We left SC at 9 on the dot. First stop was one of the top 10 kitchest attractions in America, South of The Border. Now generally, South of the Border is the Texas/Mexico border, but in this case, it's the South Carolina/North Carolina border. And since its on the south side of the border between the 2, it's south of the border. Still with me?
The first billboards for SOB (for short) start to appear long before the place itself. All kinds of signs in different languages and using different takes on words. They all feature a Mexican man, Pedro, the archetypical stereotype Mexican....think big droopy moustache, sombrero, colourful blanket, and you have Pedro. The first actual sighting of the place is a huge Sombrero mounted on a tower. I'm not sure if it can be seen from space, but it sure as hell is visible from a fair distance!
We pulled into SOB, and kitch didn't BEGIN to describe the place. It's all Mexican themed shops, bright fibreglass animals,diners, restaurants, game arcades....even a motor inn. Put on the sunnies, this place is BRIGHT!!! Some of the store names include Pedros Leather Shop, full of cheap touristy mementoes and Mexican themed stuff, The Mexico shop, full of cheap touristy mementoes and Mexican themed stuff, hats, toys...pretty much anything they can put a bright South of The Border emblem on, it's there. Shot glasses, pens, nail files, purses....everything!!! We had a look around both stores and bought.....cheap Mexican themed touristy mementoes. (Well, what did you expect? We ARE tourists!!!). We kind of had SOB overload so avoided the t-shirt shop and headed to the Cantina for a coffee before hitting the road again. We didn't go to the Fireworks shops, beach shop, Reptile Lagoon, World Imports.....there's only so much cheap Mexican themed mementoes we could fit in the van!!!
Our next stop was in Rockingham NC, for lunch at Dairy Queen. Doc, Andrew & Gage all raved about DQ so it was only natural we sample its food. It's like a KFC; chicken products, burgers, chips (I'm refusing to call them fries!!) and ice cream. Overall it wasn't bad, certainly better than some food we've sampled!!
It was after lunch that Doc started commenting that it didn't feel right but she was following her GPS. After about an hour she rechecked her data, and we were in fact going to a completely different place than where we were supposed to be going! We were meant to be headed to Pungo in Virginia but ended up going an hour in the wrong direction. So we did the worlds largest u turn through back country to get back onto the correct highway. Meanwhile we didn't care, we were loving the passing scenery! Trees for miles, little towns with random gravestones in the front yards....it's ok to bury family members on private property here, assuming of course you let the authorities know the person has actually died! So you'll be driving along and see a cluster of headstone just randomly on the side of the road.....
The time just flew by. Doc & I up the front catching up on the last 20 odd years, Andrew playing Gameboy, Bernie snoring and the 3 kids in the back doing their own thing. Amy did Gages hair (it's like silk, really, and Amy has made it her mission to try and knot it...no luck so far) and then did his make up. He makes a pretty girl! Bernie falls asleep on long car trips, and there are photos of him at various times in various sleeping positions....
After a rest stop at the Nash County stop, we drove on. Rest stops over here aren't just a bit of shade and a picnic table on the side of the road, they have lots of toilets, showers and vending machines. They are like the luxury idea of rest stops.
Now it was full steam ahead to Pungo. By now we'd crossed into Virginia, and Pungo had an aviation museum with metal dinosaurs in the front garden. The idea was to stop and look at the planes, but due to an almost 3 hour detour, it was closed by the time we got there. But the dinosaurs were accessible, so we stopped and had a look. They were actually really good! We took photos and decided it was time to eat. We drove on a bit until we came across Seacrest Restaurant, so we all piled in for dinner.
One menu item was collared greens. Neither Bernie or I had any idea what they were, so Doc got some for us to try. And OMG! It's kind of like spinach but not spinach....and seasoned to perfection! Bernie couldn't get enough of them! For a small eatery, the food was good, the atmosphere nice and the staff friendly.
Another anomaly over here is free refills. At Seacrest, I was about half way through my root beer (sarsaparilla - yum!) when the waitress walked past and picked up my glass. My first reaction was 'hey, I wasn't finished with that', when Doc enlightened me to the fact that most places have free refills. I was gobsmacked! Anywhere we eat, you finish a drink, you buy another. Over here, as long as its a fountain (post mix) drink, refills are free. At worst, places might charge a quarter for a refill. Just another reason to move here.
After a nice dinner, we climbed back into the van and continued to head to Maryland. The kids dozed off, as did Bernie (again. He missed a lot of countryside due to being asleep....). At one stage I turned around and nearly wet myself laughing when I saw him fast asleep, leaning forward in his seat like he'd dropped something and was looking for it. I snapped a shot on my phone and showed Doc, who promptly burst into laughter and had to slow down, for fear of crashing. The laughter woke Bernie up, and the next 10 minutes was just pure laughter until we were crying with laughter.
