Road Trip 2011: Day 20 of 20 (Summersville, WV to Atlanta, GA)

New River Gorge Canyon Rim Visitor Center

New River Gorge Bridge

Other Images

Dinner at the Penguin in Charlotte, NC

Road Food Review

The place was almost empty when we arrived but quickly got crowded

Fried pickles are one of their specialties. We also tried cheerwine for the first time and liked it.

The food was fantastic - very fresh and flavorful. The black bean and corn salsa was surprisingly good.

Helen makes "worm dirt" chocolate pudding for the kids so we had to get some along with some banana pudding. Both desserts were simple in appearance but surprisngly good - like everything we ate at the Penguin.

It was so good we got another hot dog and cheeseburger to chase the dessert down

Finally home sweet home

Sunday June 20, 2011

We spent the night in Summersville, West Virginia and had a full day's drive in front of us to make it home. We didn't plan on going to the New River Gorge, but drove right past it so we decided to stop.

Nobody else was really ready or that motivated to get out, so I jumped out alone to investigate. It was a nice visitor center and a movie was starting so I went in to see the movie. When I got back to the van, everyone wondered why it took me so long. I told them that I saw a movie and they were upset that I didn't come back to get them. I told them you snooze you lose and that they needed to stay prepared or else they run the risk of missing out.

They all decided they did want to get out and check things out. We spent some time in the visitor center and then took a walk to the viewing area for the New River Gorge Bridge. The bridge was completed in 1977 and was the largest steel arch bridge in the world for a long time. It is now the 3rd largest.

We ran into a huge traffic jam near the West Virginia and North Carolina border. We later found out the interstate was closed for hours because of a big wreck. We waited in the traffic for about half an hour before working with the GPS to figure out a new route. We were glad we took the new route. It was really pretty and saved us a lot of time in the end.

We stopped in Charlotte, NC for dinner. We were originally looking for a barbecue restaurant that had good reviews and were having trouble locating it. There was a lot of construction in the area. After the interstate standstill and now the trouble finding the barbecue restaurant, Helen wanted to give up and get back on the highway. I said no way. We were going to find that dang restaurant. When we finally found it - it was closed. Helen wanted to cry.

I told her there was another restaurant in the area and started towards it. The surroundings started looking a little shady, but we stuck with it and eventually found the restaurant. And that's how we ended up at the Penguin. The restaurant was pretty empty when we got there but quickly filled up. There seemed to be a good mix of locals and people like us who had heard of its reputation for good food.

The food was typical grill food, but it was all surprisingly good. The path getting there was a little bumpy, but it worked out in the end.

The rest of the ride to Atlanta went smoothly. The kids started to get excited as they recognized more and more of their surroundings. They really missed our dog, Lulu, and missed our gerbil, George, and "kind of" missed our cat, Grayson. They had good natured arguments about who was going to cuddle "Jabubu" (Lulu) first and who was going to get to count all of Lulu's boobies to make sure that she still had 8 and that none had mysteriously disappeared during our absence.  

Road Trip 2011: Day 19 of 20 (Niagra Falls, Ontario to Summersville, WV)

It was dark when we checked in and we couldn't see the Falls all that well, but we had a great view in the daylight

Our hotel was too big and too busy. The breakfast looked pretty good, but tasted pretty bad.

There was a nice view of the Falls from the restaurant

We visited the American side of the Falls the previous day and today we were visiting the Canadian side

Niagra Falls Incline Railway

Miracle at Niagra

Honeymoon Bridge Collapse

Niagra Falls At Night

The area around the Falls on both sides is nice. Thankfully both the Americans and Canadians have done a good job of allowing plenty of room to roam around and they've kept it from being overly cheesy.

Back to the States

We stopped in Hamburg, New York to see our friend Wendy who used to live in Atlanta and who we haven't seen since 1994. My how time flies!   

I don't know that Helen or I have the bandwidth or the inclination to exert the energry required to maintain a close friendship, but Helen got along great with Wendy and often thought that maybe it could have happened with Wendy had she stayed in Atlanta.

They don't like to practice piano but love to show off the results when they have an audience

Such a cute house

Playing in the creek with Wendy's son

The town grooms this hill in the winter for sledding

When Mom's squishy belly is not available for cuddling, Adam will make do with Derek's

Pittsburgh

Primanti Brothers

Now that's a sandwich! Made even better when paired with an Iron City beer. 

Saturday June 18, 2011

We opened up the curtains in the morning to a beautiful view of the falls. We spent some time enjoying the view and then went down to breakfast. We really liked the Embassy Suites breakfast when we stayed in New York and we were looking forward to a similar experience. We were disappointed. The hotel was pretty crowded and, although the breakfast area was large, it was still a hectic experience and the food quality was poor.

We spent the previous day on the American side of the falls and today we were checking out the Canadian side. The Incline Railway was across the street from our hotel and we took it down to the park that borders the falls. We walked around the park and took in the beautiful views. We were getting wet from the spray thrown off by the falls.

We went back to get our van and then drove across to the American side of the falls before heading on to Hamburg, New York to visit a friend who used to live in Atlanta. Our friend, Wendy, was dating a friend of mine when we met her in the early 90's. She ended up breaking up with the friend but kept in touch with Helen. Wendy and Helen got along well. Wendy helped us with a number of projects when we first moved into our house in 93. In fact, Wendy helped us put up the wallpaper border in our bedroom on New Year's Eve. Wendy is originally from Buffalo and moved back there in 94. We have kept in touch only sporadically through Christmas cards and such.

We pretty much have our family unit and don't do much to cultivate outside friends, but Helen often wonders if she would have been able to maintain the friendship she had with Wendy if Wendy had stayed in Atlanta.

Wendy and her family have the cutest house. We had a nice relaxing time catching up and visiting with Wendy and her family. They seem to have a wonderful lifestyle and seem very happy. It's hard to believe it's been almost 20 years.

We drove through Pittsburgh and stopped for dinner at Primanti Brothers. They have various locations around town, but I wanted to go to the original which is located downtown in an old warehouse area. The Primanti Brothers made stick to your ribs style food for the workers in the area. You gotta love a sandwich that comes with the fries already on the sandwich to simplify things. I also tried Iron City beer for the first time and really liked it. Even Helen, who doesn't like beer, thought Iron City was pretty good.

I had hoped to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in southern Pennsylvania, but we were too late. We drove on hoping to get as close as we could to home and minimize the driving distance the next day - the final day of our vacation. We ended up at a Hampton Inn in Summersville, WV a little south of Morgantown, home of West Virginia University.