The trip
So, awhile back Joe and I decided to take a trip to Roanoke, VA to check out a car he was interested in buying. Being the cheap bastard that he is (ha, ha) he wanted to do the trip in one day which would be 10 hours round trip. Being the pampered person that I am, I said HELL TO THE NO! So we decided to make a weekend of it. Now originally we were talking about going down to visit my parents in Winston Salem, NC which is my hometown. I hold told them when they were up for the birth of my younger brothers latest addition to his brood, now at 4, that we might come down to see them for the 4th. MIGHT being the key word in that sentence. You know how mothers are, she didn't hear MIGHT, she heard we ARE. So when I spoke to her on the phone the week before the 4th and she said she was looking forward to us coming down, I had to break the news that we weren't coming down. Of course, she had to turn the thumb screws of guilt just a teensy bit TIGHTER and make me feel like shit. Since Roanoke is only two hours away from Winston Salem, we decided to surprise them with a visit.
But I digress. We were supposed to pick up the rental car at 4:00 pm on Saturday according to the confirmation he printed out. Guess what time the rental office closed? FOUR FUCKING PM! I was LIVID! Not one piece of information on the two pages he had with him said anything about what time they closed. So then we had to go over to the airport and pay the extra concierge fee or some fucking fee of that nature just for picking up the car at the airport. I mean, what bullshit. But the ride was SWEET! We got the only car they had left, a Dodge Grand Caravan, for the price of the Stratus we were originally supposed to rent. It was one of the nicest cars I've ridden in, and I used to own a Mercedes, not that I'm bragging or anything. OK, maybe I am...
Sunday, we got up and did the breakfast/read the paper bit before we headed out on our trip. Made sure our brood had plenty of food and water to last them 2 days and then off for parts Roanoke. The trip was really nice. Took Rt. 460 which is basically a two lane road (four in parts) but there was not traffic what so ever. I drove the whole way to Roanoke and also the two hours that it took to get to Winston on Monday. Like I said, the ride was sweet. It takes about 5 hours to drive to Roanoke but I didn't mind at all. We stopped off in Appomattox (the place of the rebirth of our Nation or some claim to fame like that) to take pictures of this TACKY, and I mean TACKY, gift shop/confederate flag/confederate soldier statues memorial/etc. type former Norman Bates hotel establishment. It was quite scary to say the least. I snapped a few and then off to continue on our trip.
We ate lunch at a place called Huddle House. I didn't want to eat there as it looked tacky & dirty but it was actually a very nice place. Basically a Waffle House with a different name. The food was very good and the service was attentive. A few cuties to oggle which was nice. I swear, I'm such a lech lately. Joe called the guy who had the car for sale and told him we would be over toot sweet. We finally found the place after one miscue. He said his place was at the end of a gravel driveway so I saw one and made the turn in. The house on the left looked like someone had been evicted but was still living there. So much shit on the front lawn it wasn't even funny. The house, make that shack, on the right was too scary for words. Indescribable. Finally we came upon a couple of cars and a building (if you could call it that) and realized that we had picked the wrong gravel road. Basically, the house was a bus that had additions built on it.
Two old geezers were sitting out back but were real nice. I made Joe go out and talk to them as I was afraid the banjo song from Deliverance was going to start playing in the background. We turned back around and headed out to the main street and picked the next gravel driveway, which was the correct one. We had to travel a bit further up the hill/mountain than the other driveway and as I was driving up the road/washed out gravel deathtrap, I looked to my left and it was a sheer drop about 100 feet! I just about shit my pants. We got up to the house and saw the car. Their home was FLAWLESS! One of those wooden homes, not log cabin mind you, but that dark red/golden colored wood. It really was a gorgeous home. The car, NOT so gorgeous.
They had only taken one picture from it's good side. The passenger side had a lot of surface rust. The guy thought a black snake was going to jump out at us when he opened the trunk, which it didn't thank God. Talk about shitting my pants?!? The floorboard on the driver side was rusted clean through and you could see the ground underneath. I took a few pictures and then went back and sat in the van with the AC one. Fuming the whole time cause I new Joe was going to buy that car, which he did... But finally I calmed down and realized that if he could see the value in the car, the future value that is, then it was all right by me if he spent the money on it. The guy wanted $5500 but Joe sold him on $2500 and they would deliver. We were the first and only people to come take a look at it so I think he was just glad to be rid of it.
Once that was taken care of, we ventured off to find the hotel. A Holiday Inn Express. Nice room but of course it's Sunday on a holiday weekend and nothing to do. So we found a Barnes & Noble and I purchased a book to read and a magazine. Joe picked up a bargain bin book on 70's vehicles. A cheap dinner at Quizno's and then back to rest and read. Sunday we got up and had their Continental Breakfast which was WONDERFUL! Cheddar Cheese omelets, 4 kinds of cereal, a shitload of fresh fruit, yogurt, cinnabuns. It was THE BOMB! We checked out and head down to see my folks. Needless to say they were completely surprised, and thoroughly overjoyed to see us. So was my grandmother. My parents renovated the basement in her home and have been living there for almost 2 years now. My grandmother, my mom's mom, is 90 next year but still rocking & rolling. She still drives when she needs to. Walks on the treadmill every day. I love her to death. Anyway, we did some chores for them and had lunch. Then I updated her computer. She forgets to update her virus protection and it had expired in May. I ended up removing Norton's and downloading this new software, called AGV by www.grisoft.com. Not a resource hog like Nortons is. Plus you get a two year license instead of the single year like everybody else provides. She's on dial up so it took an hour and a half to download the file. Got that squared away and then read and relaxed before bedtime. Got up the next morning and had breakfast with my sister-in-law and her kids/grand kids at K & W. Like a Morrisons' cafeteria only 1000 times better. Then the trip home ensued. I drove for a bit and then made him drive the rest of the way. Got home about 3ish and had to have the rental back by 4 so we cleaned it out and then Joe followed me over to turn it in. Did that and then got all the way home before I realized I had left my glasses in the passenger seat and had to go all the way back to get them What a dumb ass way to end an otherwise wonderful weekend getaway.
So, HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND?
But I digress. We were supposed to pick up the rental car at 4:00 pm on Saturday according to the confirmation he printed out. Guess what time the rental office closed? FOUR FUCKING PM! I was LIVID! Not one piece of information on the two pages he had with him said anything about what time they closed. So then we had to go over to the airport and pay the extra concierge fee or some fucking fee of that nature just for picking up the car at the airport. I mean, what bullshit. But the ride was SWEET! We got the only car they had left, a Dodge Grand Caravan, for the price of the Stratus we were originally supposed to rent. It was one of the nicest cars I've ridden in, and I used to own a Mercedes, not that I'm bragging or anything. OK, maybe I am...
Sunday, we got up and did the breakfast/read the paper bit before we headed out on our trip. Made sure our brood had plenty of food and water to last them 2 days and then off for parts Roanoke. The trip was really nice. Took Rt. 460 which is basically a two lane road (four in parts) but there was not traffic what so ever. I drove the whole way to Roanoke and also the two hours that it took to get to Winston on Monday. Like I said, the ride was sweet. It takes about 5 hours to drive to Roanoke but I didn't mind at all. We stopped off in Appomattox (the place of the rebirth of our Nation or some claim to fame like that) to take pictures of this TACKY, and I mean TACKY, gift shop/confederate flag/confederate soldier statues memorial/etc. type former Norman Bates hotel establishment. It was quite scary to say the least. I snapped a few and then off to continue on our trip.
We ate lunch at a place called Huddle House. I didn't want to eat there as it looked tacky & dirty but it was actually a very nice place. Basically a Waffle House with a different name. The food was very good and the service was attentive. A few cuties to oggle which was nice. I swear, I'm such a lech lately. Joe called the guy who had the car for sale and told him we would be over toot sweet. We finally found the place after one miscue. He said his place was at the end of a gravel driveway so I saw one and made the turn in. The house on the left looked like someone had been evicted but was still living there. So much shit on the front lawn it wasn't even funny. The house, make that shack, on the right was too scary for words. Indescribable. Finally we came upon a couple of cars and a building (if you could call it that) and realized that we had picked the wrong gravel road. Basically, the house was a bus that had additions built on it.
Two old geezers were sitting out back but were real nice. I made Joe go out and talk to them as I was afraid the banjo song from Deliverance was going to start playing in the background. We turned back around and headed out to the main street and picked the next gravel driveway, which was the correct one. We had to travel a bit further up the hill/mountain than the other driveway and as I was driving up the road/washed out gravel deathtrap, I looked to my left and it was a sheer drop about 100 feet! I just about shit my pants. We got up to the house and saw the car. Their home was FLAWLESS! One of those wooden homes, not log cabin mind you, but that dark red/golden colored wood. It really was a gorgeous home. The car, NOT so gorgeous.
They had only taken one picture from it's good side. The passenger side had a lot of surface rust. The guy thought a black snake was going to jump out at us when he opened the trunk, which it didn't thank God. Talk about shitting my pants?!? The floorboard on the driver side was rusted clean through and you could see the ground underneath. I took a few pictures and then went back and sat in the van with the AC one. Fuming the whole time cause I new Joe was going to buy that car, which he did... But finally I calmed down and realized that if he could see the value in the car, the future value that is, then it was all right by me if he spent the money on it. The guy wanted $5500 but Joe sold him on $2500 and they would deliver. We were the first and only people to come take a look at it so I think he was just glad to be rid of it.
Once that was taken care of, we ventured off to find the hotel. A Holiday Inn Express. Nice room but of course it's Sunday on a holiday weekend and nothing to do. So we found a Barnes & Noble and I purchased a book to read and a magazine. Joe picked up a bargain bin book on 70's vehicles. A cheap dinner at Quizno's and then back to rest and read. Sunday we got up and had their Continental Breakfast which was WONDERFUL! Cheddar Cheese omelets, 4 kinds of cereal, a shitload of fresh fruit, yogurt, cinnabuns. It was THE BOMB! We checked out and head down to see my folks. Needless to say they were completely surprised, and thoroughly overjoyed to see us. So was my grandmother. My parents renovated the basement in her home and have been living there for almost 2 years now. My grandmother, my mom's mom, is 90 next year but still rocking & rolling. She still drives when she needs to. Walks on the treadmill every day. I love her to death. Anyway, we did some chores for them and had lunch. Then I updated her computer. She forgets to update her virus protection and it had expired in May. I ended up removing Norton's and downloading this new software, called AGV by www.grisoft.com. Not a resource hog like Nortons is. Plus you get a two year license instead of the single year like everybody else provides. She's on dial up so it took an hour and a half to download the file. Got that squared away and then read and relaxed before bedtime. Got up the next morning and had breakfast with my sister-in-law and her kids/grand kids at K & W. Like a Morrisons' cafeteria only 1000 times better. Then the trip home ensued. I drove for a bit and then made him drive the rest of the way. Got home about 3ish and had to have the rental back by 4 so we cleaned it out and then Joe followed me over to turn it in. Did that and then got all the way home before I realized I had left my glasses in the passenger seat and had to go all the way back to get them What a dumb ass way to end an otherwise wonderful weekend getaway.
So, HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND?