Our American Holiday 2012 – Part 3

So we depart from Washington, with a new driver; Ernie. Who turns out to be a real legend! More about Ernie in a later blog.

And we also have the delights of a new tour guide; Suzanne.

Suzanne is German, like Edith. However, she’s a bit bigger than the thin and feisty Edith. Suzanne is more of a frumpy fräulein! However, Suzanne turns out to be a real star of the holiday too.

From Washington, we travel with our new driver, guide and some new faces on the coach, off towards Roanoke and the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.

This is where we leave the urban and suburban sprawls and feast our eyes on the magnificent countryside and mountains that Virginia has to offer.

Our first stop en-route, for a leg stretch, comfort break and lunch stop, is a place called; Colonial Williamsburg. Which is a period town, run as a living museum. With quaint olde worlde streets and period buildings, restored to their original state. A really nice stop. This is where we first discovered the magic of free re-fills on drinks from the ‘fountain’. Never ending cups of Sprite, Mountain Dew, Coke etc. certainly kept us hydrated and needing those comfort breaks!!

From Colonial Williamsburg, we travelled down to Jamestown to cross the James river on the ferry to Scotland. (That’s Scotland, Virginia).

It is days like these, when you see so much countryside and picturesque views that make these holidays a real treat.

The afternoon was taken up with travelling the long haul to Roanoke. Where we ended up in a Holiday Inn for literally 12 hours and 7 of those were in bed! Still I had enough time to polish off a bottle of Pinto Grigio by myself in the hotel restaurant.

What?

I’m on holiday!

OK, so far, nothing funny has happened. I’ll try harder!

The next morning was an early start, to leave Roanoke and head off into the Blue Ridge Mountains, heading eventually for Cherokee.

Now, Suzanne was a very organised guide, she had details of each State we went through and would talk us through the history and the culture of the places we visited. She also provided personal recommendations of where to eat in every location.

Personal recommendations!

That would account for her larger than average frame, however, as she quite rightly pointed out; she is almost slim in comparison to some of the Southern womenfolk!

Anyway, as I say, she is very organised and gets us in the mood for the places we are going to visit, which includes playing music from the local area. So, we were subjected to the vocal styling’s of Jim Hendrix.

Not Jimi. Jim.

Jim sang a style of hillbilly Country and Western.

I hate Country and Western.

Although, it was brilliant when he sang one cover of a well known song, and all the old ladies on the bus joined in!

Good times.

If you weren’t enamoured by the vocal talents of Jim and his twangy guitar, all you had to do was look out of the window and take in the breathtaking views.

Lunch stop today was at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Cracker Barrel is a chain of country stores and restaurants, but I've never seen one before. The choice of Southern style dishes was fantastic. The Southern states really know how to do food. I had the Cracker Barrel Sampler, which was, according to their menu; “A hearty sampling of our Chicken n' Dumplins, Meatloaf and Country Cured Ham.”

It was delicious!

Little Miss Dave had a couple of her favourite American things, pancakes and a bottle of Root Beer to swill them down with. Although to me, Root Beer tastes of Benylin!

As I type these blogs up, I refer to my notes, which I made at the time; I clearly was off on a whimsy, as I have seemed to have gone all soppy and almost romantic with my notes. However, I wrote them then and I shall write them again now.

Picture the scene, rocking chairs on the veranda, root beer, hot weather, the Southern drawl of the locals talking, some Country and Western on the radio. This is what it was like outside the Cracker Barrel. And it’s at times like these, when you really need to pinch yourself.

Are we really here?

When I was a kid, I had no notion that I would ever travel so far. That was just fantasy back then. America was a place you saw on the TV. You could only go there in a dream. I have never been the adventurous type, so to travel so far and so wide for me, is a magical experience.

I know, I can hear you say; “Dave, it’s just travel, it’s not something new”.

But to me it is, it is new. New experiences, new flavours, new sights, new smells, new people, new sounds.

Truly magical.

OK, back to reality.

Our journey continued onto the native American town of Cherokee in North Carolina. Where our next hotel awaited us.

I say hotel.

It was reminiscent of the old Butlins chalets! However, it was clean, tidy and the swimming pool looked inviting, even as the early evening sun slowly made its way behind the mountains, the air was still warm, so we went swimming, and had the pool to ourselves.

Click here for Part 4