Mount Airy NC and the Mayberry Days Festival

nocarolina

Just out curiosity did you take some of the pictures while you were driving;-)

nocarolina:  I just love the "road" look of your tour.  Post more!!!

Yep, ALRUI, that's exactly what I did. I decided to do a little experimenting to see what my Canon was capable of, and found that I could take really nice photos out of the windshield with the car in motion, even at speeds of 50 mph or more. Be assured that I never do this without checking to see if anyone's close behind me, and if there is, I don't even try it ( I may be a bozo but I'm not crazy.  ) One of the nice things about driving these minor two-lane highways is that, much of the time, I have the road to myself, otherwise I wouldn't be able to get all these great "behind the wheel" shots.  

nocarolina


Yep, ALRUI, that's exactly what I did. I decided to do a little experimenting to see what my Canon was capable of, and found that I could take really nice photos out of the windshield with the car in motion, even at speeds of 50 mph or more. Be assured that I never do this without checking to see if anyone's close behind me, and if there is, I don't even try it ( I may be a bozo but I'm not crazy.  ) One of the nice things about driving these minor two-lane highways is that, much of the time, I have the road to myself, otherwise I wouldn't be able to get all these great "behind the wheel" shots.  

I wondered about that.  I thought the autofocus would lock on the windshield.

Talk about deja vu. Didn't I do this yesterday? Once again I found myself driving into downtown Mount Sterling, but this time there would be no overnight stay in town... I wanna go home!

Don, the autofocus is no problem during the day; it even works pretty decently inside of  well-lighted tunnels ( remember East River Mountain Tunnel about seventy pages back? ) Nightime is another story, though. Every attempt that I've made to photograph through glass after dark has been a total failure.

At Mount Sterling, I left US 460 behind and headed north on KY 11 towards Maysville, where I would cross the Ohio River back into the Buckeye State.

Flemingsburg is the only town between Mount Sterling and Maysville, and by the time that I had gotten that far north, the hills had almost completely disappeared.  

Just before entering Maysville, KY 11 crosses the AA Highway ( KY 9. )    

Here's a couple of shots of downtown Maysville...

The floodwall that protects Maysville from the Ohio River's fury is decorated with very striking murals.

After taking my photos in Maysville, I drove across the Simon Kenton Bridge to Aberdeen on the Ohio side of the river.

Back in Ohio and ready for the last leg of the trip ( yes folks, believe it or not, this trip report is almost over.  )

Before heading back west towards home on US 52, I drove down to Aberdeen's riverfront to take a couple of photos of the suspension bridge.

After Aberdeen, I put my camera away and didn't get it out again until approaching Cincinnati. I was too tired at this point to care about getting more photos; besides, the increasingly cruddy weather didn't lend itself to good picture-taking. Once I got close to Cincy, I decided to grab a few more shots before it got dark.

I am happy to say, and I'm sure that you're happy to learn, that the next two photos are THE FINAL ONES of this trip report ( your collective sighs of relief are deafening! ) Both are of the John Roebling Bridge, which carries traffic from Cincinnati across the Ohio River to Covington KY. Roebling, the bridge's designer, went on to design the Brooklyn Bridge. Cincy's suspension bridge opened to the public in 1866, and was the first bridge to span the river in the Cincinnati area.     www.cincinnati-transit.net/suspension.html 

nocarolina- Thanks for the roadtrip.  I feel like I was a passenger in your car along for the ride.
I'd been through many of the areas you travelled into, but didn't take the time to stop.  NEXT time I will! 
Thank you again.

By the time that I reached the west side of Cincinnati, it had gotten dark, so any additional picture-taking had become a moot point. It was dinnertime and I was getting hungry, but there weren't any places to eat along my route that I could live with; nothing but the usual national chains. It wasn't until I reached Harrison OH, where there's a Skyline Chili restaurant, that I decided to stop and eat. A five-way and two cheese coneys, along with a couple of cups of gas station coffee, fueled me up for the final 275 miles of my "epic" journey. I arrived back home around 2 AM, and promptly collapsed face-first on the sofa. 

A five-way and two cheese coneys, along with a couple of cups of gas station coffee

What a perfect ending to a fantastic trip

I loved the report and all the photos. You did an amazing job of (almost literally) taking us for a ride. I'm already looking forward to your next trip, whenever that may be.

Thanks for sharing it all with us

Thanks for the EXCELLENT road trip! Very informative & FUN:-)

I really love the trip reports on roadfood and this was one of the best. It must have been a lot of work to get this put together but I really liked coming home from work or later in the evening and seeing what had been posted. 
The shots of the Mt. Airy festival really make me think of planning to attend the next one.

 The whole thing was great. Thanks.

Allan

Thanks, Bob!  This was a great trip!  I can't wait for the epic journey you'll take us on early next year.

I enjoyed this post and hope that others will post roadfood trips and vacations.

