Durham NC to Kingsport TN

 

Saturday May 6, 2023

Before we left Jane enjoyed viewing Sara’s flowers.  Sara is quite the gardener and has a huge garden mostly in pots in both the front and back of her townhouse.  Had a good breakfast, stopped at Jeff’s to say a quick goodbye and were on our way home before 10.  We made a stop at Trader Joe’s and got gas somewhere.  Lunch in Mount Airy and home by 3.  Great short trip – a bit of touring, great family and friend visits, and some good food.   Did not do very good job on taking photos or posting blog.  I am posting it after being home for more than a week!

Nags Head NC to Durham NC

 

Friday May 5, 2023

We got up to another bright sunshine day.  Had breakfast, gathered up our gear and headed out about 10.  O’Neal’s Sea Harvest opened at 10 in Wanchese.  We purchased steamed shrimp, plain shrimp, red drum, and grey fish.  Got them all packaged up for cooking at home and put them in the freezer and right under the freezer for the trip home.  This has worked well in the past.

Headed towards Durham on Route 64.  A drawbridge across the Alligator River stopped us for a few minutes as a boat passed through.  

Drawbridge 

We had an uneventful drive west with moderate traffic.  The road is 4 lane most of the way with a couple sections of 2 lane.  About noon we began looking for a BBQ location for lunch.  We stopped at Shaw’s in Williamston.  It was quite different – not really shredded or chopped – it appeared to be ground on a very large size grinder.  The sauce was traditional vinegar based.  It was super great.  We both had a pork sandwich – Ben had fries and Jane had okra.  The okra was fantastic!

Pork Sandwich and Fries 

Back in the day 

Today - not much changed

Pork Sandwich and Okra

We headed on towards Durham arriving about 3PM.  We enjoyed visiting with Jeff, Robin, and Daniel.  Daniel is doing great at his school. As a sophomore in high school, he has part of classes at the high school and part in a nearby community college.  He is working hard and has all A's. He had a deadline to finish the exam for his Music Appreciation Class (on-line) from the community college at midnight, so he had his head stuck in his computer finishing it up for most of our visit!   We visited a neighborhood Italian restaurant – Pulcinella’s – and enjoyed good conversation and food.  It was all good but not outstanding. The most outstanding was the lemon cake that Daniel and Jane shared. There was plenty to take home so they no doubt had lunch and dinner for another day!  About 8:30 we headed across the way to Sara’s B&B (Robin’s sister who lives nearby) for a good night’s sleep in her ground floor guestroom. 

Nags Head Day 2

 

Thursday May 4, 2023

Got up early to photograph the sunrise.  Not as exquisite as I had imagined but nice - then back to sleep for a bit.  

Bright sunshine greeted us on the second waking – so we enjoyed sunning on our porch, then ventured down to the beach for a little bit more sunshine.  The tide was going out and Jane was hoping the sand would be hard but it was not hard enough for walking at all.  We enjoyed watching the flocks of sandpipers running from the waves and catching something from the sand and surf.  

Holiday Inn Express from Ocean

Ben - I tried walking but too soft for my back

For lunch we drove to Wanchese searching for a place to buy seafood tomorrow to take home.  Wanchese is back across the bridge to Manteo and then south 4 miles.  Signs everywhere “Save our Village – Stop Cluster Homes”.  Evidently, they wish to remain a small fishing village.  The village has homes, fishing harbor, and boat building or repair facilities, two restaurants, a few churches, a school, a day care center, and one place that looked like it might sell souvenirs but it was not open.  We found O’Neals Sea Harvest where we had a super excellent lunch.  Ben had Soft shell crab basket with macaroni salad and slaw.  Jane had Red Drum Fish basket with slaw and pickled beets.  The best seafood so far on this trip.  We checked out the fresh seafood to purchase and planned our visit back tomorrow as we head west to Durham and home.

