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Georgia & The Carolinas
  • Chrissie

Georgia & The Carolinas

A 14-day adventure by Chrissie Read more
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    May 23, 2017
    ChrissieGeorgia & The CarolinasChrissie

    22nd May 2017 Wedding to Atlanta

    May 23, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    An early start to the day, we departed the Oxford Belfry Hotel in Thame at 7am where we had been celebrating Bruce & Poppy’s wedding yesterday. Felt very groggy as we had not got to bed until 1am! We arrived back home with time to spare and a chance to relax before Mark Twyman, Berko Black Cab took us to Heathrow T5 for our flight to Atlanta. First time we have used Mark and we were very impressed. He arrived at our house 15 minutes early and was very pleasant company. Once we were airside we checked in to the lounge and settled down to enjoy the food and beverages in comfort. It wasn’t the best lounge, rather cramped and sort of stuck in the corner with a strange layout, but hey, it was comfortable and a refuge from the hoi poloi and noise. The flight was uneventful, arriving on time, but being the USA, it took ages to clear customs in Atlanta, as everyone has to have their hand print and their thumb print taken then their photo, so you can imagine the queues at customs, added to which there were not very many booths open. The next challenge was to find our hire car which transpired to require us to catch a shuttle to the Avis car hire place a couple of miles away. They tried to fob us off with a Beetle convertible but we stuck to our guns and finally after much searching and telling us “hey ma’m were on the case, we haven’t forgotten you” turned up what we had booked – a Mustang convertible, and its red! Result!! It had an in car sat nav but we had also brought our TomTom. The in car sat nav kept telling us to take roads that didn’t exist – bit worrying and then told us “you have reached your destination” outside our hotel, but on the highway with no obvious entrance in sight. Our TomTom got its knickers in a real twist and was trying to make us use its route without recognising we had taken a short cut. Solved that by clearing the route and starting it again. Finally checked into the Hilton Garden Hotel by 23:00, ready for bed! Late note – woken by the alarm monitoring station for work at 02:51am local time! Luckily I recognised the number and did not answer it. They tried once more, I’ve now blocked their number for the duration of the holiday, so that won’t happen again.Read more

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    23rd May 2017 Atlanta to Asheville

    May 24, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Today we discovered ihop, a chain of pancake houses recommended to us as having great food at a very reasonable cost. There was a good menu with every sort of pancake you imagine plus other stuff like eggs, bacon and hash browns – mmm yummy! We had a delicious eggs, bacon and hash brown breakfast there and the bill was half the cost of the breakfast at the hotel. Will definitely be making more visits there again. We left Atlanta on the Interstate and Peter enjoyed opening up the Mustang, delighting in the throaty roar of the engine as she took off, easily overtaking the Big Mac lorries and slower drivers on the Interstate. The plan today was to drive to Asheville, our preference was to avoid the interstates and use the more local and A roads so as soon as we could we left the interstate and picked up Highway 19. It makes us smile to see the signs or hear TomTom refer to the roads for a lot of them have pseudonyms and are known by several different numbers and each sign lists them all whilst TomTom takes ages to announce all the numbers the roads go by. The weather hasn’t been kind to us, it has been raining pretty much all the time we have been here so we haven’t had a chance to put the top down on the mustang yet. The A roads were very pretty and wound way up into the Smokey Mountains, into the low cloud covering them. At some points the bends in the road were very extreme with steep cambers so when you looked ahead you could see crazy winding roads that seemed to lurch wildly one way and another like some Dr Seuss cartoon. Low cloud obscured many of the views but we could see enough to appreciate the vast beauty of the area with umpteen waterfalls and huge ranges of forests. It would be quite spectacular had the weather been better and we had been able to see further. We made a stop in Bryson City to stretch our legs, grab a drink and free wifi and book a room for the night. It was a fascinating little town – not a city by our standards, more like a small town. They have a steam railway which does trips into the mountains – sadly there isn’t another one running until the weekend and we won’t be here then. Americans still struggle with the very English notion of tea, they are all about coffee. One bakery tea shop offered a selection of fruity teas and Earl Grey, which they thought was a plain black tea and were surprised when we told them it was scented. We found a spit and sawdust billiard hall with a genial host which had a great selection of Twining’s teas and settled down in a couple of rough wooden chairs and a scuffed leather topped table to browse the internet and find a bed for the night. We used Hotel Tonight and Booking.com apps which both seemed to have good offers and settled on Holiday Inn which turned out to be a lovely place with very comfortable rooms. Feeling tired after our long drive we stayed in hotel to eat. The food was delicious, I had salmon with a buttery citrus sauce whilst Peter opted for a rib-eye steak with blue cheese topping.

