Welcome to Weber City - Yes, It Is A Real Place

Today I started off from London, Kentucky and made my way east towards southern Virginia.

• A few miles south of London was Corbin, Kentucky, where Colonel Sanders ran first started selling his fried chicken at Sanders Cafe and Court, which pre-dated KFC. (The museum was free, but of course had a KFC attached to it.)

 Not so subtle hint to buy more KFC

• Drove through Cumberland Gap in Virginia (They are not quite at fall peak yet)
• Arrived about 40 miles west of Bristol, in Weber City, Virginia (Yes, the name is the only reason I went there, but wound up spending more time there than I thought. Its a fully functioning small town with stuff like a police and fire station, two grocery stores, gas stations, Wendy's AND Burger King, Dollar General, a NAPA store, etc.)

This is an actual place you can visit

I even have a fire department

• Had lunch at the Weber City Burger King (Complete with still functioning CRT TV in the dining area)

They were showing live soccer on this ancient thing. Is that even possible?

• Drove to Natural Tunnel State Park (I happened to take the trail down to the tunnel observation area at just right time, because a time went through the tunnel just a few minutes after I arrived)

The opening is humongous 

• Drove back to Weber City, stopping at R&D Games, one of the best retro video game shops I've ever seen (wish I had taken pictures). If you are ever in the Bristol, Kingsport, or Knoxville areas, I highly recommend taking the drive to Weber City to check them out. Their prices are reasonable and they have everything you could think of. (I bought a Nintendo 64 and three game for $70. At the shops in the Baltimore area it would probably be well over $100).
• Drove to Roanoke to find a hotel for the night and found that the hotel prices jump up a lot since I was looking last night, probably because people are coming into town for the race. Wound up at a Quality Inn 5 miles northeast of Roanoke (Still paid more than I wanted to, but it was better than the stuff in town)
• Ate at Angelle's Diner, where I had a Muffuletta (Italian deli meats on a ciabatta roll with an olive spread)

Yum

Tomorrow is the NASCAR race in Martinsville. Likely going to eat a few famous Martinsville hot dogs. No post tomorrow, as I'll be driving home, likely getting back around midnight, or I'll get a hotel along the way (maybe Hagerstown or Winchester) if it gets too late because of traffic around the track. I'll probably have a wrap-up sometime this week, and then let the blog go silent again for another six years. Now excuse me while I look up real estate prices in Weber City, I have a new life goal.

Mammoth Caves

Today, after leaving the horrible hotel in Missouri, I made my way into Kentucky (after briefly passing through Illinois for about 30 seconds). I made a bee line for Mammoth Caves, which was about a four hour drive. I was able to get the 12:45 Historic Cave Tour. I won't go into much detail about it because you can visit it for yourself, its only about 10 hours from Maryland, so you can easily visit it for a long weekend (also, I could be up all night writing about it.) But, I will say that it was awesome, on the same level with the Grand Canyon.

What's in the big cave? You'll have to find out for yourself (or ask me)...

...but its probably ice cream

I'm now in London, where I would have tea and crumpets with the Queen, if she lived in London, Kentucky. I instead had a spinach, feta, and sausage stromboli at Gondolier Italian Restaurant, which is a chain in the southern states. I'm also at a Country Inn, which is much nicer (and not that much more expensive) than the disaster of a hotel last night.

Tomorrow, I'll probably just drive to Roanoke and spend the afternoon doing stuff there. Roanoke is only about a hour from the track in Martinsville, so it makes sense to spend the night there. But not before I head to a certain city (or town, however you look at it) in southwestern Virginia whose existence is simply amazing.

Driving and Not Much Else

So I called a audible today and instead taking US 50 through Kansas City and St Louis, I drove further south in Kansas to Wichita and then cut east. I drove to Joplin, Missouri, and then picked US 60, droving through the southern part of the state. I got as far east as I could before sundown, winding up in Sikeston, about 20 miles from the border with Kentucky. Why did I do this instead? Because I realized that I could make it to Mammoth Caves before lunch tomorrow if I got close enough to Kentucky. That leaves Saturday to do stuff in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, or the western part of Virginia, and Sunday the race in Martinsville.

