Roanoke to Atlanta

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

It's the home stretch!  The breakfast buffet at the Sleep Inn includes fresh make-it-yourself waffles with banana-nut batter and eggs and sausage as well as all the usual dry offerings like cereal and oatmeal, and four kinds of juice and so forth. 

We take our time and finally move everything back into the car.  One can't come to Roanoke with visiting the Roanoke Star!  And so we do!  What a magnificent view of the city and all the mountains that surround it!  There is a young father there with his two-year old twin girls!  We chat for a while before the girls get too antsy and we have to leave, too, if we want to get home tonight! 

I'm told that it's even cooler at night when the star is lit!

We pass a road called Puppy Love! Isn't that precious?

The first hour or so is on a winding, two-lane road that Ginger knows.  She loves to come this way because it is so beautiful.  Even when we get onto the Interstate, the views are still of nature and the natural world.  We pass Fancy Gap and I really wish we could stop and drink in the beauty - but that's kind of suicidal on an Interstate! And now we're in North Carolina. This stretch of road has not one, or two, but three runaway truck ramps! Pretty steep!

You'll just have to trust me!  Fancy Gap through the driver's window just doesn't do it justice!

Classic Deep-South courthouse with the confederate soldier out front.


We've been on the road for quite a while now and Ginger wonders if we need to stop for lunch or something.  Right at that moment a winery sign shows up and we take that as an omen. the next exit finds us checking my Google maps app for "wineries near me" and we follow faithfully until we arrive at the Sanders Ridge Vineyard and Winery. 
 

There are no cars in the lot and the place looks dark.  Has this been an exercise in futility? Should we have selected a different one?  NO! The door opens and we still see no one;  but a voice answers our "Hello?" and we are exactly where we belong!  The lady is the only person on the premises and she does everything.  She explains that we can have a five-wine flight and lets us choose.  We can also have lunch and we select the Harvest Apple Salad with chicken.  She pours our wine and goes into the kitchen to prepare our lunch!

The salads are really good with fresh, warm cornbread and lots of hot chicken, apples, blue cheese, spiced pecans and poppyseed dressing, one of my favorites!  The wines aren't as good as the salad;  but as with all wines, after a couple of sips they're not so bad.

We admire the building and she tells us that the owner and his son cut down the trees themselves and did the millwork.  And there are no nails!

There's a water body next to the winery and we go check that out before taking photos of the grapes and hitting the road.

The water must be healthier than it looks!

We're in South Carolina, with the huge Confederate flag and the lovely welcome center and the peach with diaper rash - or at least that's what Ginger calls it!

The ladies guessed that we were going to Atlanta! They said everyone they'd seen today was going to Atlanta, either for DragonCon, Smashing Pumpkins, or Green Day

I wouldn't want to be on the Interstate with this little protection around me!  And he must be HOT!!

On and on and on and finally we are in Georgia and then Atlanta and then home!! Harriet greets us but Ginger has to call Moxie who is outside.  Hope that happened this morning when Elizabeth and David came over! We unload the car and I deal with the task of consolidating all the little bits and pieces into just a suitcase and backpack! I think I've won the battle but tomorrow morning will tell the tale.  At least I was able to check into my flight while we were driving. We grab something to eat and I write this entry - then it's off to bed!