Signs in every yard

Red Drum, slaw, and pickled beets

Soft Shell Crab, Slaw, and Macaroni Salad

So we won't forget 

A bit of looking around and then we headed back to the hotel for rest, showers, and to get ready for more food.  We planned to leave early for dinner at Blue Moon which is very popular in their new location only ½ mile from our hotel.  We found a parking spot and walked right in at 5 PM.  There were a few empty tables but not many – this place is popular.  Jane had already selected what she wanted trying something new again - bouillabaisse – and Ben settled for one of the specials of the day – a fried seafood platter with fish, oysters, and shrimp.  The bouillabaisse was good – the broth excellent and the scallops, shrimp, fish, calamari, clams and mussels were all good.  There was a small purple octopus that was not very tasty.  Ben was OK with his selection but it was not his favorite.  The presentation was exceptional, and everyone seemed to be enjoying their food.  We would go back but might try different dishes. 

Seafood Platter

Bouillabaisse

Back in our room we tried to begin gathering our clothes and electronics for leaving in the morning.  The breakfasts here at the Holiday Inn Express were very good – several hot items each day, waffle machine, plus lots of cold things – yogurt, boiled eggs, cereals, lots of muffins, toast etc., and of course their signature cinnamon rolls.  Afraid Jane’s diet of recent weeks failed for these breakfasts!  All in all, we liked this hotel better than the Comfort Inn we have stayed in on past visits to Nags Head. 

Nags Head Day 1

 

Wednesday May 3, 2023

View from our room - sprinter parked below

Slept great.  Woke up to sunshine.  Nice breakfast and sitting outside in the sunshine occupied our morning.  Jane caught up on the blog and we planned the rest of the day.  We headed out for lunch and could not find Blue Moon which was our pick…turns out it had moved.  We ate at Mulligans which was fairly near our hotel, had good reviews from Trip Advisor and our hotel.  It was a comfortable relaxed place.  Jane ordered Fish Tacos and Ben had a soft-shell crab sandwich.  Both were OK but not outstanding at all.  After lunch we drove south to Bodie Lighthouse. 

Fish Tacos

Soft Shell Crab 

Bodie Lighthouse

  Jane had a mission to find a long sleeve chambray shirt – her 20+ year old Red Cross one and her 10+ year old Texas one both are in poor repair.  Had to put iron-on patches on the sleeves of both this past year.  Ben had gotten a nice one at Hatteras 3 years ago, so Jane is hopeful. Nice to see the lighthouse but no shirt.  There was, however, a car show in the parking lot.  Some interesting vehicles from MD, DE, NJ etc.  Strange place for a car gathering.  We drove on a bit further to the Pea Island Visitor Center and they had a shirt – it has eastern wildlife logo on it instead of Cape Hatteras but hey – it works!  There is a brand-new bridge across Oregon Inlet and the sand berms along the road on the north end of Hatteras Island are as large as remembered.  

New Bridge at Oregon Inlet

Sand piled up to protect the road

Ben was kind enough to drive Jane to 2-3 places she wanted to visit for her short shopping list.  Got a few things but not all.  Back to the hotel for some rest and to get jackets for the evening.  We reviewed our choices for dinner.  Selected Blue Moon since we found it was very near us and had such good reviews.  The parking lot was full to overflowing so we drove on to Owens where we were going tomorrow night.  Had wonderful dinners as we expected.  Ben had oysters and Jane had scallops.  Both were outstanding.  The veggies and hush puppies were excellent too.  Back to the hotel and a little TV and blog writing. 

Excellent Scallops at Owens

Excellent Oysters at Owens

Lexington VA to Nags Head NC

 

Tuesday May 2, 2023

Breakfast by chef Steve was great and we enjoyed more history stories about family connections.  Finally, about 10:30 we made ourselves get in the van and head east across Virginia.  We planned a visit to the Outer Banks before a short visit with Jeff, Robin, Daniel, and Sara before heading home.  