Thank you for taking us along on your road trip.  I really looked forward to reading and viewing each segment.  Cannot wait til the next report by you and other roadfooders who can travel let us enjoy your roadfood trip.

nocarolina


Here's the Cannel City School, which my mother attended during the Depression years. Cannel is a grade of coal that at one time was abundant in the valley.
 

Why are the windows and doors bricked in?  Is the building now used as a warehouse or something similar?
 

nocarolina


A five-way and two cheese coneys, along with a couple of cups of gas station coffee, fueled me up for the final 275 miles of my "epic" journey.

You certainly didn't need to stop for gas...
 
Brad

I'm not really sure why the windows and doors are bricked up, but I'm gonna take a guess. In recent years, the population of Caney Valley has dropped somewhat due to a lot of the young folks leaving for the big city instead of sticking around to farm the land like their parents and grandparents did. It's possible that the school's enrollment is so low that they simply don't need that much space anymore. Just a theory, and probably a lousy one...  
 
 
 
 
 
 

In a lot of the older elementary schools in Peoria and surrounding towns, the windows have been partially or wholly bricked up or covered up with insulating board as an energy saving measure.  The old windows were usually huge for natural lighting, but were not double (or triple) paned and had no storm windows on them, causing a tremendous loss of heat during the winter.  The school boards felt it was cheaper to permanently lessen or eliminate completely the window area, rather than re-glaze all those large windows with more energy-efficient glass.  (Plus, it removed one more excuse for the kids to be distracted from their lessons by anything happening outside.)  After all, there were very few classrooms in the area that were able to be completely lit by sunlight from those old windows during enough of the school year to save any electricity that way.

Bob, I finally had a good stretch of time where I could sit down and focus on your report.  I can't promise that I read every word, but I did enjoy your photos and food reports.  You set a high standard for trip reports that I wish I had the time and will power to match.  Maybe I'll get around to posting our recent New Orleans trip one of these days.  I know there will be some portions of that trip that you will appreciate.

Just a quick note about Ale 8-1 that you and others might or might not be familiar with.  The name of the product is a little play on words, meant to be read "A late one".  You see, Ale 8-1 is loaded with caffeine.  It is meant to be a happy pick me up for college students needing some extra energy as they cram for their exams.  So, if you're going to have a late one, you might want to have Ale 8-1!

Thanks for your wonderful report. You manage to cram a whole lot of livin' into a short amount of time!

Buddy

Yes it was a great report. Thanks a lot.

Many thanks to everyone for the many nice comments regarding my unauthorized sequel to "War and Peace".  This post is a week overdue as I have been offline for the past seven days, thanks to an AT&T employee who apparently doesn't know how to read a work order ( he/she disconnected my Internet connection last Wednesday instead of next Monday, which is moving day for me. ) It took numerous phone calls to I-don't-know how many AT&T staffers over the past week before they finally got me back on line a couple of hours ago. Methinks that it's time to look for a new Internet provider. Anyway, I really appreciate all the kind words, but I really don't know if I'm going to be doing any more trip reports of this magnitude; this one took roughly a month to do, and frankly, I'm pooped! My upcoming Texas / South Carolina roadtrip in February is going to be a thirteen day / sixteen state odyssey, and I don't know if I have the stamina ( or degree of lunacy ) necessary to do one of my "mega-reports" on a journey of that length. A bigger question: does anyone want to read one that long?

Yes, please bring it on!  I definitely prefer your unauthorized sequel to the original.  (Especially, since no book report is required.) 

nocarolina


Many thanks to everyone for the many nice comments regarding my unauthorized sequel to "War and Peace".

More like "Road to Tradition"....thanks again to you...it was enjoyable the entire way.

6star

Yes, please bring it on!  I definitely prefer your unauthorized sequel to the original.  (Especially, since no book report is required.) 

Agreed....I think we'll take whatever you'll throw our way. You could maybe put a self imposed restriction on photos per day or something so you don't work yourself to death. Either way...we love it. (P.S. Have a great Thanksgiving!)

Thanks, ETR. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone else out there in the wonderful world of Roadfood!  

nocarolina


A bigger question: does anyone want to read one that long?

 
Me!  I very much enjoyed this one.

nocarolina


Thanks, ETR. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone else out there in the wonderful world of Roadfood!  

 
It was a wonderful trip report, and very relevant for me because my husband and I are moving to western NC this coming summer. I've lurked here for years but never posted a trip report, but maybe yours has inspired me to do a mammouth one myself. We have two trips to NC coming up, both starting in Maine and both including a side trip to the Philadelphia area to visit family. That's a lotta roadfood.
 
In fact if you don't mind, I'd love to hear what alternate "blue highway" roads you took in NC (and how you choose them). We've gotten directions on mapquest, but I'd like to do at least some of the drive on alternate routes that go through small towns. That's where all the good eats are!

