Winter Roadtrip 2013

Written by Amy, pictures by Joel

Thursday, February 14

We left Cedar Rapids at about 1PM, heading to Indianapolis. Joel suggested trying to find a supper club just over the Indiana border for dinner. We realized that it was Valentine’s Day, but thought we’d get there by 5:30, which was maybe early for the dinner crowd, but then we realized the time zone changed, and it would be 6:30! Luckily, we did get into the The Beef House in Covington. They are known for their rolls, which our waitress took a while to bring us! We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express in south Indianapolis.

Friday, February 15

We took I74 around Cincinnati  and then I75 south past Lexington, KY, then stopped in Corbin, KY. We had a little snow and rain most of the way. Corbin is the birthplace of Colonel Sanders famous chicken recipe. They have a “museum” where the cafe that was that first served his chicken. (It is now an official KFC, as we found out when we got there.) It would’ve been better if it was still a cafe!

Had a little lunch there then decided to go to Cumberland Falls, which is southwest of Corbin. Still rainy, but mostly just intermittent drizzle. We first stopped at an overlook of the hilly forest:

Then we found the waterfall itself. There was a nice pathway to get to it – it stopped raining for our little walk! Not a tall waterfall, but very wide and powerful:

The falls are called “The Niagara Falls of the South”. On rare occasions, it will produce a moonbean rainbow – moonlight plus mist from the falls. The rainbow is best seen in winter during a full moon on a clear night. According to the literature, Cumberland Falls is only one of the two falls in the world to produce moon rainbows!

We headed back to the outskirts of Corbin for gas (the most redneck gas station and people we’ve ever seen), then went on highway 25E to Middlesboro and Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. It continued to rain and drizzle on the drive, but as soon as we went into the visitor’s center, it stopped! We took a short hike to the Saddle of the Cumberland Gap:

Then we hiked up Tri-State Peak, where three states meet up (Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia):

Back in the car, we drove through the Cumberland Gap tunnel into Tennessee and headed to our hotel in Morristown. We had dinner at the Akita Express Japanese Grill, which was a fast, casual Japanese eatery. The cashier and wait staff had a definite southern twang. The entrees came with sweet carrots and “shrimp sauce”, which seemed to be mostly mayonnaise and chili powder.

Saturday, February 16

Headed toward Asheville, NC. It snowed as we drove through the mountains, but luckily it didn’t stick to the road or get slick. We decided not to do the Biltmore tour. We drove around Asheville, but it was rain/snowing and cold, so we didn’t do much there. We left town and tried to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it was closed.

Instead, we decided to take back roads instead of Interstate 26 – most of the way on US Highway 176. It was very scenic and more relaxing than rushing through on the Interstate. Near the town of Saluda, we saw a sign that said “Pearson’s Falls – Open”, so we took the mile-long crossroad to check it out. Operated by the Tryon Garden Club, Pearson’s Falls is a natural area with trails, gardens and of course, the falls themselves. We took the winding path to get to the falls:

The falls themselves were very nice:

After leaving the waterfall, we continued on Route 176 into Spartanburg, SC. We found a Cuban restaurant, “A Caribbean Sweetness” on tripadvisor.com, and it was very good. Then we drove through Columbia, SC and we were not impressed with the town. Seemed grungy.

Then we drove down to Charleston, SC, mostly on back roads. Joel enjoyed stopping to take pictures of rundown houses:

In Charleston, we splurged on two nights at the downtown Marriott Courtyard using reward points. The area was very crowded due to a three-day Southeast Wildlife Expo partially taking place in Marion Square. The square was named for General Frances Marion, the Swamp Fox – who is also the namesake of Marion, IA. The square had a nice statue of the Swamp Fox on a tall pillar:

For dinner, we ordered a pizza from Mellow Mushroom that we walked to pick up then ate in the hotel room. Then we watched an episode of the Netflix series, House of Cards on Joel’s tablet.

Sunday, February 17

We found a bagel place, The Bagel Shop, for breakfast. There, we met a nice older couple that was in town for the Wildlife Expo. They had three-day passes, but were going home a day early and gave us their passes! It was cold and windy outside, but the sun was shining, so we first quickly visited the Expo, then walked down to the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue, the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the US. A nice guard let us in and we went through their museum, then took a brief guided tour:

After leaving the synagogue, we walked around scenic Charleston:

Then we brought lunch back to the hotel to eat while watching Iowa play Minnesota in basketball. Luckily the Hawks won!

Later that day, we walked around Marion Square to see the end of the Wildlife Expo, then met Rabbi Aaron Sherman and son Eli at a Starbuck’s (Stephanie wasn’t feeling well and didn’t join us). We found out that Eli likes birds.

Later, we went to CO, a “hip” Vietnamese restaurant, for dinner. We had pho to warm us up from the cold, windy day (they also served Bell’s Two Hearted Ale in bottles!).

Monday, February 18

Presidents Day and Joel’s birthday. We left Charleston and drove up to Sunset Beach, NC to see our old friends Tom Gaven and Maria Knapik. We had lunch at their house, and then they took us on a tour of the town and a walk on the beach – it was the best day weather-wise, sunny with temperatures in the upper 40s.

We celebrated Joel’s birthday with Tom and Maria at Flying Fish Public Market and Grill in North Myrtle Beach. We had wanted fresh seafood, but they really didn’t have any local catch, so that was a bit disappointing (plus the seafood chili had WAY too much chili powder!). We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Little River, SC.

Tuesday, February 19

Started driving on back roads (mostly state road 9) up to Charlotte, NC to visit Mark, Kandis and Christian. It rained much of the way, but before it started, saw an owl and an old, abandoned airport:

The rain stopped as we neared Charlotte. Once there, we went to Glieberman’s Kosher Mart and Deli looking for Passover food. They didn’t have it out yet, but we did share a pastrami sandwich. We then stopped at Trader Joe’s, but they also had no Passover goods, but we did buy some Dogfish Head brewery products not available in Iowa (60-Minute and 90-Minute IPAs).

We checked in at the Fairfield Inn in north Charlotte, then waited to hear from Kandis. It ended up that Christian had to work and Mark was stuck in meetings at work, so we went with Kandis to Bobbee O’s BBQ for dinner. Then Amy and Kandis drove to Target to see Christian at work while Joel crashed in the hotel.

During the past couple of days, we had been monitoring a snow storm heading toward the Midwest. Our plan had been to take back roads up through West Virginia and spend the night in Huntington and then drive home on Thursday, but due to the storm, we decided to drive the whole way back on Wednesday.

Wednesday, February 20

We started the drive at 6:30AM and took I77 north to Charleston, WV and then I64 to Louisville, KY. Then we took I65 to Indianapolis and I74/I80 back home. Stopped at Zaxby’s in Frankfort, KY for a quick lunch.

We got home around 8PM Central time and beat the storm easily. The next morning, we picked up Bruce from the Shepard’s and started getting back to the old routine.