#TimeShare - Day 8 Conclusion

Casa Del Schmidbauer

We only had a few hours to go for our final day of the trip, so this will be short.

We packed up and made our way down the street to Tudor's Biscuit World.  Couldn't leave the South without one of their breakfasts--the "Ron" and an Apple Biscuit.

Onto Pennsylvania, and Washington, where George and Tom set up a university.  They celebrated with a dance.

Pushing on to the Buckeye State, with a stop in Cambridge to see a local glass factory.  Mosser Glass makes decorative pieces you might buy in a local store.  It's quite the operation in back of the gift shop.

Well, that does it.  1719 miles and 8 days later, we returned home.  Lots of fun, although it was a bit more damp than we would have liked.  Now, where to go next?  We do have a 30 year anniversary coming up in the fall...

#TimeShared - Day 7

Morgantown, WV
Latitude 39.39 degrees
Longitude 79.59 degrees

We're now in "one the way home" mode.  This was helped when we decided to skip Skyline Drive--it would have taken several more hours, and between rain and fog, the views would have been minimal and the risk high.

This was a fairly clear point. When we looked over at the Skyline Drive exit, it was a wall of fog.

This decision allowed us to hit our first stop--the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory.  A small facility cranks 28,000 pounds of potatoes into chips A DAY, all of which are hand-coated with various flavors.  They are protective of their process--no production photos.  We got some samples, which led to some purchases.

“Samples”

Onto Maryland, and multiple stops.  There's a private toll bridge over the Potomac, between Maryland and West Virginia.  $1.50 allows you to cross a single lane floating wooden bridge. Listen for the clickety-clack in the dashcam video below.

The first toll house on the old National Road aka US40.  The feds debated for years whether to impose a toll, before deciding to let the states do it.

The "Braddock Stone"--the oldest road sign in America.  Now in a glass case in front of the local museum.

Moving to West Virginia, specifically Morgantown.  We came here to see a statue of Don Knotts, TV icon.  "I was gonna take Thelma Lou down to Mt. Pilot for the picture show".

We decided to stop for the night, which may not have been the best call.  A mediocre BBQ place (we should have run when we saw it attached to a hotel) followed by a so-so hotel.

Tomorrow, a few more stops before home.

#TimeShared - Day 1

Matthews, NC
Latitude 35.8 degrees
Longitude 80.42 degrees

We started our trip early--was shooting for 8a, but made it by 7:30.  After a Sheetz breakfast, we headed south--out of Ohio and onto West Virginia.  They made our route into a turnpike, which normally I would okay with--we have an EZPass. The problem--drivers didn't seem to understand how a tollgate works, resulting in a near stoppage a mile long.

Finally made it!

Onto Virginia, specifically Wyethsville for three items--a giant pencil...

the birthplace of a First Lady...

...and Skeeter's, a local institution and a hot dog place.

The dogs were excellent, although a little strange.  The redness of the wiener is not a visual effect.  Not sure if they are smoked or pickled.  Also, for a place that has reportedly sold 9M frankfurters, they have yet to work out an efficient operation.

More driving through the mountains, and we made it to Charlotte, NC.  We came here for Heroes Con, the first comic book convention we're attending since the "before times". 

We came here several years ago, and it's a rare example of a real "comic" show.  No pro wrestlers signing autographs, no appearances by "red shirt #3 from episode 43 of Star Trek", no huge displays by media behemoths--just rows of comic dealers, publishers, and artists, along with some craft sellers.  We bought a 3 day pass, since we couldn't buy a day pass in advance. 

We picked up our passes (once we found the right booth), and took a quick tour around the place.  We did stop at the Ahoy Comics booth--an indie that we LOVE, and we've covered on our comics podcast.  PIcked up a couple trades there.  Tomorrow, we'll hit the floor in earnest, along with some sessions.

Atlanta to the Coast - Day 8

Our last day began with a trip through the misty mountains (which took longer than planned due to a GPS set to “no tolls”)…

…before making it to Charleston, WV and Mexican food at Plaza Maya.

This was just down the street from our fourth state house of the trip, and by far the largest. It’s a U-shaped building with the senate and house of delegates at each end. So I’m guessing employees get their 10K steps in without a problem.

Next to the prerequisite veterans’ statues is one celebrating women vets. Mindy noted that the names of those responsible for getting it in place were all men…

The rotunda is under reconstruction, so we couldn’t see a lot inside.

We did see a lot of hallways.

The AG REALLY doesn’t like visitors.

Our final stop on the road trip was a strange mini-museum dedicated to Big Boy restaurants. Apparently, one of the original drive-ins was located here. Now it’s in a parking lot.

Bye-bye, Big Boy.

Then we pointed the car toward home.

The whole trip ran just over 2000 miles over 8 days, and we are happy to be home. I’ll be posting a video covering the whole trip next week under the “From the Pop Culture Bunker” banner on SFPPN. Thanks for following us!