Traffic was light on I 64 as we headed across the mountains at Waynesboro; then around Charlottesville and Richmond.  We got off in Williamsburg for gas and back on I 64 headed towards Norfolk.  Talk about a confusing collection of highways in this Newport News, Hampton Roads, Norfolk area! About Williamsburg the traffic picked up and was heavy the rest of the day.  Before getting too deep into the maze we stopped at an exit with a Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A determined to eat at whichever came first.  We ate at a Chick-fil-A and enjoyed a nice lunch.  In fact this was a very quiet Chick-Fil-A.     I can’t really remember all the various roads we were on but a highlight was the tunnel/bridge that took us from Hampton Roads to Chesapeake.  When we finally came out of the maze of roads, tunnels, and bridges we were on a short toll road that took us into North Carolina right south of Virginia Beach.  We were about an hour away from the Outer Banks. 

We considered stopping here - glad we did not.

Busy port of Norfolk/Hampton

Entering the Tunnel

Long bridge headed to NC

Finally about 4:30 we reached Nags Head and our hotel.  We are staying at a Holiday Inn Express this trip.  We have stayed a couple times at the Comfort Inn in Nags Head near Whalebone Junction, but it has poor beach access and the rooms really do not face the ocean.  So, we are trying a different one.  We are on the 5^th floor with a direct view of the ocean and what looks like much better access to the beach.  A bit of rest and we headed out for our first of 3 seafood dinners.  We chose Miller’s seafood for night one – crazy parking lot which we remembered after we got into it and had to back out!   Jane had one of the specials – blacked red drum, grilled shrimp, and fried clams.  All three were excellent.  Ben had a flounder with crab and citrus hollandaise sauce – he felt it was only OK.  This location was the winner of the hush puppy contest our last trip over this way.  (We sampled hush puppies from Morehead City to Nags Head for a week a few years ago. Sadly, you do not get hush puppies here any longer unless you order a $4 basket of them – to sample one- we were not about to get an entire basket – so we don’t know if they still measure up!)  We enjoyed watching two guys with parasails while we ate dinner.

Delish clams, shrimp, and red fish 

OK Flounder with crab hollandaise topping

White Sulphur Springs WV to Lexington VA

 Monday May 1, 2023

Slept great waking up to still cloudy skies but at least no rain.  We got ourselves situated trying out a few more smart things!  The toilet washes and dries you if you wish – some of us did a little better trying out the various buttons…. I heard laughter coming from the bathroom and Ben came out to get some dry underwear – seems he washed more than he intended! 

Toilet menu

Jane took a short trip up to the rooftop for a view.  Would have been a perfect place for breakfast or a snack or drink if weather had been a bit better.  We went down to the lobby and picked up our breakfast sandwiches ordered the night before.  The School House Hotel offers a breakfast buffet on the weekend but during the week you can order several breakfast sandwiches “to-go”.  Both sandwiches we ordered were very good and the coffee and tea were great.

Sausage Egg Biscuit and Tea

Would be really nice in good weather!

A little before 10 we headed out towards the Greenbriar.  We parked near the train depot in a large parking lot and a shuttle bus picked us up and delivered us to the front door.  We found our way to the starting point for the Bunker Tour.  We had a while to wait so strolled around the lovely lobby and various seating areas on the main floor.  Lovely furniture, flowers, decorative vases and lamps.  The colors are bright and cheerful.   Eventually our guide came for us – only 3 on our tour.  There was a huge Garden Club Convention going on and there was another tour group set aside for their members.  We were lucky to be in a small group – the other lady with us was from Monterey Mexico.   

One of Numerous Sitting Areas

View towards the "Bunker"

One of many flower arrangements

Photo of Wall closed.

