Our first stop after we checked into the Hampton Inn in Christiansburg, Virginia, was Macado's restaurant. They have the best broccoli cheese au gratin soup, and Katie just begs for it everytime we're in Virginia. They also have awesome sandwiches (my favorite is the Ragtime), and their Chubby Bubby (a HUGE banana split) totally ROCKS! I know I usually gain five pounds just looking at it, but I had to have one (or maybe two) during the week we were there. It is impossible to find good ice cream where we live. Everything is that awful soft serve stuff.
Anyway, back to our Blacksburg visit. We went back to the hotel after dinner, and by the time we arrived, David was there waiting for us. We just relaxed and regrouped the rest of the evening. The kids tried to swim, but the pool was COLD!
The next day we went to visit our friends, David and Wendy. We ate grilled burgers at their house while the girls had a ball picking blueberries in their back yard. We went and played at a park near their home and then headed out to the Home Place restaurant near Salem, Virginia.
Having dinner at the Home Place is a different kind of dining experience. It's about 12 miles from Salem, in a beautiful mountain valley near the Appalahian Trail. The scenery is incredible. The house itself is an old, but charming, farmhouse which has been tastefully expanded into a restaraunt. The wait can be up to two hours, but they have an excellent outdoor area where the kids can run around and burn off energy.
The food is served "family style", and the choices are very limited, but that's why it's so good! The servers bring bowls of everything to your table, and just like family, you share everything. Entrees include roast beef, Virginia ham and fried chicken, which is ALMOST as good as my mom's. Sides include green beans, pinto beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, rolls, biscuits and apple butter. It was the best the best $14 meal I've had in a while! If you are visiting the Roanoke/Salem area and are looking for a way to get some really good food, as well a great look, at the Blue Ridge scenery, this is it!
We spent the rest of the week relaxing and visiting our buddies, the Schwartz family. We went out to eat at Red Robin and at Macado's again, and we saved tons on our budget eating dinner with them at home. Thanks guys! We also caught a free movie at the theater with nine kids total in our group (and only 2 were girls!), got to see the Twilight movie with Amy & John while the kids slept, babysat for just a bit when Schwartz kid #4 cut his head open and needed to go to the ER, and went swimming at their community pool. Katie even got to go work out two different times at one of the local gymnastics gym. I was so happy that Virginia Techniques was willing to let her practice with their team! We will be arriving home just a week before we go to gymnastics camp. It's wonderful that she can work out on the road so that she won't be sore during camp!
It was a great week, and we we so sad to leave... See you next year, Blacksburg!
Road Trip Day #1 of 26
Friday, June 12, 2009
AAANNNNNDDD...... We're OFF!!!!
We left Searcy last night around 5:30pm and hit the open road to begin our 26 day road trip. On this first day we were enroute to Crossville, Tennessee, for an overnight stay then on to Blacksburg, Virginia, for a visit with some old friends. I expected to arrive at our hotel around midnight, maybe a little later. It is about 430 miles from Searcy to Crossville, so I figured that we would arrive no later than 1am. Boy, was I wrong!!! Unbeknownst to me, we were in store for some horrific thunderstorms! Since I wasn't listening to weather radio or watching TV, I missed this important bulletin from the National Weather Service:
URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING FROM 920 PM UNTIL 100 AM EDT.
TORNADOES...HAIL TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.
THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 75 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF CROSSVILLE TENNESSEE TO 60 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CROSSVILLE TENNESSEE.
* AT 850 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH.
This radar picture shows our situation a little better... Granted, this photo is from way before we hit Nashville, but it was coming for us! Our location for the worst of the storm is almost exactly in the center Tennessee on the following picture.
As we approached the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee, the bottom fell out. The lightning was AMAZING, but the wind was terrifying! Our car was blowing all over the road, and the spray from the 18 wheelers just made us more blind than the rain itself. I was scared to death!
We pulled off at a Hampton Inn just West of Nashville, and could tell by the cars that were parked in the flower beds and everywhere else that there were no rooms to be had. Apparently all of the other travelers on the road decided to stop, too.
Since staying in this area was obviously not an option, I did what any smart woman would do; I called my mom! She looked at the weather radar out of Nashville and came to the conclusion that if the girls and I could stand to wait it out in the car just a bit that the storm would blow right on through. We chose to do that, and within twenty minutes we were down to a light rain. We continued our journey to Crossville and arrived, a little worn and frazzled, around 3am. The kids were all hyped up to be out of the car, so getting them settled was a chore, but we finally bedded down and slept a few hours. Thanks to David's diamond status we scored a late checkout, so we all slept till noon. We missed the free breakfast, but really didn't care. I had the food suitcase (more on that to come later, I promise) so everyone was cheaply and quickly fed.
We left the hotel singing Willie Nelson tunes, and very happy to be on the road again! This map shows our total trip itinerary. Hopefully we'll avoid more bad weather!
