Vacation 2008: Day One

At last we're on vacation. Blogging tonight from Roanoke, VA on the first day out. Already we are gradually shedding our work stress and starting to feel relaxed and on vacation. Heading south helps, even for a Yankee like Tam (Sarah is, after all, southern Chinese).

So far our only concession to Interstates was to take I-66 from Falls Church to Gainesville, VA, to get out of Dodge as quickly as possible. Then we took 29 down to Charlottesville, forswore I-64 of US 250 over to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and took our easy (45 mile an hour limit) ride through spectacular views. On the way we stopped for lunch at the Pig 'n' Steak in Madison, VA, Tam and I have stopped there when going down route 29 for many years, long before we were married in fact; it's very good southern barbecue with enormous baskets of fries and other concentrated cholesterol, but of course there is no cholesterol when you're on vacation. (I was a little surprised, just now, to discover they have a website, but not so surprised that it doesn't seem to ever mention what town they're in or give their phone number. The "contact us" page just asks you for your contact information. I guess you just have to know.)

When the barbecue (the real stuff, not the Yankee stuff) finally starts to kick in and the accents get more southern, you know you're out of Washington. I have always liked observing that, when you enter Virginia from the south, on I-85 or I-95 from North Carolina, the Virginia welcome center is right at the border. When you enter from the north, the welcome center on I-66 is at Bull Run and the one on I-95 at the Occoquan. It seems they're saying you aren't really in Virginia if you're in Alexandria, Arlington, or Fairfax County. Kind of like France in 1940-42, there's an occupied zone and an unoccupied zone. Yankee occupied, in this case.

Anyhow once we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we stopped at the Humpback Rocks Visitor Center and Mountain Farm, where Sarah had a good time looking at a cabin, examining some chickens, playing with a frontier style wooden toy, and so on, despite subsequently insisting she was bored. (I asked her whether it was the fourth or the fifth time she played with the toy that it became boring.) We continued on, stopped for another snack late in the afternoon, left the parkway at The Peaks of Otter, and headed on into Roanoke on Route 11, the old Valley Pike. Sarah swam in the pool a long time -- she's already a better swimmer than I am -- and we ate dinner at a pizza restaurant she had liked at ages 2 and 4, and it's still great. (The Pizza Den not far from Hollins University, though we got there too late for the all-you-can-eat buffet due to Sarah's long stay in the pool.) (We're staying at the Hampton Inn Roanoke/Hollins, number three on the map at the link just provided.)

That's the quick version. Above a shot of Sarah's DVD player in place; if you've got access to our Flickr family-only account you can also see her stuffed animals (Beary Bear and Squishy, who's a ladybug), Sarah herself, and other travel appurtenances. When I was her age we were lucky to have something to read.

More as we go along and shed the stresses of Washington work and school. Tomorrow it's on to Asheville, and after that several days in Franklin, NC. Tomorrow is a longish day but the others will not have so much driving in them, at least till the return trip next week.