Photo of wall open with bunker door showing

First, we looked out the windows to see what was above ground - over what is known as ‘the bunker’.  In the 1950’s the Greenbriar was identified as a good location for a safe location for the US congress to stay in event of a nuclear attack.  The plan was top secret and would provide a location for the government to live and function for up to 60 days.  The location of the Greenbriar and it’s closeness to DC made it a perfect spot.  President Eisenhower negotiated the plan with the president of the Greenbriar and work began on the West Virginia Wing of the Greenbriar.  Convention facilities and additional hotel rooms for the above ground floors while underneath was the secret part of the construction – “the bunker”.  When you looked out the windows you could see clearly the above ground West Virginia wing which now functions as a data storage facility.  No electronic items like cell phones, cameras, etc. are allowed inside as they are avoiding any possibility of contamination of the data.  We began our tour by locking away our phones and any bags we had in a locker.   The Convention room was huge and would have served as the trade show portion of the public facility.  In time of activation it would have been a beehive of activity with cubicles for congressional staffers etc.  Now the more open floor plan of the 1950’s has the large concrete columns needed to support the heavy concrete structure and beams are encased and enclose wiring for trade show participants.  The walls are decorative and unless you knew where to look for the special wall that moved aside you would not know of the huge steel doors that led into the bunker itself.  Inside were sleeping facilities for all members of congress and 1 staffer per member; offices for the leadership; meeting rooms to facilitate meeting space for both the house of representatives and the senate.  The rooms are now enhanced with TV screens and are used for conventions.   There was a huge cafeteria and storage space for food to enable feeding the group for up to 60 days.  They needed to keep the fresh and nonperishable food fresh, so it was used by the Greenbriar to feed their staff as it rotated through.  A very few people knew of the project both during the construction phase and all the years until it was exposed in the early 1990’s.  Members of congress did not even know of the facility – only a few members of the leadership and the president.  The one time it was close to being used was the Cuban Missile Crisis.   There were 3 of the huge blast doors – the one from the conference room; another one from inside hotel, and one to enter from the outside – now near the Greenbriar kitchen – it was for bringing in the items for storage.  Also housed in “the bunker” was all the equipment needed for generating power, water supply, air handling etc.  The facility was staffed 24/7 with engineers to keep everything in readiness.  These engineers were known as the “go-to” folks to repairing TV’s and other items within the Greenbriar itself. The staff engineers did perform these functions as a cover for their real job of keeping “the bunker” ready.  All this infrastructure still functions today keeping the data storage facility working.

In 2009 the Greenbriar was in danger of closing – owned from the beginning by CSX Railroad – Jim Justis – now Governor of West VA purchased it – for thought to be $20 million dollars – this included the hotel and the West VA wing that became the data storage facility it is today.  In 2010 they opened a casino in the hotel and some facilities were upgraded.  It is today a flourishing up-scale hotel with over 700 rooms. 

We have few photos since everything was locked up for the major portion of the tour.  When we completed our tour we looked around the shops and restaurants – ate a sandwich at a small bistro and headed back to our van parked near the train station.  The station is now a Christmas Shop but it is an active AmTrack station with one train stop per day. 

Lunch we shared at Greenbriar 

Train Depot now a Christmas Shop

We headed back through White Sulphur Springs which is a small thriving community after what must have been a significant flood event last year.  We hit I 64 and headed through the mountains and pretty farmland to Lexington VA where we spent an afternoon and evening catching up with our good friends Steve and Margaret Cathcart.  Margaret and Jane have been friends since Margaret moved in next door to Jane in the 7^th grade in Kingsport.  Ben and Steve have been friends since high school as well. They have a beautiful new one-floor home with all the bells and whistles to age in place.  After several hours of non-stop talking we went out to dinner at a favorite Mexican Restaurant where Ben was recipient of a birthday dessert and singing!   Then lots more catching up and a great night’s sleep.  Wish I had taken some photos of Steve and Margaret.  They were doing well. 

Ben Celebrating his Birthday  

Kingsport TN to White Sulpher Springs WV

 Sunday April 30, 2023

After a great breakfast – had 3 ripe bananas to eat before we left or would have to throw away.  Never made banana pancakes but I did this morning.  They were great – even made a banana, butter, brown sugar sauce to go on them with maple syrup.  There went my diet for the day!  We left about 10 AM and headed up I81 to Abingdon where we turned north on UW 19 and then 460.   We stopped in Prestonsburg WV for lunch.  It was 3^rd time a charm for lunch.  We were there at 12:30 on Sunday – with church just out.  First, we tried Wendy’s – long line that did not move at all while we went to bathroom.  Second, we tried Hardees’s – only 3 workers 1 cook, I clean up guy, and 1 woman taking orders both inside and for the drive through.  Third, we tried McDonalds – lots of drive through cars – 2 lanes with at least 10 cars in each lane.  We went inside- 3 people waiting – we had our food in 5 minutes!  McDonalds is not my favorite but the big mac was tasty and warm.   It was sprinkling rain and in 40’s.