So I spent the entire day driving through the rain and made it to Sikeston, staying at an America's Best Value Inn. Its a large suite room, but the hotel seems like it is half finished. The parking lot is a dirt field, the main lobby is large but empty with no carpet, just padding. My guess is that the hotel was under construction as a better chain, but they decided, for what ever reason, to stop construction, so America's Best swopped in and opened it as is. No wonder they were only charging $60 for this large suite. Also, the power just now went out as I'm writing this. I wonder if they forgot to pay their electric bill?

Nebraska and Kansas: The Land of Mildly Interesting Side Attractions, and Not Much Else (Other Than Corn and Wheat)

Today, I am writing from Salina, Kansas, another town I know next to nothing about Since I again got here after dark, I have no idea what it looks like. My prediction is again going that its going to be surrounded by cornfields. I think I'll actually be right this time.

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• Left Chadron, Nebraska and realized it wasn't surrounded by cornfields, but looked a lot like what I drove through the day before in Wyoming (i.e. Scottish golf course)
• Arrived at Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska. Built in 1987 in under a week, it is a replica of Stonehenge, made out of old cars. (While still cool, this unfortunately, was the most exciting thing I saw today.)

Those are cars, not rocks

• Drove about a hour south to Chimney Rock, a location along the Oregon Trail, that is featured heavily in the game (Sadly, the closest you can get to it is a museum about a mile away. Apparently, they have issues with rattlesnakes near the rock formation. The museum itself was small, and geared slightly to a younger audience.)

I would have loved to get closer to this

• Ate lunch at a KFC in North Platte. Had Georgia Gold Honey Mustard Chicken, which tastes a lot like the Snyder's Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel Pieces. (Also, North Platte, for such a small town, might have every fast food restaurant in existence.)
• Drove south and east into Kansas, stopping at the geographical center of the continental United States. (Or at least a small monument a half mile from it, since the landowners of the actual center didn't want the monument on their land)

The math behind the determination of the geographical center is actually disputed

• Drove another 30 minutes south to the world's largest ball of twine. (It had a pumpkin face on it for Halloween)

Happy Halloween!

• With it near sunset, I then drove 90 minutes to Salina for the night. Got a club sandwich at the hotel restaurant. Staying at a Quality Inn, which has a room that is similar to last nights room, but has much better internet.

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Tomorrow, I'm going to continue making my way east, picking up US 50 and driving past Kansas City and St. Louis, seeing what along the way in between. I also need to figure out if I'm going to go to the NASCAR race in Martinsville, Virginia on Sunday, as that will impact the route I take on Friday and Saturday. 

Saw Both Mt Rushmore And Crazy Horse, But The Highlight Of The Day Was A Burger

Greetings from Chadron, Nebraska. Not sure what its like here, it was dark out when I got into Nebraska. Probably a bunch of cornfields.

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• Spent the morning driving north through Wyoming (My impression of Wyoming is that it is a giant Scottish golf course that hasn't mowed in a few years. Lots of tall grass, rocky outcroppings, and some sandy pits)
• Cut east into South Dakota, driving through the Black Hills Forest area (Seems they had a forest fire here in the past few years, as a lot of the trees were burnt.)
• Ate lunch in Custer at the Black Hills Burger and Bun Co. Got the Greek Goddess Buffalo Burger, which had feta, spinach, roaster red pepper, and a tasty aioli sauce. It was literally the BEST burger I've ever had. The meat was flavored perfectly and juicy, and while the burger had a lot of ingredients on it, it wasn't messy.

The BEST burger, EVER

• Took the long way to Mt Rushmore, on US 16A, which is a very winding road with a number of small tunnels (Well worth it as I got a great angle of Mt Rushmore coming out of one the tunnels)

What's on the other side of this tunnel?

A bunch of US Presidents!

• Said hi to George, Tom, Teddy, and Abe at Mt Rushmore (If I was planning on staying closer to the park, I would have stuck around for the light show after sunset)

You know, regardless of what angle you look at Mt Rushmore,
it seems that George is always staring directly at you

• Went over to the Crazy Horse Memorial (Still under construction, slowly progressing since it was started in the 1940s)

This monument will be done, at some point

• Realizing that 1700 miles separate me from being able to enjoy on a regular basis the best burger ever, I break one of my unwritten rules of not eating at the same place twice on this trip and return to the Black Hills Burger and Bun Co. for another Greek Goddess burger, this time with a strawberry milkshake too (I later found out the TripAdvisor named it the best burger joint in the country a few years ago, so I'm not exaggerating when I say that its that good.)