    We have a travelling kettle which happens to be an American one – we bought it years ago in Las Vegas when we couldn’t find anywhere that did a decent brew. Again it has proved invaluable as all the hotels seem only to have coffee making machines in the rooms. The only drawback is that it’s a whistling kettle so when it boils it emits a screeching whistle which would waken the dead and doesn’t have an automatic off switch – it keeps going until its unplugged! This then results in one or both of us frantically racing to grab the cord and pull it out of the wall, invariably if we are sitting in bed one foot gets caught in the covers so we end up sprawling across the bed and floor scrabbling to reach the kettle cord whist the kettle carries on with its ear-splitting noise. Bet the people in the room next door wonder what on earth is going on!    Read more

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    Wednesday 24th May - Exploring Asheville

    May 25, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The weather predictions were for tornados and rain of biblical proportions. Although we had some very heavy showers it wasn’t too bad really and the tornados must have got stuck in the Blue Ridge Mountains for we never saw any. Today was spent exploring Ashville. It’s a really gorgeous town, very arts and crafts and art deco buildings with 1920’s style clapperboard houses. We purchased tickets for the hop on hop off trolley bus tour of the town and learnt so much about the history of it as well as sightseeing around the various districts. It wasn’t expensive, only $52 for the two of us. When the guide found out we were from London (everyone has heard of London so we always say that, no-one has heard of Wilstone) he asked us to say aluminium which he pronounced aloominon. We have found that the Americans find our accent very attractive and like to hear us speak. We decided to give the Biltmore Estate a miss partly due to the weather and partly due to it being very expensive £95 each! It would be just like looking around a National Trust stately home but much pricier. Asheville has a number of interesting shops including a Christmas Shop which I couldn’t resist visiting and where I bought some gifts for the family and a very old general store called Mast. It was like stepping back in time. There were wooden counters, wooden floors and vintage windows and displays. There are several more branches, all very original and old. The oldest dates back to the mid-19th Century. The town of Asheville was created in late 19th and early 20th Century by the grandson of a far sighted wealthy industrialist who made his money in shipping and railways - Mr Vanderbilt. He started the Staten Island Ferry and took over lots of shipping and railway lines. The grandson inherited his grandfather’s wealth bought a lot of land in Asheville and started building – to very strict guidelines. Anyone else who built had to adhere to these guidelines too, hence creating the typical buildings of the town. Biltmore village on the edge of the Biltmore Estate – where Mr Vandebilt lived was built by him for his workers and has one of the grandest McDonalds you will ever see. All the buildings are of a style and very beautiful.

    Most of the residential streets are lined with big mature trees giving them an old world peaceful atmosphere. Once again we logged onto the late hotel bookings websites and I spotted a fabulous looking B&B hotel – The Princess Anne Hotel. It turned out to be a real gem – our best place so far and the measure for all future B&B’s to reach. Everyday between 16:30-18:00 complimentary hors d’oeuvres - wine and cheese, is served in the lounge and the price includes a full breakfast. Our room has a separate lounge, bedroom, bathroom with walk-in shower, kitchenette with a hob, fridge, sink, wall and base units and we got it for a third of the price! Very lucky! The hors d’oeuvres time is an opportunity to socialise with the other guests and we chatted to a couple in their 40’s who had driven 18hours to get to the Blue Mountains from Maine and were cycling around – 30-40miles per day! They are obviously serious cyclists and recanted when they had cycled up the Alps. Another couple also from Maine were snowbirds – people who go south for the Winter, they were on their way back home having spent 6 months in Florida.

    If you get the chance do make time to visit Asheville, it is well worth it.    Read more

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    The Blue Ridge Parkway & Chimney Rock

    May 25, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Thursday 25th May
    Chimney Rock is a monolith of granite which juts out as an outcrop at the top of a cliff. There is a viewpoint at the top which overlooks the whole valley and where the US flag flies. Usually there is an elevator that takes you to the top, but today it was broken so the entrance fee was reduced by $2 as visitors would have to climb the staircase, all 26 levels, to get to the top. I was not looking forward to it but with plenty of stops to catch my breath we finally made it. The views were stupendous. There was also a webcam up there, we what’s app’d Bruce to look on it, but there was no wifi so the message didn’t go straight away and when did receive it we were in our hotel for the night.