 

Back on the road north – beautiful country but low hanging clouds and intermittent light rain.  All the creeks and rivers are high and running fast.  There was a lot of rain last night.  We have been on 4 lane excellent road so far with very little traffic.  Now we have turned on to a 2-lane road headed to Lewisburg and White Sulphur Springs.  Lots of wildflowers – most prolific was May Apples – they were everywhere.  We saw one huge patch of pink trillium – wish I could have stopped to take a photo of that!  About 10 miles south of Lewisburg the Waze said head directly north on 213 for 9 miles directly to White Sulfur Springs.  We did – lovely 2 lane road through some beautiful woodland until we came to an old concrete railroad underpass.  Height 9ft 9inches – oh my we can’t make it through in the Sprinter at 10 ft 6 inches.  So, we turned around and drove back the 9 miles to 213 and continued into Lewisburg and then to White Sulphur Springs.  We have been here before, but nothing looks familiar to me.

 

We arrive at the School House Hotel – a small boutique hotel – the White Sulphur Springs High School built in 1912 that is now a high-tech smart hotel.  Smarter than we are that is for sure.   Check in pretty much as a normal hotel.  Elevator worked as normal.  Room opened with a card as many do – but it worked no matter which way the card was facing or which side was up or down – now that is a first.  No sliding card in slot just wave it over the pad!  Nice.  Bathroom is quite fancy – toilet lid opens when you open the bathroom door.  There is a keypad beside the toilet with 8 or so options for flushing.  No, did not try them all!  You download an app and control the temperature, lights, shades, and TV.  I managed most; but when it came to the TV Ben is in charge.  You can log into Netfix or other streaming services with your own password etc. and watch your shows. 

 

Night Stand - library card likeness

I went down to the exercise room and tried one of their bikes and the elliptical for 15 minutes because I knew I wanted to eat something good for dinner.  It is still dreary and chilly, so we chose to eat at the Varsity Restaurant here in the hotel.  Not too sure what to expect, there were no reviews on Trip Advisor but the menu looked good so we thought give it a try.  We wondered if there would be many people as we had only seen 3 or 4 folks in the hallways…but there were about 10 people at the bar and 10 or so couples scattered about.  We started with She Crab Soup – out of this world.  We decided to try some things we had not had before – seen on menus and all-over social media but never eaten – Jane had Bourbon smoked pork belly and Ben had Short Ribs.  Both were excellent.  I thought I would have to search for lean pork in a lot of fat but no it was nearly all lean pork with a wonderful flavor.  Served with it was hominy and peas with watercress.  Now I have had hominy before and can take it or leave it but this - I finally gave Ben one spoonful to taste but did not really want to!    The only thing I did not eat was the pea sauce – it was cold and not so tasty.  I ate some of Ben’s Short Ribs and the beef was “fall off the bone” tender and very tasty.   Several Firsts – never had pork belly, never had watercress, never had short ribs.

She Crab Soup

Burbon Smoked Pork Belly 

Beef Short Ribs

We ordered our breakfast to pick up in the lobby where the coffee bar is located.  Only thing so far I am not 100% happy with is there is no in-room coffee.  If the sun is shining in the morning we will take our breakfast to the rooftop bar to eat – if not the room or lobby will do.  I am going to make it up to the rooftop bar just for the view.  The hotel serves a breakfast buffet on weekends but has only the order for pick-up sandwiches during the week.

 I have gotten all my devices connected d writing the blog.  Ben is still working on getting Netflix to work on the TV.  All and all it has been a nice day.  Different that’s for sure.  What are we doing in White Sulphur Springs?  Tomorrow we have reservations to tour “The Bunker” at the Greenbriar.  It has been on my “bucket list for years and we just never made it a priority.  Could not quite cough up the $$$ to stay at the Greenbriar so we are staying in this neat place right down the road.  We are not the golf or horseback riding crowd anyway.  Then after our tour we are off for a short visit with long- time friends in Lexington VA.