Oh, I've just remembered its Davids Birthday - big 65!! His choice for his birthday treat was Disney World, hence the reason we were there last week. Thank heavens we didn't go for Angela's first choice - New York, as they had a huge dump of snow that day.
The buildings around Charleston are beautiful - prices start at $1.5million (1+1/2 dollars to the pound)
Charleston, South Carolina, harbour where the first shot of the civil war was fired.
We are deep in the bible belt here. Charleston is known as The Holy City due to the prominence of churches on the low-rise cityscape, particularly the numerous steeples which dot the city's skyline, and for the fact that it was one of the few cities in the original thirteen colonies to provide religious tolerance, albeit restricted to non-Catholics. Many Huguenots found their way to Charleston.[Charleston was also one of the first colonial cities after Savannah, Georgia to allow Jews to practice their faith without restriction.
We enjoyed dinner one evening at a restaurant in Charleston called Hominy Grill
A fusion of modern and southern foods. We smiled when we saw macaroni cheese listed on the veggies list, saw it many times after that. Still to be convinced of collard greens and grits.
Here we are still in North Carolina, at the famous Baltimore's House built around 1880, near Ashville still owned by one of the Vanderbilt's ancestors.
Entry fee to the house and estate was extortionate but worth every cent. A few things worth knowing:
1. If you buy your ticket after 4pm its valid for the rest of the day and the following day.
2. The tour of the house is well worth the entry fee but its well worth the extra $10 to hire the audio tour.
3. Vanderbilt was worried about fire so there is virtually no wood in the house, the roof is made of slate hung on wires and the beams are all steel.
4. The food at the 'village pub' called Cedric's and at the Bistro is excellent. The wine tasting is free, no limit to how many wines you taste in the obligatory shop, and the bottles of wine are not overpriced.
The beautiful view from Biltmore House. This view is totally man made, Vanderbilt owned 125,000 acres and he wanted to look out on a forest so he planted one and this is part of it.
The old walled vegetable garden now used for trialing flowers particularly roses.
The heated conservatory was and still is used for growing exotic plants, has some beautiful orchids.
The blacksmith at work, his skills are still required for repair and maintenance.
The Smokey Mountains. This photo does not do justice to the fall colours but the haze gives the mountains their name.
Well here we are in Lexington, Kentucky. The wealth of the city built on horses. The minerals in the ground grow grass which is perfect for grazing horses.
Had breakfast in the 'Track Canteen' frequented by jockeys and trainers at the Keeneland race course. We wandered all through the stables and then round the Grandstand and nobody asked us who we were or what we were doing. The only chap we spoke to gave us directions to the canteen.
After breakfast at the 'Track Kitchen' our next stop was the Kentucky Horse Park. If you are this way, look up their annual programme of events, which includes dog shows as well. Unfortunately we arrived on the last day of the season so most of the 40 different horse breeds had been dispersed to winter quarters. We were lucky enough to be treated to an arena display by 5 different breeds including a spotted horse breed called a Knabstrup and my new friend below.
A memorial to what many people consider the greatest race horse of all time, Man O' War.
His stride was 28 feet.
A Knabstrup named Icarus.
Meet my new friend, an English Shire horse called Albion.
For the peeping toms this was our bedroom at the Essenhaus Inn, Nr Middlebury, Indiana, in the heart of Amish country. We have included it because it was the nicest room and hotel that we stayed in. We paid the 'Tuesday Special' price but I would have been quite happy to pay the full price. Next door was a great restaurant and bakery, selling and serving 30 different flavours of fruit pie. David wanted to stay for a month so that he could have a different flavour of pie each day.
Their southern fried chicken was good to.
We had to try biscuits (scones) and gravy (a white sauce with diced ham or sausage) for breakfast! Much better than it sounds.
A typical rural view in Wisconsin. Norwegian,Swedish and Dutch heritage. We have not seen so many Frisian cattle since we left the UK. Wisconsin is renowned for their excellent cheeses-and they are superb.
From Chicago it was a straight run home via Minot. We had intended to overnight in Minot but there was not a vacant room to be had. We pressed on and found a room nearer the border, the Quilt inn. Next door was a restaurant/bar full of hunters, it was day one of the hunting season.
In 7 weeks of travel its the only bar where David could enjoy a relaxing drink and smoke!!
Arrived home on Saturday 5th November in fine but cool weather, we appreciated what wonderful neighbours we have when we pulled up at the house and they all welcomed us home.
Thank you for looking after our home.
We just made it as we woke up Sunday morning to 2 inches of snow.
This is the end of our Great American Road Trip.
Our thanks go to Coralea Benson who suggested a route and many of the places we visited. A great tour guide, who if she is willing, we will certainly consult again.
Would we do it again? Um, it was a long way to drive, 11,717km or 7,323 miles. But a great way to see places that we normally only read about. Normally we hop on a plane and go from A to B and never see any of the countryside, see the sights, meet the people, sample the traditional foods.
Perhaps to answer the question David is thinking that next year we may take a shorter drive through Montana, Washington and Oregon.
!!!!