Boy, you folks don't realize what kind of Pandora's box that you're opening by encouraging me to do a trip report on my upcoming journey. As I said, it's going to be at least a thirteen day trip covering sixteen states, and I've already put together a list of approximately thirty-five Roadfood-reviewed restaurants that I plan to hit, almost all of them first-timers for me. As lethargic and lazy as I am, such a trip report would probably take me six to eight weeks to finish. Hey, I just realized... it would be the Roadfood equivalent of an old Republic serial from the 1940s ( Mysterious Doctor Satan, Radar Men from the Moon, etc. ) Eight chapters, one each week ( but you've gotta bring your own popcorn. )

nocarolina, I must confess that at one time I found your reports to be short of food, but I have really grown to enjoy the through-the-windshield road views.  They make me feal like I'm in the car with you, driving along the highways and byways, which is a real part of Roadfooding.
 
Keep it up.

Shara, as soon as I get a chance, I'll look over my photos and videos from past North Carolina trips in order to remind myself of the various "blue highways" that I've driven in NC, and I'll post about some of them in the near future. There have been so many since I first started making these twice a year trips back in the mid '70s that I have to depend on visual aids to clear up my rather fuzzy memories. As to how I pick the roads that I travel, my preference is always well-maintained two lane US and state highways, and the more hilly and winding they are, the better. Another plus is when there's lots of small towns to visit on the route. Despite being a lifelong Chicagoan, I've loved small towns and their slower pace ever since I was a kid.  

jimcfs1
Another "roadfood" type place in Wytheville is Ocean Bay Seafood just past that GoMart, across from K-Mart and Applebees.  (Sorry, they don't have a website.)

Usually a Google or Yahoo search will get you to a review. Yahoo posts reviews by users rather than in and of itself, which is why I suggested that option.

Brad_Olson
Looks like Mt. Airy has lost some of its small-town charm...

That sort of thing can happen anywhere. One obvious roadfood destination, New Orleans, is rife with it, as is Chicago, one of my favorite destinations, even though I'm a Packer fan. Let's not let it keep us off the road, but let's be aware and cautious and live to post pictures of all the neat stuff.

Big Ugly Mich

jimcfs1
Another "roadfood" type place in Wytheville is Ocean Bay Seafood just past that GoMart, across from K-Mart and Applebees.  (Sorry, they don't have a website.)

Usually a Google or Yahoo search will get you to a review. Yahoo posts reviews by users rather than in and of itself, which is why I suggested that option.

  Doesn't have the best reviews:
http://www.tripadvisor.co...theville_Virginia.html
http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3722980206
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Wytheville+Ocean+Bay+Seafood

nocarolina
but my Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS ( free plug ) never ceases to amaze me.

My Sony never ceases to anger me when I price memory, since it uses Memory Sticks, which is just an excuse to charge suckers like me and Big Beautiful Mich twice as much as the rest of you. The rest of you may want to consider a high speed card for a picture op like this. http://www.tomshardware.c...-memory-card,2143.html

Shara

nocarolina


Thanks, ETR. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone else out there in the wonderful world of Roadfood!  

 
It was a wonderful trip report, and very relevant for me because my husband and I are moving to western NC this coming summer. I've lurked here for years but never posted a trip report, but maybe yours has inspired me to do a mammouth one myself. We have two trips to NC coming up, both starting in Maine and both including a side trip to the Philadelphia area to visit family. That's a lotta roadfood.
 
In fact if you don't mind, I'd love to hear what alternate "blue highway" roads you took in NC (and how you choose them). We've gotten directions on mapquest, but I'd like to do at least some of the drive on alternate routes that go through small towns. That's where all the good eats are!

Where bouts in Western NC? Unfortunately good food is few and far between here, if you know of something I may have missed please advise:-)

Bob. You need this http://www.ephotozine.com...es-of-a-TV-screen-4781

C B - I'm curious after seeing that picture.  Did your Grandpa ever go shootin' at some food, then load up the truck and move to Beverly?

I'm coming in awfully late to this discussion, but had to post when I saw the comments about Jerrico (I had surfed in looking for Dairy Cheer - Home of the Smashburger).
 
Jerrico used to also own a chain called Lott's Prize Sandwich Shop -- so shortlived and puny that I don't even get any hits when I Google it, unless I'm spelling it wrong (but I did try both Shop and Shoppe, both Lott's and Lotte's).
 
I'm sure they did, though, because I worked for a couple of years at the Lott's in Lexington KY, a true road-food site as it was right off I-75 and I-64.  Sandwiches, burgers, Lott's Taters (tater tots), cooked breakfasts with eggs and bacon and all, hot open-faced turkey or roast beef sandwiches, hot dogs, coleslaw, and all of it pretty darned low-grade -- except possibly the ice cream.
 
Freight trains would come through and stop so that the guys at end engine end could eat at Jerry's while the guys at the caboose end ate at Lott's.  On their way back through town, they did it the other way around.  And early in the morning we got jockeys, the only customers who tipped.
 
Anybody else remember Lott's?

Darn -- Sorry, I can't figure out this interface, how I can make my comment appear under the Dairy Cheer/Jerry's/Jerrico thread.  Sigh.  Apologies.