanoke Hotel
Roanoke Hotel

Why aren't we staying here?!!!
Goal for the USAGoal for the USA
Goal for the USA

But it was all in vain!


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