The first song of a 33 Day road trip is just as important as the kind of wine used to cristen a boat on its maiden voyage. It's certainly not something you jump into lightly or willy-nilly. No. This is truly an important and momentous decision. And it's one that I've put much thought, time and effort. Tirelessly, I scoured the depths of my larger-than-God music collection, wishing, hoping and, yes, even praying that I would find the song that fits perfectly our feelings, dreams, desires; the captures the perfect essence of our trek. Hours turned into days and into weeks in this quest for the Holy Grail of songs to bid us farewell to the comforts of home, friends and family and to welcome us to the austerities, hardships and sheer openness of the open road. Would that perfect song descend upon us like manna from heaven, like flower pedals from the gods? Would it appear like our shining light on our on road to damascus? What, pray-tell am I talking about? How should I know?

That song, which certainly didn't come to me this morning around 4:15am while brushing my teeth and making weird morning noises is...



"Road to Nowhere" by the Talking Heads.

WELL WE KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOIN'
BUT WE DON'T KNOW WHERE WE'VE BEEN
AND WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE KNOWIN'
BUT WE CAN'T SAY WHAT WE'VE SEEN
AND WE'RE NOT LITTLE CHILDREN
AND WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT
AND THE FUTURE IS CERTAIN
GIVE US TIME TO WORK IT OUT

We're on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
Takin' that ride to nowhere
We'll take that ride

Feelin' okay this mornin'
And you know,
We're on the road to paradise
Here we go, here we go

We're on a ride to nowhere
Come on inside
Takin' that ride to nowhere
We'll take that ride

Maybe you wonder where you are
I don't care
Here is where time is on our side
Take you there...take you there

We're on a road to nowhere
We're on a road to nowhere
We're on a road to nowhere

There's a city in my mind
Come along and take that ride
and it's all right, baby, it's all right

And it's very far away
But it's growing day by day
And it's all right, baby, it's all right

Would you like to come along
and you could help me sing this song?
And it's all right, baby, it's all right

They can tell you what to do
But they'll make a fool of you
And it's all right, baby, it's all right

We're on a road to nowhere

Well, let's begin at the beginning. We woke up at 4am. Nobody complained, nobody had even the slightest problem with it. Of course Nikki and Ashley were both zonked out within an hour.

We were on the road by 5am and hit I-81 South in no time at all. Traffic was light and boring, though near Carlise, we saw an outhouse on the back of a truck. Nikki and Ashley were asleep as we crossed both the Maryland and West Virginia boards. Maybe even Virginia's too. We quickly stopped at New Market, Virginia and buzzed by the battlefield totally to make me happy. Aww.

Opting to not do Skyline drive, we chose Blue Ridge Parkway instead. It's really the same road, but the BRP starts where SLD leaves off. On our trek to find it, we discovered a lovely little hamlet named Vesuvius. It was populated with cats and men with really really big trucks who drove by us, staring intently. We obviously stood out because we were taking pictures of an abandoned general store that must seem very common-place to them, but was just "neat" to us.

The road to the Blue Ridge Parkway went straight up and probably spiraled several times, breaking most known laws of physics. When we finally reached the top, we drove past a dirt road that trailed off into the woods. A sign explaining, "Haines Chapel" with an arrow pointing us toward the dense forest, hung next to the road. Creepy? Yes. But we turned onto the dirt road anyway. Nikki and I had just seen the movie Wrong Turn with Michael recently and the only thing going through my mind was the definite possibility of being hacked up and eaten by inbreds, never to be heard from again. Thanks, Michael.  Anyway, the road was creepy, but it emptied out to a quaint little chapel with a really nifty graveyard. Now, I'm not one for graveyards, just never did anything for me, but this was really interesting. Maybe one or two very large families, some dating back to the Revolutionary War, were buried here. Got some pictures and scrammed when two groundskeepers drove up and started keeping ground.

The Blue Ridge Parkway was beautiful, especially the places where you could see row after row of mountains.  The day was mostly clear, with minimal haze, so our views were postcard-esque.

We exited the BRP around noon and headed for Roanoke. Thanks to our handy little Healthy Highways book, we found a HUGE health food supermarket and cafe. The supermarket was a co-op and the cafe was called Happy Belly Deli. Nikki and I got amazing vegiburgers and Ashley got a grilled cheese. I had a twinge of a sinus headache, so I picked up some homeopathic meds.

After getting lost several times in Roanoke (hey, I am not ashamed to ask for directions), we got back on I-81 and b-lined for Tennessee. We stopped at a rest stop and spotted some guy eating Total cereal at a picnic table. He spotted us spotting him and put his hands up in a "you caught me!" sort of fashion. The whole thing made no sense whatsoever.  There was also a huge building shaped like an acoustic guitar.

We finally got to our campsite, set up the tent, while an old couple attentively watched our every move. They didn't take their eyes off of us for a second until we finally got into the car and drove away, headed to find supplies. This ended up including, Subway, some place called Fred's, which can only be described as a Ben Franklin on acid, Kmart and a normalish supermarket (for postcards). 

Allow me to make a comment on everyone I've come into contact with from Tennessee... They've been rude and mean and just grumpy and cold. What happened to Southern hospitality? What.. just because they were a boarder state doesn't mean they're exempt from that! I don't expect anyone to bow down to me or think I'm so awesome because I have all of my teeth, but come on! If I'm nice to you, at least pretend to be nice to me!  These people are weird.  I'm having a great time on the trip so far, but if I ever come back to Tennessee, it will be too soon.

And right now it's 10:30ish. I think Nikki and Ashley are sleeping. I should too. Enjoy the pics and sorry that the first day wasn't so exciting. We had fun though.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 650
Hours on the road: 13

Pictures
Eric's Pics from Today (And Nikki took some too, ok?).
Ashley's Pics from Today.