The BEST burger, EVER, take two

• Drove down into Nebraska and arrived in Chadron, which I literally know nothing about. (Except that the Best Western that I'm at has nice large rooms, but lousy internet connection. Also its very windy)

Very spacious room, too bad that its seems that the
wireless router is too far away for good connection

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Tomorrow, I'm going to see some roadside attractions throughout Nebraska and Kansas.

Driving through the Rockies

Greetings from Fort Collins, Colorado. Was going to attempt to get to Cheyenne, Wyoming, but the hotel prices up there were double what they were in Fort Collins, which is only a 30 minute difference.

• Starting my morning by going to cafe down the street which offered a complementary breakfast for the hotel stayed at. (Got some tasty biscuits with sausage gravy and has browns)
• Walked Main Street Ouray (Really liked the town being surrounded by tall mountain cliffs)

Mountains everywhere

• Went to Box Canyon Falls in Town (A tall waterfall that runs behind a cliff)

Also went to a bridge at the top

• Drove up into the Rockies on US 550, US 50, and US 285 (Some really cool vantage points of the mountains, with one side of the Rockies being more lush than the other. Also, they are in the fall colors right now over here)

This is over two miles above sea level

• Got lunch at Taco Bell (The chalupa agreed with my stomach better than the Navajo taco from yesterday)
• Stopped at the Continental Divide (Also had a few snow flurries there)

Continental Divide

• Almost went to St Elmo ghost town, but decided not to because it was 45 minutes off the main road and would have put finishing my drive through the Rockies after sunset (Definitely will plan to go there if I am ever in the area again)
• Tried to stop in South Park (the real one being a remodeled 1880's town), but they closed for the year last week.

Clearly not a crudely animated, vulgar town

• Bypassed Denver (Everything that looked interesting to do there closed at 5, which is when I was going to get there)
• Drove up to Fort Collins. Stopped at Charco Broiler Steakhouse at the edge of town. Got onion soup and ground sirloin smothered in green chili sauce. Didn't feel like going into the town itself and dealing with the crowds, being that Fort Collins is the home to Colorado State University. (Yes, I know I technically live in a college town in Arbutus, but UMBC and Colorado State are two very different kinds of colleges)

Yummy soup. Probably not good for me with all that cheese

This is definitely not good for me, but oh so tasty

• Staying at a La Quinta tonight. Room is nice, but around 10pm tonight, it started to like smell burning rubber by the window. (Maintenance person who stopped by said that it was some roof work that was being done, but I wouldn't discount that the noisy neighbors are possibly smoking something, given that it is Colorado and that it was all of a sudden.)

Tomorrow I should be able to get up to Mt. Rushmore around lunch time. After that, I'm going to start slowly making my way back east.

Into the Rockies

I'm getting tired of spending 1.5-2 hours each night writing commentary on what I did each day, so moving forwards, I'm just going to do bullet points and photos

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• Drove north from Flagstaff towards Four Corners. (Very cool part of the country, the scenery changes considerably seeming every 15-20 miles or so)
• Stopped at Four Corners, which is where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. (Lot's of tourist despite being far from everything)

I'm in four states at once

• Ate a Navajo Taco for lunch (This will come back to bit me later on)

Tasty, but painful to my stomach

• Walked through Utah for about a minute, only time I'll visit Utah on this trip
• Made my way into Colorado. (Started having stomach issues)
• Ran into bathroom at Colorado Welcome Center in Cortez (Later got information on where I should go in Colorado)
• Drove into Rockies from Durango towards Ouray (The area around Ouray is likened to the Swiss Alps)

Lots of snowcapped mountains

• Ate at the Outlaw Restuarant in Ouray (Old West Style bar in town)

Chicken Pasta, as well as Cranberry Juice with 7-Up

Yes, the guy at the piano was playing Piano Man at one point

• Staying at the Matterhorn Inn (Small, but nice room)

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Tomorrow, I plan on continue driving in the Rockies towards Denver