The Trip- Part 1

I am lying on a king-sized bed in a Holiday Inn in Gainesville GA after a marathon trip from Winchester VA, down the Shenandoah Valley, past the Monongahela National Forest, the George Washington National Forest, the Cherokee National Forest, across the Tennessee panhandle, the Pisgah National Forest, through the Smoky Mountains and Asheville, NC where I had once spent a rainy afternoon with a bad boyfriend, where my Smartphone failed me and couldn’t get me a reservation on Priceline so we had to call our son in CT to go online and get us a hotel reservation, into South Carolina passing Campobello (is that the place where “The Sunrise”… is at?), down into Georgia about six hours after I had wanted to stop in the first place. My body is still tingling from the vibration of the road.

Day 1 was cool. We stopped in NY and had a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant, then saw a Broadway show: “House of Blue Leaves”. (Good but John, Swoozie and Christine were better. And whoever told Jennifer Jason Leigh she could act?) We continued to NJ that night and stayed with our kids and granddaughter.

Day 2 of the adventure was fairly sane. The GPS took us clear across Pennsylvania before making a sharp left toward the south. Winchester VA was so nice. We stopped driving at about four p.m. having gotten a reservation on Priceline at a Borders with free Wi-Fi. $50 for a 3-star hotel. Adorable! Such a cute room. Ikea chic. King-size bed, 42 inch flat screen, one of those tall, round, ultra-modern sinks, glass shower with a smoky glass wall that overlooked the bedroom area. Very sexy. Mini-fridge with complimentary bottled water and free Wi-Fi that worked immediately. We found a few restaurants online that looked wonderful and headed down to the historic district for a truly memorable dinner at Violini’s.

But that was yesterday. Today my husband took me on the modern-day equivalent of a forced march. He SAID we could stop whenever I wanted to but somehow, whenever I suggested a stop, it was either too far off-course or too late because we just passed that exit. Suddenly, stopping for another night before reaching our Georgia destination became a “waste of time”.

So Day 2 we ate at a 4-star restaurant and Day 3 we dined at Five Guys.

And that’s another thing! There are no more local anythings! Wherever you go, you’re in the same place. Every exit has the same hotels: La Quinta, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton House, Comfort Inn, Days Inn and, of course, a Super 8. Every town has McDonalds, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts. (Where did all the Krispy Kremes go?) I saw at least a dozen Outbacks, Red Lobsters, Friendlies. Then there are the regional redundancies: Shoneys, Golden Corral, etc. Every mall is the same: Marshalls, Borders, outlet stores. You drive for hours and if the mountains didn’t change, if the mile-markers didn’t keep their relentless .10 mile pace, you’d swear you hadn’t moved. I do want to send out a special thank you to Borders for the free Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, we’ll rest up for a day and then continue south. More to come.