    The sun was shining so we put down the roof of the Mustang to enjoy the drive. From Chimney Rock the road climbed very steeply and twisted back and forth in almost continuous hairpins winding up to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains where we joined the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic route through the mountains. We kept our eyes peeled as the cyclists we spoke to last night had seen a bear roaming around on the Parkway yesterday and took a photo to prove it. I was very envious; I would have loved to have seen that. But today there was no sign of any bears. There were many stopping places to allow travellers to pull over to enjoy the spectacular views and we did so a couple of times, but had to press on to be sure to get to a town to find a bed for the night.

    Arriving at Boone we were pleasantly surprised that it was a sizeable town, enough to have quite a choice of accommodation. By now the rain was lashing down unrelentingly. We parked up in the high street and dived into a coffee shop to take advantage of their free wifi. Scanning the internet, we found several good deals for places to stay. Time was getting on so we plumped for the Comfort Inns and booked a room. It was not the smartest of hotels but our room was pretty large with a couch and a kitchenette and a king size bed, all very clean and tidy. We took advantage of the laundry facilities to do a load of washing and drying whist we went into Troy’s Diner next door. It was a reproduction of a typical 1950’s diner with turquoise and pink fluorescent lighting, chrome and turquoise leather barstools, black and white tiled floor and red leather bench seating – very classical. All that was missing was rock and roll on the jukebox. The food was very cheap but very tasty with the best service we have had so far this holiday. After that it was time to return to our rooms to sort out our bags and get some sleep.    Read more

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    Boone to Chapel Hill

    May 26, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Friday 26th May
    Before leaving the Boone area this morning we went to see the original Mast Store up the road. It was a 3 storey wooden building complete with veranda and rocking chairs in a little village surrounded by fields and could have come right out of the Waltons. There was no mistaking that it was original as the day it was built. Inside it was just as amazing. The store had been and still is a general store selling everything from nails and bolts to toys and kitchen utensils. All around on the high shelves, hanging from the ceiling and on the counters were lots of artefacts from the 19th Century so it felt that you had just walked into a time capsule. Nails were sold by the pound and the shopkeeper had a wonderful southern drawl and gave us a home cooked apple turnover as a thank you for visiting ‘despite our joke of a president’ in his own words – such hospitality was wonderful. All the floorboards creaked as you walked on them and the central staircase was worn and slightly wonky, leaning over a little, the upper floor also leant gently towards the staircase as old wooden buildings that have settled are apt to do. We purchased a toy pickup truck for Finley and a sign for Peters shed before returning to the car.

    By now the sun was out and the temperature rising. So it was hood down and we hit the road. It was a 3.5hr drive to Chapel Hill where we planned to spend the night. On the way we stopped to fill up with petrol. We were shocked to watch as another driver light up a cigarette and smoke it as he was holding the petrol nozzle and filling up his car. We couldn’t believe our eyes and were very nervous as he was in the car in front of us! We also watched as someone else walked to the door of the kiosk and threw his cigarette away on the forecourt! Amazing! They cannot have the same rules as we do but I’m pretty sure their petrol is as inflammable as ours!

    As before we scoured the internet for a room once we arrived in Chapel Town and plumped for another Comfort Hotel as last nights had been so good. We booked through Hotels Tonight website. However, when we got to the hotel our booking had not been received. We had a confirmation email but it didn’t help. To cut a long story short, we rang Hotels Tonight several times as did the hotel receptionist. We, and the hotel receptionist were put on hold, cut off given credit card numbers that were invalid and asked to ring alternative numbers that seemed perpetually engaged. In the end, I insisted they cancelled the booking and refund our money, we then booked a room directly with the receptionist and she gave us a discount for the trouble!    Read more

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    Elizabeth City on Memorial Weekend

    May 27, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Saturday 27th May
    We set off early from Chapel Hill as we knew we had a long drive ahead and needed to get to Elizabeth City by evening. We snafooed some rolls, butter, cream cheese and ham from the buffet breakfast for our packed lunch and hit the road, hood down again and wind in our hair – although we did have our hats on! Keeping to the smaller roads and away from the interstate highways we were soon eating up the miles as our Mustang sped along. It’s actually cooler with the hood up and air con on full and after a while we had to do just that as we were roasting. We hadn’t booked any accommodation for the night, like all our other nights although we had been advised to as it was memorial weekend in the States and everywhere would be booked up and very expensive, possibly having to do a minimum 2 night booking. Pete emailed a few places and we narrowed it down to 2 B&B’s that looked good and were not too expensive.

