Da Beach and Da Mountains
Liz and I just finished a 16 day trip to North and South Carolina.
Along the way, we visited 19 new NTN sites for trivia, took a drive along the National Road from Zanesville to Cambridge, Ohio, and got down with the Mayberry folks in Mt. Airy, NC.
Visited with family and spent two nights apiece in Topsail Beach, Carolina Beach, and Myrtle Beach.
Went to the Spot Festival in Hampstead, NC, and enjoyed Wilmington, NC's waterfront. Had some reakly great shrimp at Calabash, NC, right on the NC-SC line.
It was Bike Week in Myrtle Beach, so lots of motorcycles. Sad to see the old Pavilion and entertainment center gone. Next visit to MB, we'll spend a day at Murrell's Inlet, south of town. That looks like quite the food and party area.
Met up with family at Sevierville, Tn, for the Northern Illinois-Tennessee game in Knoxville. My wife and I are NIU graduates. My nephew and his wife graduated from UT and my brother's money went to UT.
Great meal and experience at the Apple Barn.
Saturday,before the game, did the Cumberland Crawl along US-70, the big hangout for Tennessee students. Lots of bars and didn't get to the game until almost half-time. NIU lost 13-9.
Spent Sunday night in Gatlinburg and drove some of the Great Smoky National Park the next day.
Monday, we drove to Richmond, Kentucky and took one of the most beautiful drives I've been on, US-421 to Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio River.
Besides Lexington, we went through Frankfort, the state capital. That view from Daniel Boone's grave is something else.
Madison has one of the great riverfront parks in the country.
Saw a little pre-covered bridge festival in Rockland, Indiana, and even gotout to one bridge before we got lost and the rains came. We'llhave to go back there some time and do the whole tour.
