As I write this first part of today's blog post we're on our way to the Blue Ridge Parkway - which we've read about and it looks awesome. Haha, we've just passed Tobaccoville!
Virginia Beach
Anyway, we woke up yesterday morning to a really nice, warm morning in the Flying J RV parking lot. After a few cups of coffee (don't forget the free refills!) I planned the route to Virginia Beach, then saved a Google map from Virginia Beach to the next Flying J - which has now pretty-much become our new overnight stop areas as they're safe and mega cheap IF we do buy anything at all.
On the road we went through a three mile tunnel, although it seemed about one mile long, and soon arrived at the ocean front. It's exactly as you see on TV, rollerbladers on the "sidewalks", volleyball on the beach and bars also reaching out on to the beach. I parked a few blocks back from the ocean front, and used - for the first time - a parking meter. I banged in a handful of shrapnel and after putting on what seemed like the 7th application of suncream to Sarah's back and shoulders, we headed for the beach.
Sarah needed the loo, and suprisingly, they didn't have any "nice" public toilets along the front, just dotted port-a-loo's along the beach, so she went in and I guarded the door. We walked along the beach, paddling in the crystal clear sea and found a nice place to stop and sit for a while. We must have been there not three minutes until we had to move and find some shade as you could have stuck a fork in Sarah, as she was figuratively "done". We found some shade and wandered in and out of a few shops (Sarah bought a - very english looking - hat to help defend her from the sun) before we found Roger and I decided to check how long we had left. Four minutes! That was a bit of luck! We decided that Sarah had had enough of the sun for today, so we headed to the next Flying J, about 240 miles away, in North Carolina.
We covered Sarah in more suncream, and she started off driving, but we didn't get too far before tears were shed a little bit (poor thing :( I could see her lip wobbling too) due to a few wrong turns, being a bit too exhausted, and feeling ill from all the sun so we stopped straight away, got Sarah an Oreo McFlurry (I had an M&M one) which are bloody huge - and it put a smile back on Sarah's face, and I took over the driving in the still blazing sun (which I'm loving!). We eventually arrived at the Flying J, NC and "set up camp" :).
Blue Ridge Parkway
This is weird, I'm writing this part a few days after we went to Blue Ridge Parkway - sat in an Economy motel (yep, JUST like in the movies) before we head off for the "Next Steps" which will be explained in a mo.
Anyway we headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway, as explained earlier. It was amazing. If you like breathtaking views and nice quiet places, then this 469 miles of road is definately for you. We arrived and stopped at a table made out of stone, where Sarah made some tuna mayo sarnies and we were greeted by about a thousand flies. After I devoured the food quickly, being accused of not enjoying the food by Sarah (because I ate it too fast) and sitting around swatting flies waiting for Sarah to take her merry time to finish her food - despite me trying to scare her into eating quickly by telling her of how many spiders there are under her feet - we headed a bit further along the parkway.
It took about one mile down the road until we were greeted with an amazing view, which I have some photos of - but the photos sadly don't do it any justice :(. We sat in the blazing sun and had a cuppa tea - made on our little stove - then headed off. We only had chance to see a few miles of this amazing place as I made the mistake of falling asleep in the warm, comfy, cosy nice chair mmmmmmmmmmmmmm whilst Sarah drove us. I woke up to find that we were completely lost (Sarah really has no sense of direction at all!). As soon as I woke, Sarah asked me which way to go. How the hell was I supposed to know?
We pulled into a shopping mall carpark, I grabbed the map and had a quick scour over the area I rember us being roughly in. After looking at the map and having a good look around the area we were in, I found a sign that I guessed said the town name. With our location worked out, we popped into the Dollar General (mega cheap shop) to get an internation phone card so that we could finally give our parents a ring. I rang Mum (hello mum!) but we couldn't ring Sarah's parents as they're on a little holiday at the moment! Hello Peter and Susan!
We drove to a petrol station, where I took over driving and got us to the Flying J we stayed at the night before.
Next Steps
The next morning (yesterday) we decided to not spend any money, except petrol and oil, and get to our next checkpoint, the Flying J in Kenly NC. It's a little further South from the Flying J we were at. We nursed a couple of coffees in this new Flying J for about 2 hours (don't forget the refills!) and checked out some of the WWOOFing opportunities. We sent a few emails to some farms within the same state, only because they offer free accommodation, food and even pay in some of them! With that done, we sat back in Roger, checked the business emails and watched a few episodes of Britian's Got Talent online - seeing as we have the internet here!
[SIDE NOTE: Joe I will sort out that paging issue for Kingfisher soon, the FTP protocol doesn't seem to be working here though]
When we woke, we had a few responses, and have accepted one for the short term (just a week!). We'll be helping with planting, weeding, packaging, construction (which I'm looking forward to the most, apparently a windmill or something!) etc... on a farm just North of where we are. In return we'll have a roof over our head, three meals a day and best of all - a shower. With it being bloody hot (32 degrees today) we can't keep going for 6 days without a shower, which is why we're in a real cheap motel today, before we start working tomorrow!
The whole idea behind the WWOOFing is just temporary and allows us to chase up some invoices and meet some more "real americans" which we really enjoyed in Buffalo with Garry and co.
So that's our next steps, but one other thing to point out at this moment in time is the "Economy" in our "Economy Motel". It's basic. Really basic, we even have grafitti on the walls (only written on in pen, nothing artistic sadly). But we love it, we really wanted to stay in a "proper" motel, and now we have!
That's it for now, we hope everyone is well! Starting to miss home a little bit, but it's only at certain times (like last thing at night). I just asked Sarah if she wants to add anything to my closing paragraph, but she just shrugged her shoulders and continued to watch the "reality" poop on TV! haha.
Speak soon!
Love to everyone!
Ed & Sarah xxx
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