About an hour outside of Maryland, we noticed lightning off in the distance. Not just the odd flash, but strikes every 5-10 seconds, and it was awesome!! It was in a cloudy patch of sky and it just kept flashing, some smaller ones with the odd large one.
We know we were in Maryland when Quantico came up on our right. Quantico is the main Marine headquarters, and the building is quite striking. The other building that's hard to miss is Capitol Hill. We saw it as we came over the bridge. We also knew it was another half hour to our hotel in Waldorf, a suburb of Maryland.
We arrived at the hotel at about 1.15am and checked it, and it wasn't long before we hit the hay, ready for another days events.
Thursday morning dawned bright and clear. A quick breakfast before heading to Walmart to pick up a couple of things, and then we had an hours drive to Piney Point to see the light house. Again, it was more glorious countryside dotted with little towns. We passed a few Amish farms and saw the Amish riding their horse drawn buggies. We wound down to the Potomac River to see.....the smallest lighthouse ever! We were expecting a big light house, but were greeted by a midget one! But we looked at it, took some happy snaps of it and some really nice houses, and drove off in search of lunch. We stopped at the Olde Towne Cafe. Food was bad!!! Service was bad!! In the land of tipping, we didn't bother!! I had a Cobb salad, and it was nasty. One piece of lettuce still had dirt on it!! A quick drool over a Chevy showroom and a brand new Camero ($31,890!!!), and it was back to the hotel. Just as we arrived, a massive clap of thunder made us all jump, and then applaud. It seems we are all storm fans!!
After a quick hour or so, it was off to DC. Doc had a function to attend, which was the whole reason for the side trip. She went off and left the rest of us to wander down the Mall of America. Not a shopping mall, but a lovely stroll from monument to monument.
We began at Capitol Hill, the home of American politics. A glorious domed building used in most pictures of DC. After some happy snaps, we wandered to the next monument. As we headed to the Washington monument, we were flanked by the buildings of the Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian Castle was breath taking - huge old Gothic style.
The Washington monument was covered in scaffolding, as it was under repair from the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked DC in 2011. But it was still very commanding and huge! We made our way to the WWII memorial and took some time to reflect.
It was getting on for dinner time, so we left the Lincoln memorial for tomorrow and headed off in search of something to eat, passing by the White House. We stopped to take some pictures, waved to Obama (who may or may not have been there, more a token gesture) and moved on. We stopped at Ollies Trolley for tea, another good meal but crap service. Any place you have to put in your order at a counter and collect your own food and clear your own table wasn't in for a huge tip. But the food was excellent, so $1.51 went into the tip container.
The city of DC is stunning. Old buildings, quirky streets mix with newer buildings and shops with ease. One minute you're walking past a hotel, the next minute the J Edgar Hoover building housing the FBI. It's clean and shiny and I was struck by the number of people out doing things. We saw dozens of joggers, teams playing kickball, soccer, riding bikes....everything. There's so much open space to cater for all sorts of outside activity and people take full advantage of it. It's how I think of cities in Europe, minus the dirt - I really can't get over how clean it is!!!!
We went back to meet up with Doc and came back to Waldorf for a good nights sleep.
Because I knew this blog post would be lengthy, I thought a cider might go down well, and Walmart is across the road. But trust me to find the only Walmart that DOESN'T sell alcohol!!!
Tomorrow we head back to DC to take a Hop on, Hop off tour, much like we did in LA. But this time we've got 2 days of exploration to do. The Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, The Smithsonian buildings, the Vietnam memorial etc are on our to-do list, as well as Embassy Row, where we plan to move from country to country, because everyone knows the grounds of the embassy are classed as that country's soil!! So it'll be like a trip around the world minus the jet lag, the cost and the full passport!!
We've been here for 10 days now, and the more I see and do, the more I dread leaving. I love this place, the lifestyle, the countryside, the people and the ease of feeling at home. Sure, I'm getting bothered by the living out of a suitcase, but I honestly don't want to go back to Adelaide. There's so much to see and do and we've seen and done a tiny fraction. I want to visit the other cities, the small towns and everything in between. I feel that when I do leave I will be leaving a little piece of my heart, and a big piece of my soul behind, which I hope one day to be able to come back and find. This has been more than a holiday to me, it has been an awakening, and I don't think I'll ever forget a moment of it. No wonder Americans are so patriotic - they have everything right here.
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