Earl and I hit the road early this morning. Not really an early bird, I realized that we had finished Pennsylvania (almost 100 miles), had passed through Maryland (12 miles) and were almost through West Virginia (about 15 miles) when I woke up.
And I was driving!
First order of business was to send a friendly wave to Thom in Northern Virginia as we passed his off ramp. Remembering our visit with him last year made us both smile. That was quickly followed by a wave to Jimbo in D.C. (via I-66 from where we were). We haven’t met Jimbo yet but he gets major woof points.
And then we made our way down I-81 through Virginia. There’s a lot of Virginia along I-81, but it’s a scenic drive. I had never been south of I-64 before so it was relatively uncharted territory.
Our first stop was for some grub in a delightfully homey-feeling chain of a place called “Country Cookin'”. These appear to be in old Perkins (or something like it) and are a lot like “Eat ‘n Park” that you see in Pennsylvania. The waitress, Gina, was friendly and tolerant when we made the huge southern faux pas of ordering “iced tea” instead of “sweet tea” or “unsweet tea”. We were corrected and learned our lesson for the duration of the trip.
After Country Cookin’ we washed the car (yay! for warm weather!) and then made a trek into Pulaski, Va. Ever since I was a little boy and discovered another town with the same name as my hometown on my grandparents’ map mounted on the dining room wall (very 60s chic), I’ve wanted to see what this other town was like. So Earl and I drove up Main Street of Pulaski (rhymes with “whee!” whereas my hometown of Pulaski, N.Y. rhymes with “why”). It’s a little bigger than it’s northern counterpart, but it has two interchanges with Interstate 81 and Route 11 runs right through the middle of it. It was kind of cool. Earl took the obligatory picture.
Betcha didn’t know that the simple things make me happy.
Wave back at ya!