    Arriving in Elizabeth City it was deserted and very eerie for a Saturday afternoon. Hardly a soul or a car in sight! Our first choice B&B had no-one at home and despite us emailing again could not give an eta. So we rocked up to our 2nd choice place which we knew had vacancies from earlier emails. Yet again we have lucked out! A fabulous place with a very welcoming couple. She is by her own admission a treats lady consequently there are lidded jars and dishes of cookies, sweets, cakes and chocolates all over the place for guests to help themselves. Wine is available on a help yourself basis and there is a pool – not that I think we will have time to indulge. The décor and furniture is antique style and colonial. Very very nice. We were extremely lucky to find this place. They only had one Queen room and a room with 2 singles left. They recommended a restaurant on the waterfront about 10 minutes’ walk away and booked us a table. It was indeed a great restaurant and we had the best table at the front by the window overlooking the bay. Our place is in the historic part of the town full of colonial clapperboard houses, some are rather dilapidated, some are in the process of being renovated and some are in tip top condition. Ours is the latter.    Read more

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    Elizabeth City to the Outer Banks

    May 28, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Sunday 28th May

    The Outer Banks are a row of islands off the coast of North Carolina connected by ferries and bridges. We drove one way as far as we could until the road ended at the beach where to continue you had to have a 4 wheel drive, then you could drive 1.5 miles down the beach. We strolled along the edge of the sea watching the cars, some with really oversized wheels roaring along the beach, ignoring the 15mph speed limit. There were lots of pick ups with passengers in the back of the truck, some were even sitting on deckchairs. They bounced between the the deep tyre tracks rocking alarmingly. At the end of the 1.5 mile driving stretch they all parked up and relaxed on the beach. We watched as one vehicle with large oversized wheels got stuck in the sand, wheels spinning frantically, he obviously only had big wheels not 4 wheel drive. Luckily he was with a mate driving a red pick up also with oversized wheels but also, crucially, 4 wheel drive. They slung a towrope between them and the red pick up put his foot down. The engine roared and the pick up nearly jumped in the air, it wove from side to side as inch by inch it dragged its mate from the sand tracks. Finally onto hard sand they unhitched and drove away. Noticing the sky darkening we headed back, but before we got to the end of the beach the heavens opened and it lashed down. By the time we got to the car we were soaked. Dripping wet we drove off to look for a bed for the night and a meal. We found some loos where we stopped to change into dry clothes then pressed on and ate at the Froggy Dog, which was ok but very slow service. Our bed for the night was the Lighthouse Motel, a nice motel but rather pricey, but the other two in the area looked like large sheds so we gave them a miss. Once we had settled down in our room we checked the ferries for the morning and were dismayed that the only ferry with spaces left was 9pm! We hadn’t realised you could book, we thought it was a turn up and board ferry, and we had to get another ferry before that one to get to the second ferry. Kicking ourselves for not checking the ferry schedules earlier, we decided to cut our losses and set off early in the morning and drive back the way we have just come and go overland to our next stop. It will take 5 hours but actually the ferry would have taken longer allowing for travel time to the ferry and the 3 hour plus 1 hour ferry journeys. Ah well we won’t make that mistake again.Read more

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    Outer Banks to Wilmington

    May 29, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Monday 29th May
    As planned we were up and away by 06.40am. I did the first couple of hours driving to give Peter a break as we had a long drive ahead. Leaving early was a good plan as the roads were empty and we got a good few miles under our belt before we picked up any traffic. We stopped for breakfast in a town called Plymouth at Sheila’s café. Sheila was an elderly lady who cooked the most delicious food – her toast was served with homemade jam! When we arrived there were 3 local sheriffs there also having breakfast, she was clearly very popular.

