A Detour South
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We’re deviating a bit from our Blue Highway to spend Thanksgiving with family and visit with friends.
The main reason for heading East this time of year was ultimately to spend the holidays with our East Coast families. So we took a detour south. We left Des Moines heading southeast to spend Thanksgiving with our oldest son, Brennan, and his wife Hannah. We’d not had this opportunity in decades and we were looking forward to it. Being ‘slow travelers’, however, a ‘blue highway’ like US-6 provided an interesting way to get to our destination. But ‘slow’ has its disadvantages and we were on a time crunch now with ~1150 miles to cover in three days. We needed to deviate from the blue highway and find a more efficient and direct way to reach our destination… Richmond, Virginia. We plan to reclaim US-6 sometime in the future, but holidays wait for no man.
There was bright sun, blue sky and ‘frost on the pumpkin’ as we left the Love’s Travel Stop in Des Moines. The morning sun on the cold earth generated thick fog in the low valleys with sparkles of frost crystals on the fields.
A cold, foggy morning
Interstates are definitely not our preferred mode of travel, but they do serve their purpose. Wind turbines, scads of them, peppered the fields alongside the highway. The farmers seemed to cultivate close to and all around them generating income from the turbines as well as electricity without losing too much arable land. A win-win.
Windfarms and corn fields were common sights along the highway
US-6 actually wanders on and off I-80, but we kept to the interstate. We passed the World’s Largest Truck Stop on I-80 in Iowa. We’ve stopped here before and visited the 80 Trucking Museum. Been there, done that. This time, we kept on truckin’.
We crossed the mighty Mississippi and the state line into Illinois. We sped along across another state line into Indiana and lost another hour for our efforts. We were now on Eastern standard time. A long, rather boring day followed and we pulled into yet another Love’s Travel Stop in Pittsboro, Indiana to spend another cold night.
Crossing The Mighty Mississipi into Illinois
We woke to a barely discernible sun in a mackerel sky. Hints of blue-gray peeked out as mare’s tails swirled high above… a sailor’s warning that a change of weather was on the way, most probably rain… or snow. Indianapolis was just a blur as we passed through.
Mare’s Tails… a sure sign the weather’s going to change
Out of the corner of his eye, David caught a highway billboard touting ‘The best fudge is from Uranus’. What? “I think you might have read that incorrectly, dear!”. No, there was another one and another. How could we resist a stop at the Uranus Fudge Factory? We were lured in by their gross, vulgar advertising! What a hoot!
After a brief stop and a walk through the Uranus store and vortex (first trip through is free), we were on our way and across the Ohio state line under a welcoming arch.
Welcome to ohio, the Heart of it all!
We stopped at the Welcome Center (I collect road maps!) and saw a sign for US-40 (not I-40), The National Road, a blue highway that stretches 2,285 miles from Park City, Utah to Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was the first federally funded road in the USA. Nope… ain’t gonna do it. We’re on a mission. Got to get to Richmond in two days! But maybe another time?
We crossed the Ohio River into West Virginia and made it to Charleston, WV’s capital city for the night. It was cold and rainy and a hotel night was in order. The bad weather had finally caught up to us. Thankfully, no snow, just damp and cold with intermittent showers.
Another state line… Welcome to West Virginia
We were still in West Virginia when we noticed an exit sign for the New River Gorge National Park. Being National Park nerds, we were surprised that we’d never heard of this park. We had to stop.
The parking lot was empty at the Visitor Center and we were surprised when the door was open and three rangers greeted us as we walked in. We learned that New River Gorge is the USA’s newest national park established in 2020. According to the park website, “A rugged, whitewater river flowing northward through deep canyons, the New River is among the oldest rivers on the continent. The park encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along the New River, is rich in cultural and natural history, and offers an abundance of scenic and recreational opportunities.”
We wandered through the Visitor Center and though we had no time to explore the park, we put it on our list for a return sometime in the future. The travel to-do list just grows and grows!
Welcome to Virginia… It’s for Lovers!
One more stop to stretch our legs… Lewisburg, Virginia. The visitor center was downtown and further off the road than we expected, but we were delighted when we discovered local quilts on exhibit. Some were absolutely exquisite… pure artistry. We bought a dozen raffle tickets on the outside chance we’d win one.
Another three hours and we arrived in Richmond at last. Hannah and Brennan were waiting for us. We spent the evening chatting, catching up and making plans for our trip to Earlysville, Virginia, a tiny suburb of Charlottesville, where we would enjoy a Thanksgiving holiday feast with Hannah’s mom, Sherry. An easy ride… Brennan drove!
And just like that, the holiday was celebrated, six fun, relaxing days with the kids had elapsed and we were on the road again. Much to my chagrin, not one photo was taken. Bah!
We headed west to Brevard, NC for a kidney reunion with Burger and Nancy Zapf. After one year, Burger, David’s kidney recipient, was in good health and good spirits. Burger had progressed from barely being able to walk across a parking lot to playing pickleball almost daily. What a miraculous change! Note to self: Nancy always gets stuck taking the photos. Make sure she gets in a pic next time!
A kidney reunion!
We spent the night at their beautiful Brevard home. Though our visit was short, it was most pleasant. Cruising friends for over 20 years, Nancy and I caught up and the men chatted amiably throughout the evening… old boat stories, RV stories, travel stories. There was no lack of conversation, food, drink and camaraderie.
Then we were off again. This time backtracking east on I-40 to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC for David’s one year post-kidney donation check-up. After 45 minutes of testing which included vitals, labs and an interview, he was pronounced healthy as a horse… or at least as healthy as a spry 77 year old guy minus a kidney who keeps himself in really good shape.
Next on our travel itinerary was a long overdue visit with John Santic, another old cruising friend who now lives in western Virginia, close to Shenandoah National Park. We originally met John 20+ year ago in Charleston , South Carolina. He crewed with us from Ecuador to the Galapagos and Easter Island way back in 2004. We’ve always kept in touch, but haven’t seen each other in several years. It was great catching up with him. So many stories to rehash and retell. The stories get better with every telling! After all, we are old salts!
Old friends are the best friends!!
Next time, we’ll begin our trip north to New England in our usual, roundabout way. We plan to find US-6 somewhere in Ohio and continue our trek east. The plan du jour is to complete the eastern half of the route, celebrate Christmas with Lin and her family with a little side trip to Provincetown (the eastern terminus of US-6) somewhere midst the chaos of the holiday schedule. We plan to drive the parts of US-6 we’ve missed in the Midwest on our return trip to Nevada. Let’s see how that works out.