Road Junkies

For years we have talked about visiting Key West, but we were put off by its party central, wasted-away in Margaritaville reputation. And yet it hovered on our list because of our friends’ enthusiasm about its eccentric personality and tropical allure. And there were the literate types like Hemingway and Tennessee Williams and even Robert Frost who found it compelling. Finally we had to see for ourselves, so we spent three days in Key West from March 11 to 13. Though we did a modicum of research prior to our departure, we learned several major lessons that would have made our trip much more enjoyable if we'd had the knowledge beforehand.

Our blog has moved to a new location. We've finally admitted we are Road Junkies! Our blog is now located at http://www.theroadjunkies.com.

Blowing Rock, NC
With all the beautiful and challenging trails in the "High Country" area, there was no shortage of great places to hike.

And thanks to a few very active local letterboxers, most trails have letterboxes to search for, making the walk oh so much more interesting.

In addition to our traditional summer mountain week activities like boating on Lake Watauga and picnicking at Julian Price Park, we also visited the Ashe County Cheese Factory in West Jefferson, a tasty adventure. As an extra treat, there was even a letterbox planted at the factory!

It was a week filled with games and good food, family stories and a relief from the heat and humidity back home.

Some familiar traditions, some new adventures...

A bit of challenge...

...And one broken arm. A humerus story that wasn't the least bit funny. Away from the rocky and treacherous trails, Dianne fell in the neighborhood, fracturing the upper right arm.

But even that wasn't enough to detract from another fantastic family vacation.

Finally! Our annual summer week in Blowing Rock, a beautiful mountain village in the heart of North Carolina's High Country, arrived. 2010 marks the seventh summer we have spent a wonderful week in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Ken's family. As always, high on our agenda after we arrived on Sunday was a trip to the local Harris Teeter grocery store.

Ken's sister Marion is determined that we won't be visiting the grocery store every day this year as we usually do (of course, only time will tell). So this was a big shopping trip. Ryan, Heather and Emma arrived in Boone as we were leaving the store, not unhappy about missing the shopping experience.

Monday morning and no better way to start the week than our traditional stroll around the Bass Lake loop trail. In the dozen or more trips we've made to the Blowing Rock area together, never have we missed this Prager family ritual (and we have the photos to prove it).

After today's loop, during which we found a letterbox planted since our visit last October, Ryan, Emma and Grandma patiently posed for a photo op.

Then it was time to discuss that persistent question: What shall we do next?

Of course, the answer was easy... back to the townhouse for lunch. Later in the afternoon Ken and Dianne, Heather and Emma enjoyed a nice hike near the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way to find an outstanding letterbox. Back to home base for a delicious dinner and a ride on the Mexican Train. Ryan won, but we all had fun.

This weekend we made a quick visit to North Carolina to visit Ken's family. Our first stop was in Charlotte to visit his mother, who treated us to a wonderful lunch at her apartment. Then we were off to Greensboro to attend a performance of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by the Community Theater of Greensboro. The theater partnered with Guilford County Schools for this production, which included more than 100 cast members, all of whom were students, staff members, or parents from the schools.

Based on a children's book by Roald Dahl, the musical tells the tale of a poor boy who gets a golden ticket to tour a legendary candymaker's factory, where sinister sweets tempt the children. Emma, our great niece who turned seven in May, was an Oompa Loompa (candy factory worker) and a villager. (She is on the bottom left in this photo.) Her father, Bryan, who has lots of community theater experience, starred as Willie Wonka. After six weeks of rehearsals, the cast performed the production about a dozen times over two long weekends. We caught the show at the Saturday matinee, and they had two more performances to go.

We were quite impressed with the production, marveling at the flawless coordination of more than 60 children with costume changes. The five children who played the golden ticket winners amazed us with their poise and stage presence, and we loved the assistant principal as TV reporter. It was a fun event, and, along with the rest of the audience, we were quite entertained for two hours. Even the dozens of children in the audience were held spellbound (and quiet!) by this excellent performance.

What a change from last year! We drove to Alabama to visit Dianne's mother and help her celebrate her birthday. Last year was birthday #80 with all the attendant hoopla of a major party where dozens of family members and friends helped with the celebration. This year's celebration was much calmer and more relaxing. Steven, our 7-year-old nephew, was visiting "Nanamama" for a couple of weeks.

