Belvidere to Roanoke

 Tuesday, August 27, 2024

This is such charming old hotel that it's hard to leave! There are lots of choices from the breakfast buffet, although there are no hot foods, like eggs or breakfast meats.  But there are lots of cereals and yogurt and juices and bread products with cream cheese and peanut butter and jelly. There are two teas, Liptons and lemon herbal.  And lots of pastries.  They've made excellent use of the front room, spreading things out into different stations so there's no crowding.

All the little touches!!

We've been so comfortable that time has slipped away from us and we need to scurry!  Everything is in the car already so we decide to talk a little walk to check out some of the little shops.  We've dallied long enough that they should be open!  The first one, which is really intriguing, says it's only open Saturday and Sunday! Oh well, there's another right across the street.  Hmm! It's only open on Saturdays from eleven to six! How do they survive?? 

We go back to the car and drive down South River Street because the map says there's a river and the street name seems to bare that out.  And sure enough there it is.  Time for a little nature!

As we're driving away we're captured by the elegant old houses! We could easily be in the early 1800s, when the hotel was first built!

Time to make tracks if we want to get to Yvette's before dark. We ask Waze where the nearest gas station is and we're off, passing though small town USA, with names like Harmony.  When we get to the station we discover that the guy hanging out really works there and he pumps our gas!  We remember the old days when they not only pumped your gas, but washed your windshield, checked your oil, and sometimes even gave you a glass or a towel or S&H Green Stamps!

1895!

See the bike?

The countryside is so lush and green with farmland and forests and so much open space!  We pass through New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Maryland and West Virginia and it's all gorgeous! 

We stop for lunch to-go at a Subway and we're off again. Oh!  The mountains take your breath away with the layers of blue. Most of the driving is not too stressful except that there are almost a many semis as there are cars and sometimes they like to throw their weight around, pushing into spaces that don't quite exist!  But for the most part they are respectful of the "lesser" vehicles on the road!

We've made it to Roanoke.

We've been talking with the Roanoke part of the family and finally have a plan.  We're going to check into our hotel, the Sleep Inn and then meet up for dinner.  The Sleep Inn is a huge surprise to me, given that it's less than a hundred dollars a night.  We have a room with two queen-sized beds and a large sitting room with a full sofa, coffee table, comfy cchair and a desk that runs the length of the room!  And the bathroom's preety nice, too!  Ginger always stays here when she comes up from Georgia to visit family. Three of her nieces and nephew live in Roanoke.  Tonight we'll meet Yvette, her husband, Paul, their daughter, Chloe, and three of nephew Josh's kids, Isaac, Olivia, and Jacob at Montano's Restaurant. It is Josh and his wife's anniversary, so they are having some personal time and Marissa isn't feeling well, so we don't get to see her and Fred.

We have a room to ourselves at the restaurant, which is great since they are playing Trivia in the main room! There is bread with a tasty olive oil, salads, and eight different entrees for the eight of us!  And a to-go dinner for Yvette and Paul's older daughter, Sophia, who is working tonight.

Mmm Hand-made chocolates!

After dinner we go back to Yvette and Paul's house.  But first we stop at Kroger's to get pie crusts and ice cream, because Ginger is going to make two more rhubarb pies with our newly-acquired rhubarb! And we pick up a cute little purple plant because I think Yvette deserves a little something.

When we arrive the first order of business is to get the pies into the oven. Ginger does the bulk of the prep but Yveette and I help a bit and we show her the fork technique for mashing the top and botton crusts together for the homemade look! Then we can all sit around the living room chatting and laughing and playing with their two new chihuahua puppies!  They adore Paul and basically spend the whole time in his lap.  Marge, the larger of the two litter mates, gets pretty unhappy is you try to bother her.  But the little girl likes people a lot better, although she, too, prefers her father's lap and will only visit someone else for about five seconds!

That's Marge giving me the side eye!

Still not trusting me!

Swirling chihuahuas!

The pies come out of the oven and are on people's plates with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream within minutes.  And the servings disappear just as fast!  I think this batch is even better than the last one! I didn't even know that I liked rhubarb pie! I rinse the dishes, so I can feel like I did something! Then it's time for Josh's kids to be taken home and for us to get to our luxury suite at the Sleep Inn! 

The beds are so comfortable and the a/c works great, so it's off to sleep! Blogging will have to wait for morning! (Since I'm writing this Wednesday morning, I will tell you that, although the wifi appears to be working, the blog has failed to update and the photos aren't syncing, so I don't know when this will get posted!  Maybe tonight when we get to Atlanta?) (More than one way to skin.... I'm using my hot spot and I copied the text before the internet ate it so I didn't have to rewrite everything!  I'm feeling pretty cocky!)