"That's How They Do It In Dixie"

I keep on forgetting to include the daily map....here is the one for Friday 11th

We did 364 miles, spent nearly all of it Travelling across the State of Tennessee And then just popping across the State line of Virginia before we stop for the night.

Last night was the last of the Motels, though clean and comfortable can be hit & miss, last nights was a miss, AC / Heater working overtime and so loud, had too unplug it in the end just to think. The sink plug had to be removed by finger nails has the mechanical mechanism is missing. +'s shower good and the towels a little more fluffy than normal.

The temperature has been dropping the further East we go, down to 5 C when we stop. Overnight we had a hard frost, -2 C this morning.

Need to get a coffee, its only been a few min's on I 40 when we see sign for a Starbucks, not seen too many of these along the way outside of major cities...

All refreshed, should allow us to knock out a few miles before we need another top up. Ali's having a bit of a nightmare with navigating today, taking in too much of the scenery, all she needs to do is keep the Blue dot on the Blue line....
We make it to the first port of call, The Walton's Museum, the drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains was akin to to very narrow country lanes back in the UK but the scenery is stunning.

The school closed down in 1991, so now purely dedicated to the Walton's, but it is the same school the author, Earl Hamner Jr. went to. There are a fair few people here !!!, the displays are of the History of the School and the author, they have various scene set ups from the program. The Walton's was based on Earl Hamner (John-boy) experiences growing up in Blue Ridge mountains, his family and the people that he grew up with, the actual filming of the program was done in California. The following pictures are of the set over 3,000 miles away....

The actual house that author grew up in does look similar but smaller, and majority of the houses up here are of a similar build, the school is the only brick building I can see around here.

A pretty church near the school

As I said they have number of scenes from the program recreated, so here is a Walton's fest... Above John-boy's bedroom.

His desk...

His type writer...

This is an actual still that was confiscated and is now being used in the display depicting a scene where the Baldwin sisters made fathers Recipe.

Took many photo's but don't want to put you to sleep...

On the road again, well a road..., Ali is still having a problem with that Blue dot, just a few extra miles added to the journey.... I'm pleased with the Data package we got from AT&T, have only used a small amount of the 2 Gigs data purchased, helped by the free WiFi at most places we stay and some retail outlets.

Nearly there just less than 50 miles to go before Washington and I can hand the car back to Alamo, darn.... what's that, Blue flashing lights (to go with the Blue dot and the Thin Blue line....), "Afternoon Officers...How fast !!!"
Paranoid about the speed limit now for the rest of the journey, and that one of their mates might jump out from a bush with a cheesy grin on his face (Enos or Cletus from the Duke's)....

City limits now, and normal city driving going on by the locals, this is the part Ali's hates, keeps her eyes down on the iPad and that Blue dot.
We are staying just on the outskirts of Washington, in Arlington, near the Alexandria area (one of Bill's recommendations) at the Hilton - Garden Inn, and what an excellent choice.

It's a bit of culture shock, we spent most of the last couple of weeks coming across the usual fast chain networks and struggling to find independent restaurants and then eating at various diners, there not been a wealth of choice so far.
This is such a nice area, with plenty of different shops. This is residential and not your normal city place to stay, young family's and a large number of young couples with dogs... Its got a cosmopolitan feel about it, with a lots of outside seating which is being used due to the warm weather we are experiencing.

We book in and again another nice room with excellent WiFi, :-)

We eat at a Lebanese, a little different to what you get the UK but very nice. We around the evening of with a hot chocolate, a dark one for me and a white one for Ali, one of the best hot chocolates I had since Venice.... This coffee house is new to me...

PS - I did get little telling off for "A few of my favourite things..." so here is my favourite of all time...

Under the influence of a few Hurricanes.....