Ours is a card-playing family, and, like his sister Rachel when she was younger, Steven can hold his own with the adults with only a wee bit of coaching from Nanamama. Uncle Jim, who lives nearby, is a card player also and visited to join in the games. We were relieved to see him looking so hale and hardy after some serious health problems in the last couple of years.

While we were in the area, we visited Old St. Stephens Historical Park. Though now a ghost town, St. Stephens was once the center of activity in the area. During a brief three decades-- from the 1790s to its decline in the 1820s-- St. Stephens was the site of a Spanish fort, an American fort and trading post, and the Alabama Territorial capital. Alabama's first Governor, William Wyatt Bibb, presided over the first meeting of the Territorial Legislature at the Douglass Hotel on St. Stephens' High Street.

Today the area that was Old St. Stephens is a park, which offers a variety of recreational opportunities for visitors including horseback riding, boating or swimming in the 100-acre quarry lake, hiking, camping, and fishing. Students and staff from the University of South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies are conducting ongoing archaeological digs to shed new light on the people who lived and died at Old St. Stephens. We hope to plant a series of letterboxes in the area to help tell the story of this once bustling area.

While visiting Dianne's mother, we had the pleasure of meeting the newest member of the family, a beautiful yellow tabby kitten named Freda. This little bundle of energy provided much entertainment as she boldly scrambled up trees and across the frame of the swing. It was hilarious to watch her lying in the tall grass, stalking the soccer ball that Ken and Steven were kicking back and forth. No tiger ever concentrated harder on his prey.

Steven's favorite activity when we get together with him is playing Cash Cab. He has watched the show enough to know the ins and outs and all the rules and procedures. Moreover, he has an incredible store of knowledge for a seven-year-old. As a result, he had a big smile on his face when we left, and we wondered where we'd get gas money for the trip home.

The road trip we just completed was by far the longest we have experienced in our 37 years together.

We learned some things along the way:

1. Trip Advisor rocks. The Trip Advisor web site (http://www.tripadvisor.com/) provides reviews of hotels, restaurants, attractions, flights, and cruises from travelers. Not an endorsement (with who knows what perks exchanged) from a travel guide like Frommer's but everyday people like you and me tell about their experiences. We found the reviews to be almost 100% spot-on correct. Consulting TripAdvisor before we booked our hotel rooms proved to be an excellent filtering system to eliminate inadequately maintained properties. We also found it quite useful in finding good restaurants.

2. We really like Canada. (see Canada, eh? post). We definitely intend to return to this hospitable country... and soon.

3. Everyone has an Atlanta connection. As we traveled in the U.S. (this was not true in Canada), we were amazed that almost everyone we talked to had a relative or knew someone who lived in the metro Atlanta area.

Best of the Trip:
Best Food: PF Chang's vegetarian lettuce wrap (Atlantic City and Asheville)
Best Meal (Ken): Pan fried haddock at Old Triangle Irish Ale House in Moncton, NB
Best Meal (Dianne): Eggplant Parmesan at Bravo Cuccina Italiana in Cranberry Township, PA
Best Soup: Lefteris Gyro in Tarrytown, NY
Best Lodging: Lantern Hill and Hollow, Ingonish, NS
Best Hotel: Homewood Suites, Cranberry Township, PA
Best Natural Scenery: (tie) Acadia National Park (Maine) and Cape Breton National Park (Nova Scotia)
Best Cityscapes: Quebec City, QC; Ottawa, ON: and Pittsburgh, PA
Best Letterbox: (tie) The Flying Boat and Pennies from Heaven (both by X Marks the Spot, both in Virginia)
Most Scenic Drive: Cabot Trail, northern Nova Scotia
Best Tourist Attraction: Lucy and Desi Museum, Jamestown, NY
Most Interesting Person Met: Hank, the Kite Man, Portland, ME
Most Humorous Experience: Waiting for the praying ladies, Virginia Beach, VA
Most Impatient Drivers: New Jersey
Least Road Kill: Maine, Vermont & New Hampshire
Best Information: No poisonous snakes north of New Jersey
Best City Park: Victoria Park in Truro, NS

Trip Stats:
Miles driven: 8,484
Letterboxes: 201 found, 10 planted
States visited: 16
Provinces visited: 5

The bottom line: It was a great road trip, a superb odyssey in our Odyssey.