I am slow to get this going, but I got to go on a super fun road trip in May! My dear nephew got married in Raleigh. Hooray! I totally could have just flown there and all that, but instead I decided to fly to Cincinnati and do an extended drive through Appalachia with my brother Garrett.
Garrett got us tickets to a Reds game! I've never been to a major league game before, it was a great time. The weather was fantastic, the stadium is located on the scenic Ohio river, and the Reds were in rare form. Which is to say both pitchers were a bit too good and there were a lot of strike outs.
The next morning we got some snacky supplies and hit the road.
West Virginia, here we come!
We made our first stop of the day in Point Peasant, WV: home of MOTHMAN!
Mothman is now my favorite cryptid. Under no circumstances should you skip on visiting the world's only Mothman Museum--or it's excellent gift shop--if you find yourself in West Virginia.
The most exciting item in this tremendous museum is this authentic movie prop from the movie "The Mothman Prophecies."
I loved all the giant mannequin Mothmans (Mothmen?) around the museum, examples of what Mothman *might* look at!
What a treat! I wish I could have bought every bit of merch from the gift shop but, as I was traveling carry on only, I restrained myself.
Our next stop was the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. We sampled their delicious homemade fudge, visited the foreman's historic home, and the museum.
We got to learn a lot about the history of Coal mining in West Virginia, we even toured the mine with a retired coal miner as our guide. Garrett and I were the only ones on the final tour of the day.
Well, aside from the haunted mannequins I guess.
Here's a few things I can say about the very nice man who guided us around the mine: He has black lung, he's got a good sense of humor, and he has seen death. Seriously, coal mining was extremely dangerous and it still ain't safe.
Here's an unexpected danger of coal mining: petrified wood. This petrified stumps can just fall out of the ceiling! They have to install giant metal brackets to keep them from falling out!
We were gifted our very own chunks of coal to bring home with us, mine holds a place of honor in my living room.
We continued on to our overnight stop of Mount Airy, North Carolina: the birth place of actor Andy Griffith.
Mount Airy has gone all in on Mayberry. Their main street is small town charming, chock full of souvenir shops. There's an Andy Griffith museum and a replica of the Mayberry Courthouse.
Confession time: Neither Garrett nor I have ever watched The Andy Griffith Show. I think that enhanced our joy in visiting Mount Airy.
I didn't realize that Andy Griffith also played Matlock. I've not watched that either, but cool!
If you find yourself in Mount Airy, definitely visit the Mayberry Courthouse! It's adorable and free.
We made it to Raleigh in time for the wedding luncheon. Twas thoroughly delicious, and the company was delightful!
That evening we got to attend Weston and Ella's wedding at the Raleigh Temple. It was beautiful, rainy, and I maybe cried a little bit.
There is a special subset of us who know the truth: Coconut Dream Dr. Pepper is the one true Dr. Pepper.
What a lovely day and what lovely human we got to celebrate with!
The next morning we had ourselves a little hotel breakfast and started out on the next leg of our journey. Our first stop of the day was Gaffney, South Carolina: Cowpens National Battlefield.
The visitors center video claims that "without Cowpens, there'd have been no Yorktown." I don't know about that, but the description of the battle reinforced my own pet theory: the difference between a military genius and a failure is 100% luck.
I earned myself a Junior Ranger badge, Garrett got a stamp in is NP passport book, and we continued on!
Welcome to Flat Rock, North Carolina and the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. Carl was a terrific poet and biographer, but most of the visitors were there for his wife's goats. Well, not literally her goats, but the descendants of her goats.
You could feed the goats, pet the goats, hug the goats...
We weren't able to tour the house, having missed the last tour of the day, but we did get to try out this typewriter. My pinky is not strong enough for typewriters.
There were a lot of lovely foot paths through the woods and several other farm buildings, but above all it felt like the kind of bucolic setting that might appeal to a poet.
Another passport stamp, and a shiny new Junior Ranger badge, and then we were back on the road.
We found a stunningly delicious and beautifully situated BBQ joint right before we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway. If you find yourself on the road from NC to Tennessee, do yourself a favor and make a stopover.
We were stopping to get gas and saw this:
What on earth does this mean?? Is this a memorial for a little elk??
A sunset drive through the Blue Ridge mountains was pretty amazing. We stumbled upon a beautiful sunset view and a friendly photographer hanging out there who was willing to snap a photo of us.
We spotted some lovely elk as we drove through Smoky Mountain National Park, and stopped for the night in the biggest tourist trap in the south: Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
We did a little hike in the morning in Smoky Mountain National Park, which is just a beautiful green place.
By afternoon it was time to move on. Time for a stop in Greenville: home to one of America's 5 worst presidents, Andrew Johnson.
This is my way of telling AJ to his statue's face that he was mid at best:
They had three separate Junior Ranger programs here. THREE. I did them all. There were multiple buildings and exhibits that made up the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site. The actual downtown area of Greenville was very pretty, but not lively on a Sunday afternoon.
We made one more delightful stop before we finished our drive back to Cincinnati: my first time visiting a Buc-ee's.
I am equal parts baffled, appalled, and delighted by Buc-ee's. The mascot and his merch? delightful. The pulled pork sandwiches and fudge? delicious. The size of the place and the number of cars there, the capitalism of it all? Terrifying. That having been said, I hear they're planning to open a Buc-ee's in Utah and I can't wait for people here to become weirdly obsessed the way we get with every new thing that shows up here.
Yeah, it was a pretty great trip! I look forward to traveling back to the Smokies again and making my kids visit the Mothman museum. And, yes, I will take them to Buc-ee's too.
