Day 29: Travel day
Welcome
Yesterday we made our way from the northern edge of Kentucky all the way to central North Carolina.
I started my day with a search for a vantage point. Right behind our hotel stood a very large steel structure stretching across the broad Ohio River. The view was mostly obscured by huge earthen flood banks and trees so we drove a few minutes up the road to find higher ground. Finally I could take in the Brent Spence Bridge - a double-decker Cantilevered Truss Bridge that was completed in 1963. It has a total length of 529 metres and a longest span of 253.1 metres. I have a huge soft spot for cantilevered designs – something we see very little of in New Zealand – and an even softer spot for double decker bridges. The view afforded from Highway Avenue was excellent, the Cincinnati Skyline in the background and the calm waters of the Ohio River featuring the occasional pleasure-craft.
I couldn’t help thinking how good the view of the Brent Spence Bridge would have been from the revolving restaurant on the 18th floor of the iconic Radisson Hotel, Covington.
Our journey began on Kentucky Route 9, otherwise known as the AA highway for its role in connecting Alexandria and Ashland. We headed southeast along this windy two-lane road which is known for its fast drivers and high accident rate. Along the way our GPS guide Googlina continually prompted us with alternate routes, begging us to get off KR-9 but Tristan held fast and in a couple of hours we reached the safety of i64.
Shortly thereafter we crossed the state line into West Virginia and stopped at the town of Barboursville for breakfast. There weren’t many places on our route open on a Sunday but Oscar’s Breakfast, Burgers & Brews looked promising. Things got off to a great start when we were seated outside next a very small dog. For my meal I ordered an H Town: country-fried steak smothered in sausage gravy, served with two eggs, and one biscuit.
Back in the van we got moving again, briefly branching onto Big Ben Bowen Highway before hopping back on i64 and passing through Charleston, West Virginia’s state capital, where we pivoted south onto the West Virginia Turnpike. Short-leaf Pine and Oak forests lined the road for the next few hours as we headed through the steep countryside, climbing through the southern reaches of the Appalachian Mountains. For a brief period we were in Virginia on the D. Woodrow Bird Memorial Highway and then we crossed into North Carolina where the quality of the roads improved measurably.
📷 Tristan Deck
The Pilot Mountain Parkway was the first of a series of beautifully maintained highways that we drove and it took us past the metamorphic quartzite monadnock that was known to the Saura Native Americans as Jomeokee.
Jomeokee, or Pilot Mountain.
📷 Tristan Deck
Morale was high at this point in the drive. Tristan and I found strength in listening to a selection of Jazz Fusion Music. Artists like Dave Holland Big Band, Steps Ahead, and Pat Metheny filled us with energy, while the other van passengers found strength in trying to block out this music.
📷 Tristan Deck
We left the Pilot Mountain Parkway for the John Gold Memorial Expressway and then at the city of Winston-Salem we hooked east onto the extremely handsome Salem Parkway, fresh from its $100 million revamp and naming competition where its current title beat out Golden Leaf Parkway, Innovation Highway, and Piedmont Corridoor.
A large part of North Carolina’s parkway upkeep budget goes into maintaining these complex hedge sculptures, meant to depict a Cretaceous Period scene with an assembly of large therapods.
📷 Tristan Deck
The giant flag at Camping World of Colfax, seen from the Salem Parkway.
📷 Tristan Deck
Finally at 8.30pm we arrived at Gabe’s childhood home in Raleigh, North Carolina. The welcoming lights of a suburban dwelling peered out at us over the front lawn and Gabe’s parents Izy and Richard came out to greet us. It was an incredibly comforting experience to go into a house again. Izy prepared us a beautiful meal and we sat around a proper dining table with proper non-disposable plates and cutlery. The unexpected icing on the cake was getting to wash a few dishes, the first cleaning any of us have done in nearly a month.
We were knackered from the day’s driving but the van computer was eager to reward us for our hard work. We ended up scoring a 154 mile (248km) bonus with equivalent Acceleration, Coasting, and Constant values.