View Larger Map
We left Searcy last night around 5:30pm and hit the open road to begin our 26 day road trip. On this first day we were enroute to Crossville, Tennessee, for an overnight stay then on to Blacksburg, Virginia, for a visit with some old friends. I expected to arrive at our hotel around midnight, maybe a little later. It is about 430 miles from Searcy to Crossville, so I figured that we would arrive no later than 1am. Boy, was I wrong!!! Unbeknownst to me, we were in store for some horrific thunderstorms! Since I wasn't listening to weather radio or watching TV, I missed this important bulletin from the National Weather Service:
URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING FROM 920 PM UNTIL 100 AM EDT.
TORNADOES...HAIL TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.
THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 75 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF CROSSVILLE TENNESSEE TO 60 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CROSSVILLE TENNESSEE.
* AT 850 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH.
This radar picture shows our situation a little better... Granted, this photo is from way before we hit Nashville, but it was coming for us! Our location for the worst of the storm is almost exactly in the center Tennessee on the following picture.
As we approached the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee, the bottom fell out. The lightning was AMAZING, but the wind was terrifying! Our car was blowing all over the road, and the spray from the 18 wheelers just made us more blind than the rain itself. I was scared to death!
We pulled off at a Hampton Inn just West of Nashville, and could tell by the cars that were parked in the flower beds and everywhere else that there were no rooms to be had. Apparently all of the other travelers on the road decided to stop, too.
Since staying in this area was obviously not an option, I did what any smart woman would do; I called my mom! She looked at the weather radar out of Nashville and came to the conclusion that if the girls and I could stand to wait it out in the car just a bit that the storm would blow right on through. We chose to do that, and within twenty minutes we were down to a light rain. We continued our journey to Crossville and arrived, a little worn and frazzled, around 3am. The kids were all hyped up to be out of the car, so getting them settled was a chore, but we finally bedded down and slept a few hours. Thanks to David's diamond status we scored a late checkout, so we all slept till noon. We missed the free breakfast, but really didn't care. I had the food suitcase (more on that to come later, I promise) so everyone was cheaply and quickly fed.
We left the hotel singing Willie Nelson tunes, and very happy to be on the road again! This map shows our total trip itinerary. Hopefully we'll avoid more bad weather!
View Larger Map
More travel advice
Thursday, June 4, 2009
I just thought of a couple more things that might be of use to some of my fellow road warriors, so I thought I would post them, too. Enjoy!
Suction Cup Hooks
I always take along several suction cup hooks when we go to any vacation location where water will be a part of our daily routine. They are small and light, therefore very easy to pack, and they can serve a multitude of purposes. We mostly use them to hang up wet swimsuits. If we have a patio at our hotel I put them on the sliding glass door so that the warm air can dry our swimsuits and coverups, but if not, the inside of the shower will do! It's so much better than hanging everything over the shower rod or trying to use the scrawny little clothsline in some hotel tubs. They're also great for hanging up a ribbon full of hairbows or anything else that is relatively light.
Trash Bags
Another thing that will come in handy on an extended trip is kitchen trash bags. The trash bags in hotel rooms are notoriously thin and small, and usually aren't up to handling the amount of trash the my family can produce in one day. (Think - dirty diapers, swim diapers, fast food bags and boxes, etc...) Just tucking a small roll of trash bags into your suitcse can keep things a little neater in already cramped quarters.
The "Food Suitcase"
If your kids are anything like mine, they will be starving at the most inconvenient of times. I take along a small suitcase full of stuff just to make my life easier. We pack in Easy Mac, instant oatmeal, a box or two of cereal, some canned fruit, a can openener, napkins, cheap plastic bowls and plates, disposable silverware and whatever other snacky type things my kids like to munch on. If there is a microwave in our room we're all set! If not, we request one, and most hotels are happy to help us out. Our food suitcase has helped us out a lot when it's just too hard to make it downstairs for a hotel breakfast that closes at 9am.
Suction Cup Hooks
I always take along several suction cup hooks when we go to any vacation location where water will be a part of our daily routine. They are small and light, therefore very easy to pack, and they can serve a multitude of purposes. We mostly use them to hang up wet swimsuits. If we have a patio at our hotel I put them on the sliding glass door so that the warm air can dry our swimsuits and coverups, but if not, the inside of the shower will do! It's so much better than hanging everything over the shower rod or trying to use the scrawny little clothsline in some hotel tubs. They're also great for hanging up a ribbon full of hairbows or anything else that is relatively light.
Trash Bags
Another thing that will come in handy on an extended trip is kitchen trash bags. The trash bags in hotel rooms are notoriously thin and small, and usually aren't up to handling the amount of trash the my family can produce in one day. (Think - dirty diapers, swim diapers, fast food bags and boxes, etc...) Just tucking a small roll of trash bags into your suitcse can keep things a little neater in already cramped quarters.
The "Food Suitcase"
If your kids are anything like mine, they will be starving at the most inconvenient of times. I take along a small suitcase full of stuff just to make my life easier. We pack in Easy Mac, instant oatmeal, a box or two of cereal, some canned fruit, a can openener, napkins, cheap plastic bowls and plates, disposable silverware and whatever other snacky type things my kids like to munch on. If there is a microwave in our room we're all set! If not, we request one, and most hotels are happy to help us out. Our food suitcase has helped us out a lot when it's just too hard to make it downstairs for a hotel breakfast that closes at 9am.
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