    It was very very hot when we arrived in Wilmington at around14:00. Parking in the shade of a tree we went to a local café to look on the internet for someplace to stay. We decided to go for the Holiday Inn because with the points he has amassed a room would only cost $30 – bargain. We strolled around Wilmington, but as it was still Memorial weekend – Bank Holiday Monday, most shops were shut so we couldn’t really browse properly. We wanted to ride the trolleybus, but, yes you’ve guessed, it wasn’t running due to the Bank Holiday. Tired and very hot we decided to check into our hotel, do some washing and relax, maybe researching somewhere to stay tomorrow. Tomorrow everything should be open and we can explore a bit before travelling onto Charleston.    Read more

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    Wilmington to Charleston

    May 30, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    Tuesday 30th May
    Went on a trolleybus tour of Wilmington, but it wasn’t very good. There was only one bus, it went to its own timetable, ignoring the plan, it tore around and there was no commentary. Glad it was free because I wouldn’t have wanted to pay for it. I felt a bit queasy and didn’t want to walk around so instead we jumped in the car and headed for Charleston.

    Charleston is a beautiful, historic, colonial town with lots of wooden clapperboard houses. We are staying in the Thomas Lamboll House, a 300 year old wooden clapperboard house with an amazing veranda on the ground floor and a first floor piazza from our room in the centre of the historic district. It is so incredibly hot, we are absolutely melting. Unfortunately our room wasn’t ready when we arrived, but it was soon done and we settled in. We are here for 3 days and are looking forward to that. We walked to the waterfront where there was a lovely park with lots of ancient oak trees with twisted limbs spreading out over the grass. The park was patrolled by a tourism enforcement officer who made a guy take down a hammock he had slung up in the trees – one of the rules is no hammocks in the park. The tree lined streets had old flagstones that were lifting due to tree roots, but the overall effect was one of great beauty. Some of the streetlights were still gas lights, it was very strange seeing flames flickering behind the glass of the lanterns it felt like an old street in London. We had been recommended to go to Poogan’s Porch for dinner. The food was delicious and we were pleased we had taken the advice. Poogan was an previous pet for its grave was by the front path.    Read more

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    Charleston

    May 31, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Wednesday 31st May
    Went on a walking tour of the city with ‘The Two Sisters’ but only one was there as the other had a cold. It was very interesting and we learnt a lot about the city, the wars, the impact of the British when it was colonised and its recovery from the ravages of war, a severe earthquake and hurricane. The city is below sea level and one road is called water lane as a creek bed runs beneath it and when there is heavy rain it floods and the sea comes over the wall flooding the houses by the seafront. It is a beautiful city with the oldest houses dating from 1719. Older houses and churches have been destroyed by war, hurricanes and earthquake. We saw houses numbered ½ and 0 where more houses have been squeezed between two houses.

    It was not as hot as yesterday but the thermometers on the outside of houses still rose to 85 degrees. I did feel sorry for the horses pulling carriages of tourists in the heat, and apparently in summer it gets much hotter! We did not go on a horse drawn carriage tour partly in protest at their treatment and partly because you are not allocated a tour until you have paid and loaded onto a carriage. Some people tour the more interesting historical quarter others are stuck with the factories!

    After our walking tour we were very tired and found somewhere for a bite to eat. We then went to see the Aiken Rhett house, a historical house dating back to 1817 that has been preserved as it was with no restoration done. Various rooms were shut up and not lived in for over 50 years which helped preserve them, wallpaper and all. Servant’s quarters were still intact, this was a family that owned 800 slaves back in the day. It is quite shocking nowadays.

    When we got back to our room we were not pleased that our room had not been serviced. There did not appear to be anyone in the house so I emailed Carlisle expressing our displeasure and requesting an early check out tomorrow with no canx charge. He emailed back an apology and agreed. We have now booked onto a nearby plantation house, Middleton Hall, for tomorrow night. Entry to the plantation grounds and house are included for guests so it is good value for money.    Read more

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    Charleston – Middleton Place

    June 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Thursday 1st June
    Carlisle apologised again for our room not being serviced and reduced the price by $25 per night which we were grateful for. After checking out of Thomas Lamboll house and before setting off for the Inn at Middleton Place, the plantation we are staying at we did a tour of Nathaniel Russell’s house in Charleston. His house has been restored and preserved so you can see how he and his family and descendants lived from the mid 18th Century onwards. Another very interesting tour which we recommend.

