FIFTY STATES AWAYThis morning started with a slightly funny incident, I bounced out of the motel ready to pack the boot and walked straight into the open boot headbutting it! This little incident left me with a lovely red line across my forehead for the entire day! I have no idea how Ben managed to keep a straight face! I was giggling even though it did hurt a fair bit 😛
The itinerary for today was to head back across North Carolina to reach South Carolina, so we could head on down south of the country. We didn’t have any particular destinations in mind to stop at on the way, we are just going to enjoy the glorious freedom of the road.
We really loved the high county of Virginia and West Virginia, the serene drive and endless enchanting mountains across the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was both an incredible and scary drive, the Americans are not as safety conscious as us Brits. For instance they do not put safety barriers on the side of the roads, so if you fall off you are pretty much going off the cliff side. They also do not put much lighting on the highways and certainly none on the mountain roads.
During our journey east we came to a grand estate called Biltmore Estate, in Asheville. We decided to drive to the entrance to see if we could go in. As America doesn’t seem to have many old houses like we do in the UK they seem to charge a fortune to explore the grounds. We decided at this point to save our money for other things and headed back on the road, notably it was interesting to see a city and towns again.
We carried on driving through Charlotte reaching South Carolina, the first stop here was Gaffney so we could see the ‘Peachoid’. This water tower features in a show we watch called House of Cards, so we couldn’t resist popping by, also a good chance to get out of the car to stretch our legs.
Back on the road, in a second completely random decision we pulled of the highway again towards a little town called Saluda, not at all sure what if anything we would find here! But boy were we in for a little treat! It turns out that this little town still houses a shop called ‘Thompson’s Store’, this happens to be the oldest store in the state, a whopping 126 years old. It had a grill added to it in the 1950s and is famed for its ‘Charlie’s sage-flavored sausage’ we stopped here as the quaint town looked like it had a good few things to see and a cracking lunch on offer.
I was pleased we stopped, I had previously noticed that the Biltmore estate produced their own wine, this little store happened to sell it so I picked up this and another interestingly named bottle. We headed through to the grill and sat down to enjoy the famed sausage! After our tasty lunch we wandered up and down this little street checking out the other shops.
After another five hours driving we reached a place called Myrtle Beach, where Ben got us a fabulous deal on an oceanfront room, in a four star hotel. Cannot wait to tuck down in luxury! Driving across each state really gives you quite a feel for it and the country in general. It’s been so friendly here something I had not expected. You can’t leave the diner to go to your car without the person coming in stopping to ask how your day is going. You go (and get lost) in the gigantic Walmart stores and all the staff go out of their way to say good morning to you. Everyone’s up for a chat, and then becomes intrigued by our accent and alway ask if we like cricket!
