I know this blog is about flying, but hey,
variety is the spice of life. This weekend my brother was in town so we decided
to take a roadtrip to the South. We did 1,500 miles in ~58 hours, stopping in
two cities and quickly visiting four more. Here is a look at our trip:
Roanoke
Our first stop (other than a
fillup) was Roanoke, Virginia, a picturesque town set in between some of the
hills of Shenandoah National Park. It was a quick dinner stop at Grace’s Place
Pizzeria, the fifth-ranked restaurant in Roanoke on Urbanspoon (and it had only
two dollar signs!). Grace’s wasn’t in downtown Roanoke, but rather in a small
corner of Grandin Village, a somewhat-hipster area just west of the city over
the river. And when I say hipster I mean we saw some young people.
Grace’s had pretty darn good
pizza, although their chicken bites were a little soft for my liking. I like a
nice firm boneless wing, almost on the drier side if you will. Separately, the
unlimited soda refills were fantastic!
Grace’s Place Pizzeria
1316 Grandin Rd SW
Roanoke, VA 24015
Food: 8.5
Speed: 9
Price: 9
Parking: Street
Chattanooga
Six hours later, at 230am, we pulled into the
Hampton Inn Chattanooga Airport, just a short 10-minute drive from downtown.
Given our late arrival, we slept through Hampton’s free breakfast the next
morning, and drove into town for brunchlike food. We ended up at Niedlov’s
Breadworks, which we couldn’t decide was named after “knead” and “love” or
someone of eastern European descent who founded the place. Niedlov’s, like
Grace’s, wasn’t downtown, but rather was across the train tracks on a very
pretty, if deserted, main street (it was actually on Main Street). Niedlov’s
had fantastic bagels and pastries. I felt like I was in New York! I really like
small restaurants that make great food and know it, and Niedlov’s was exactly
that kind of place. They also had an iPad that swiped credit cards and let you
sign on-screen, but it wasn’t the Square app. I could even click “Print Receipt”.
Niedlov’s Breadworks
215 E Main St
Chattanooga, TN 37408
Food: 9
Speed: 10
Price: 9
Parking: Street
After brunch we headed up to Lookout
Mountain, not only the site of a famous Civil War battle, but also the site of
one of the greatest views I have ever seen of a city. There is a museum with
some information about the battle up there as well as a number of monuments and
lookouts (duh). Very cool place.
TripAdvisor’s next-best free thing in
Chattanooga (the Tennessee Aquarium was
$25 per person) after Lookout Mountain was the Walnut Street bridge, which we
figured we would just drive over and get a nice view. Turns out it is a foot
bridge, so we parked across the river from the city (25 cents for 20 minutes,
payable via credit card) and walked. Beautiful views of the park below and of
the city in front of us were to be had by my brother and me.
On the other side
we arrived at The Ice Cream Show, a great little ice cream shop. You pick one
of two flavors (vanilla or chocolate) and then they have a number of toppings
you can mix in. The way they mix it in is by actually putting that topping in
the ice cream before they dispense it, so you get normal ice cream with your
topping actually part of it, versus Coldstone where they mush it all together. It
was pretty awesome.
Finally it was time for the game. I am
referring, of course, to the Chattanooga Lookouts, the city’s Double-A minor
league baseball team. For $10.25 apiece we got some of the best seats in the
house. It was a very cute stadium only a couple of blocks off the main drag in
the city. The team has a loyal following, with people actually cheering when
the Lookouts came back to beat the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in the 9th
inning.
After spending just a day there, I am now in
love with this pretty Southeastern Tennessee town, and honestly cannot wait to
go back. It is a beautiful city, one which we did not even begin to truly
explore, as there was an art museum and aquarium we skipped this time around.
The people seemed very nice and they definitely take pride in their city. The
whole town is very clean and is eco-friendly, with bike-sharing stations nearly
everywhere. Unfortunately for us, after the game it was time to leave. We
crossed into Central Time as we made our way to Birmingham, Alabama.
Birmingham
After a free breakfast (we woke up early
enough this time!) at the Hampton Inn Colonnade, we had planned on venturing
downtown to do one or two activities recommended by TripAdvisor before starting
the journey home. Unfortunately, as this was a Sunday in the South, everything
was closed. So we decided just to walk around downtown for a bit.
To say there weren’t many people around would
be a bit of an understatement. It was a ghost town. The only people we saw were
a few in their cars wearing suits (presumably post-church) and a few gathered
around the fountains in the city center.
Despite the lack of people, Birmingham is a
very pretty city. There is a long line of fountains whose runoff flows down a
hill to supply the next fountain. There are also a lot of trees and greenery in
the city center. I wish I had more to say, but there wasn’t much to do on a
Sunday morning and we didn’t have time to really explore, so suffice it to say,
Birmingham was nice.
Atlanta
One bumpy highway (Alabama does not maintain
their roads well) and two hours later, we arrived in Atlanta. Having been there
a couple of times with the family, and having spent probably a combined week of
our lives at the airport, we decided to skip a downtown tour and headed
straight to lunch in Midtown (we were very good at choosing hipster areas this
weekend). Urbanspoon recommended Woody’s Cheese Steaks, a decided hole in the
wall with a spirited cashier/owner (presumably Woody). The place was the size
of a bedroom and the line snaked through the tables, but it was worth it. If
you want a good cheesesteak outside of Philly, put this place on your list.
Woody’s Famous Philadelphia
Cheese Steaks
981 Monroe Dr NE, Atlanta, GA
Food: 9
Speed: 10
Price: 9
Parking: Lot (very tiny)
Greenville,
SC
Next stop was South Carolina. I’d always
wanted to see the Greenville-Spartanburg region, and I-85 through South
Carolina doesn’t connect to any other major city. Our quick drive through
revealed a very cute town with lots of people out walking and lots of
brick-laid streets. Definitely would go back to see more.
Greensboro,
NC
Despite sharing part of a name with the
previous city we had passed through, Greensboro was the opposite in terms of
beauty. The town was shadowy and empty, and did not look pretty at all. It
reminded me of a lot of the old Rust Belt cities up North. Would definitely
pass on returning.
We passed by Richmond quickly on the way back
and made it in before 1am on Monday morning. Not a bad weekend at all!
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