    Middleton House is only 13 miles outside Charleston so it didn’t take long to get there, after stopping at ihop for brunch. Middleton House is absolutely fabulous, it’s the sort of place we treat ourselves to one or two nights on holiday. We are kicking ourselves now we didn’t stay here instead of Thomas Lamboll. We did the house tour this afternoon which explained that the original house and most of the original buildings were burnt down in the American civil war. What remains is the rebuilt wing of the house and outbuildings. A lot of the contents of the building was looted or burnt by the Unionists. Back in the day the Middleton family owned several plantations and many slaves. They were an extremely wealthy and influential family, one of the main families in the area and abroad in Russia where a descendant was a Governor to the Tsar before returning home. There are vast grounds attached to the house, and the terraces where rice was grown – for that was what the slaves grew and harvested for export to Britain via Charleston, are still clearly visible. The house and its grounds are next to the river Ashleigh which is a tidal river and was important for the rice harvesting. There are several lakes in the grounds as well, which again were controlled to assist the rice crop. Walking alongside the lakes we saw several alligators of varying sizes from 3’ to 6’ basking on the grass banks of the lakes. As we got close they raised themselves up and slowly slid into the lakes. Some just lay and watched as we walked behind them – quickly! There is so much to see here it won’t be possible to see it all in the little time we have. We did get to look around the farm which has various breeds of animals that would have been on the plantation; goats, sheep, horses, water buffalo, guinea fowl, and 1 cow which people were allowed to have a go hand milking. Obviously, I volunteered to have a go and did rather well as did Peter. Lots of information and products from the various occupations that were used – blacksmith, pottery, weaving and spinning, tallow candle making, cooper and carpenter. It was fascinating. Tomorrow before we leave we want to look round the extensive gardens. After the tours and walking we felt very hot and sticky so went for a dip in the pool which is set next to the river in the woodland. It was delightful and very refreshing. All around the grounds hammocks are slung between trees and benches are strategically sited with excellent views for guests to use. This was another establishment that did hors d’oeuvres – wine, beer, cheese and meatballs. We went along and joined in, it was delicious. We could get very used to the hors d’oeuvres hour!    Read more

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    Middleton Place to Savannah

    June 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    Friday 2nd June
    We were sad to wave goodbye to Middleton Place, it was a very relaxing place that was also educational about the history of the plantation and slavery. Quite shocking what was considered acceptable and normal in times gone by.

    Since we have had the Mustang the rear passenger tyre slowly deflates over 2 days to around 14lb when it should be 31lb. We have been managing it by pumping it up but today it went down in a day so we may be changing it tomorrow – don’t want to be stuck with a flat on the way to the airport and miss our flight!!

    On the way out of Charleston we stopped at the only American Tea Plantation and had a tour of the plantation and the factory. It was very like those we have seen in Africa and Sri Lanka but more mechanised and cleaner. After tasting some tea we bought a few tins for home then carried on our journey to Savannah.

    Arriving at Savannah around 5pm on a Friday night our first priority was to find a room for the night. We stopped at the visitor information, but the only deal they had was on a hotel 20 miles outside town. We wanted to be closer than that so looked up a few local motels and set off to take a look. The first one, De-Luxe Inns, looked a bit basic from the outside but we stopped and I went to ask about availability. I was a bit put off by the handwritten notices stuck on windows in reception and the counter glass saying that under no circumstances would any refunds be given, very unfriendly. The reception was a shabby place which stank of curry. The counter had a ceiling to counter glass partition with a little hole, like at a bank, into which you could put money or whatever to pass to the person behind the counter. The room wasn’t expensive so I asked to see a room, the Asian man behind the counter said the only vacancy had a broken door lock but they could get it fixed. The room we were shown had ceiling to floor mirrors on 3 walls with a big king sized bed with dark brown covers, it was dark and pokey and stank of smoke. I felt deeply disturbed and uneasy about the whole set up and returning it to the man at the counter said we would think about it. We looked at a Quality Inn next, which was much better but in the end settled for a Best Western with laundry facilities and breakfast included. We like Best Western, having used them many times before. It feels much safer and a million miles away from the weird set up at the De-Luxe Inns.    Read more

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    Savannah

    June 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Saturday 3rd June
    The laundry facilities at the Best Western are situated right outside our room under a sort of car port affair. Strangely two guys did a big load of washing and tumble drying at 03:00 I sneakily peeped out and they seemed very agitated but were not making any noise so I went back to bed.

    This morning we met Savannah Dan for a walking tour of Savannah. He was recommended to us by a lady staying at the Princess Anne hotel with us in Asheville. Savannah Dan is ex army and ex police deputy sherrif, he is around 6’6” and big build, a man mountain. His tag is wearing a straw panama, a blue striped seersucker 2 piece suit and a colourful bow tie. He took us through the history of Savannah in a light-hearted and entertaining way, making it interesting and funny. Another one to highly recommend if you find yourself in Savannah.

    Our car has had a slow puncture since we got it, the nearside rear wheel slowly went down over 2 days to 14lbs, when this happens we go and pump it up and carry on. Now however it is going down a lot quicker and we got worried we might go to it and find we have a flat tyre and not be able to drive it to a garage to pump it up. So we took it to Avis at Savannah Airport and they swapped it for a black Mustang convertible. It is an older car, lower spec, with no sat nav, but the engine sounds much meatier so we think it is much more powerful – it does 15mpg! Glad we only have it for 2 days, it would be far too expensive to keep it longer. Peter is longing to open it up on a clear stretch of road, probably the interstate.

    We went to the Tangier Outlet Mall on the outskirts of Savannah and found some good bargains in clothing, footwear and Vera Bradley bags. Now we just have to fit it all in our cases!!    Read more

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    Savannah to Macon

    June 4, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    Sunday 4th June
    Last day of our holiday for tomorrow evening we fly back to Heathrow. We had decided to spend the morning in Savannah then to drive towards Atlanta to avoid a long drive tomorrow.

    Savannah dawned hot and steamy this morning. It was so hot it was difficult to find the energy to walk around. We walked along the river front where a riverboat steamer was moored. There were several tour buses that drove around the city offering the opportunity to see the sights without being in the scorching sun so we hopped onto one and enjoyed a relaxing ride around the city. Feeling peckish we looked round for somewhere to grab a bite to eat, I spotted a shop with Pie Society Traditional British Baking written across its window awning. Seeing ‘British’ I figured I would like this food so suggested we go there. The smells of all the pies as soon as we entered was overwhelming. I had a sausage roll and Peter had a steak and potato pie. It was the best food we have had all holiday and we had to buy some for later. Savannah is smaller than Charleston and although it has historic houses, there are not as many as Charleston. It has more green spaces, there are 22 green squares around the City as well as Forsyth Park which is a large park at the far end of town.

    Leaving Savannah we headed towards Macon which is about two thirds of the way to Atlanta. As we neared Macon lightning forked through the sky and thunder crashed, then it rained – really, really hard. We were glad we were close to Macon as driving conditions were dreadful. In town we pulled over and went in a bar where there was free wi-fi so we could find a place to stay. We decided on Comfort Inns as we have enjoyed previous stays and were not disappointed. As soon as we had arrived and checked in the heavens opened and the rain lashed down. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.    Read more

  • ChrissieGeorgia & The CarolinasChrissie

    Macon to Atlanta

    June 5, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Monday 5th June
    After last night’s rain storms it was still overcast this morning. We finished packing, breakfasted and hit the road, giving ourselves plenty of time in case of any problems. We also planned to do a final bit of shopping. At one Mall, we found an amazing outdoor shop that had displays of stuffed animals – not sure if they were real or not, but they were in realistic woodland settings, they even had mock mountains for goats and aquariums for bears to fish. It really was a one of a kind, I have never seen a shop like this with such an elaborate display.

    The drive onwards to the airport was rather scary as the rain lashed down again, seriously reducing visibility and we had to travel on an 8-lane interstate. Peter slowed right down, but other cars and huge Big Mac arctics were roaring past, switching lanes and dodging about. We were very relieved when we finally reached Atlanta airport to return the car.

    So now we finally have settled into the lounge at Atlanta to relax before our flight home. Its been a great holiday, here are our votes for the highs and lows:-

    Favourite town – Asheville
    Favourite part of trip – Blue Ridge Parkway
    Best value motel – Comfort Inn
    Favourite hotel – tied between Princess Anne in Ashville and The Inn at Middleton Place
    Best buy – two plastic insulated mugs from Walmark reduced to $1 each – better than paper cups in hotels – if they were provided.
    Best thing we took with us – our kettle – US rooms only have coffee machines, and we DO like our tea.

    Mileage 2,032.6    Read more

    Trip end
    June 5, 2017
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