Friday 14 September

We set off about 8:30 this morning, we are less than 9 hours from home so Ian would like to keep going. We went through Cincinnati just after 9 am and the traffic wasn’t too bad, guess we missed the worst of the rush hour. 

We stopped for lunch and gas just after Detroit, as the border crossing will be soon. It was a quick process getting back into Canada, no delays. We got on the 401 and moved along nicely until St. Thomas and we ground to a halt. We were held up to a crawl or a stop most of the way to Cambridge - we lost an hour and ended up getting off and taking smaller roads the rest of the way. Imagine, driving all the way from Savannah to Detroit with barely a stop and the put up with construction delays within a few hours of home. Must admit, it was nice to get home😀.

Thursday 13 September

Our first stop this morning was the visitor centre for the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. This was the site of the bloodiest three days of the civil war. We watched an interesting movie and looked at the exhibits before continuing our journey. The site has a drive around the monuments to different regiments, and there was also a drive up lookout mountain, which we decided not to do as it would add another half day. We continued through Tennessee and into Kentucky, where we stayed the night at Georgetown, about 10 minutes north of Lexington. We’ve visited this area before so haven’t been doing much sightseeing, Ian is getting itchy to get home. Bet we’ll be in our own bed Friday night!

Wednesday 12 September

We left the hotel around 7:30 this morning and headed for Augusta, Georgia. We got there in about two and a half hours and stopped at the Discovery Canal centre where they have a good museum for the oldest operating canal in America. We looked around and then went on a one hour boat ride on the canal. Only eight passengers so pretty quiet, hot and sunny again. There were three old mills along the river bank. The buildings were being used for other things now. We had lunch before we continued on, passing through Atlanta and arriving at Dalton, Georgia shortly after 5. We found a hotel and a restaurant within walking distance so we were happy enough. We are  not far from the Tennessee/Georgia state line.

Tuesday 11 September

We spent the day sightseeing in the historic part of Savannah today. It was (again) very hot and humid so we decided to take the Old Savannah Tour which was an open sided trolley bus, fully narrated, and get on/off whenever you want. This way we learned about the place and history, plus my feet didn’t ache as much! We had a coffee break mid morning, at the old market, but far too hot for coffee. We had lunch in a tavern so we could have a long cold drink. We did a bit more on the bus in the afternoon until we succumbed to the heat about 4:30. We went .out Moon River, a craft brewery for dinner, but neither of us were very hungry, I think it’s the heat.

We will start heading north/west in the morning, a change of plan to avoid a major hurricane heading for the Carolinas - we don’t want to get caught up in bad weather or traffic due to people evacuating further up the coast from us.

Too bad, we were looking forward to Virginia.

Monday 10 September

We had a leisurely start this morning, Jon had already left for work when we got up. We left about 9:45 and after about two hours we stopped at a rest stop alongside the interstate. Everyone was coming back to their cars with a case of water. A lady shouted to offer me some so I walked over and asked her what was going on. They were free due to the hurricane that was coming! I said we’re going to Savannah for a couple of nights and would that be ok? The young lady pulled a face and said “I dunno”. I said we’re leaving Wednesday morning and the guy said “you’ll be fine”. It isn’t supposed to reach the US coast until Thursday so we aren’t going to worry about it, we’ll keep up with news reports at the hotel.

Next stop was the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, about 20 minutes before Savannah. We watched a film at the visitor centre which explains about the canals and dykes that were dug by slaves and Irish migrants about 200 years ago. This area was used for rice plantations but was turned into a wildlife refuge in the early 1900’s. We drove the four mile trail and we saw herons, egrets, ducks, moorhens but no alligators or bob cats today!

We continued on to Savannah but we were getting thunder, lightening and some rain so we decided to check into the hotel instead of going to a Fort and getting wet.

We went out for dinner and had a walk alongside the river. We chose a restaurant and both had a really good fish dinner.

Sunday 9 September

We had a slow start this morning, we took the dogs out for a walk about 10, before it got any hotter.

We lazed around, chatting and sitting in the shade. A very quick afternoon thunderstorm went through but there wasn’t much rain.

Jon cooked some ribs and sausage on the bbq for dinner. He was using a rub and a sauce later so Ian was watching for tips for bbq’ing southern style. It was all very good.

Saturday 8 September

We went out this morning to Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. It was not far from the Blueridge Parkway, about a two hour drive to get to the top. There was a park at the top where they’ve built a steel suspension bridge, and the drop from the middle to the bottom is one mile. There were some rescued animals including bald eagles, bears, cougars, otters.

We then went on to Blowing Rock for lunch. Jon and Michele knew the pubs with a patio so it wasn’t hard to find  one and we enjoyed a few drinks and a late lunch/early dinner. We then drove back for a lazy evening.

Friday 7 Sept

We were on the road by 7:30 after a good breakfast at the hotel, even the coffee was good so no complaints. We drove almost two hours through the mountains, which were often concealed by the low lying clouds, until we reached the New River bridge visitor centre. We remembered stopping here on our last visit, because the washrooms were handy! We walked down the 178 steps to the viewing platform for a better look at the bridge, then of course back up. It was good to walk off the numb bum from the drive, only four more hours to go.

And still we drove through more never ending mountains and trees, as far as the eye could see. The sun came out and with the blue skies the mountains look lovely. Apparently they are the West Virginia range and then the Appalachian range.

We arrived at Jon’s at almost 4pm and he arrived home from work just after so it was perfect timing. We sat outside, with cold beers for a while, we needed to cool off as it was pretty hot. Jon bbq’d some burgers for a quick dinner and we went indoors in the A/C to cool down. 

Thurs. 6 September

We set off on another road trip this morning, destination - a visit to my brother Jon’s at South Carolina.

We were about 20 minutes crossing the border at Fort Erie then it was plain sailing to our first stop at the Premium Outlet mall at Grove City, Pennsylvania. Five hours driving so we deserved a break. We had some lunch and wandered around for about 90 minutes, both bought a few things and then got back on the road for what was to be two more hours. Unfortunately we were held up for about an hour with slowly crawling traffic due to a multi-vehicle accident on the other side of the interstate. We ended up getting to The Hampton Inn at Bridgeport, West Virginia after seven. Luckily there was a restaurant within walking distance, unluckily they didn’t serve beer - not sure if this is a West Virginia thing or the restaurant we were in. We decided to get a beer at the gas station shop on the walk back, we both ended up laughing because Ian was asked for his ID. The lady who served us didn’t know why we were laughing so we had to explain, him being 68, it was a very long time since he was last asked. Feet up for a while and then an early night I think.