It’s eleven hours to Nashville.The halfway point for us was Roanoke, Virginia. I booked a hotel room with easy on/off access to the highway and did my usual research about the area we were staying in. I plugged the address into my GPS and Todd wanted to connect his iPhone to my car because “it’s better.” He was unable to get it connected so, after several frustrating minutes in the driveway, we hit the road and I offered to use Google Maps on my phone.

The bulk of our travel was on I-81, much of it through the Shenandoah Valley with the Appalachians to the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east, with beautiful views of farms and animals grazing on impossibly steep hills. I took lots of moving pictures and realized that the landscape looks much like that of western Pennsylvania.

As copilot I take it upon myself to provide the entertainment (particularly because at some point I’ve had enough of Classic Rewind music). There was an article in the NYT about Hot Dogs which led to a discussion and memories of our hometown hot dog shop and subsequently a craving.

We stopped at a Sheetz about 3 hours in. I ordered us a hoagie to share which, sorry, is no competition for Wawa. But,it was… food. Why, oh why didn’t I order a hot dog? The curly fries were good and I bought a 3-foot chew stick as a gift for the girls because doesn’t everybody buy presents for their dogs on vacation? *

The Talking Heads’ Take Me to the River played, catapulting me back to fifteen, with my Uncle driving my oldest cousin and me to the restaurant* and I remember my cousin slumped in the passenger seat, elbow on the door, like any sullen teenager. Except that Uncle humored him by putting his station on instead of his own music. Apparently unfamiliar with the song, Uncle looked over at Gary and was like, “what the hell is this?” and then in a whiny voice sang. “Take me to the river, dump me in the water…”  Gary, for the first time since I got in the car, looked over at his dad and cracked up.

We arrived around dinnertime and checked into our hotel, cleaned up, and drove into downtown Roanoke for dinner – and ended up at Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint, a narrow bar with high-top tables opposite the long bar. It’s crowded on a Saturday night, but we got a space next to the door against the window, a half-width counter as our table and bar stools.

We ordered the first drinks of our vacation: Country Boy Brewing Shotgun Wedding (Todd) and Devils Backbone Abominable Snowbuck White IPA (me). I ordered the Dr. Gonzo burger: Wagyu beef with sauteed mushrooms, caramelized Guinness onions, Applewood smoked bacon, and Swiss cheese. Sweet Mary Mother of God, this was the best fucking burger I have ever had. Todd had the Cowboy – BBQ sauce, Applewood bacon, and American cheese. The burgers were the perfect size: not the commercial monstrosities of chain restaurants but a delicious little handheld not much larger than a school cafeteria burger but absolutely will blow all your burger expectations out of the sky. I am still thinking about that burger.

Roanoke has several attractions to lure visitors, not least of which are the Blue Ridge Mountains (Blue Ridge Parkway was something we considered but in the end decided to get to our destination for this leg). There is the Pinball Museum and the Roanoke Starcade, the latter a place where many an 80s kid expended hundreds of hours and quarters.

Every second Saturday of the month, the Pinball Museum has a closed 21+ event – Get Tilted – held from 8 to 11 with a cash bar – and, serendipitously, we happened to be in town. It was a blast. It’s not a large place but it has over 70 machines from the 1930s through 2019. It was not that crowded and we were able to play every machine we wanted. My favorites? The Munsters and Star Trek New Generation – they delivered more lights and excitement though some of the older ones, with decidedly less bells and whistles, were less taxing on the eyes and often easier to play. Must be my age.

We left there sometime after 10 and drove up to the Mill Mountain Star (aka Roanoke Star), along a very long, very narrow, very dark, winding road with dubious visibility as it climbed into the clouds and left this 80s kid feeling like we were driving straight into a Friday the 13^th movie. At that hour it was mostly teens standing around on the scenic overlook, one couple wrapped around each other, faces smashed together, and – while I anxiously listened for the telltale “ccch ccch ccch” sounds of Jason lurking in the trees around us, I also smiled at the absurdity of this scene. Remembering being those two teens trying to find somewhere, anywhere to be alone and now those teens are two unwelcome 50-year-olds snapping tourist photos of the big neon star and the hazy Roanoke city below.

For more in Roanoke:

Restaurants, shops, art galleries, cultural museums, craft breweries, seasonal events such as the annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Wells Fargo Tower *(Sept 9, 2023)

City Market Building – Original building burnt down and current building, built in 1922, is on the National Register of Historic Places, in the heart of downtown, now home to restaurants and a jewelry store. Cool murals at the entrances.

Blue Ridge Parkway – “America’s Favorite Drive,” nearly 500 miles long with several scenic overlooks.

Views & Brews E-Bike Tour – An 11-mile “scenic tour of Roanoke’s Blue Ridge vistas … along the Roanoke River Greenway and up Mill Mountain before passing … local South Roanoke business and eateries … bringing you downtown for a closer look at the local brewery scene before you briefly pass through the historic Old Southwest Neighborhood and by Black Dog Salvage before reconnecting with a beautiful section of the Roanoke River Greenway … through the Vic Thomas Park sculpture garden…” (from Roanoke Mountain Adventures)

Black Dog Salvage – 40,000 sq feet of architectural salvage, home and garden décor, etc.

Peaks of Otter Winery – got its start in a dirt cellar in 1941.

Dixie Caverns – if you’re into that sort of thing. I grew up not too far away from Crystal Cave in PA and have been to Alepotrypa near Ioannina, Greece. I’ve seen enough caves, thank you very much.

Miscellaneous:

• The 3-foot dog chew was devoured in 20 minutes and left a BIG CRUMBY MESS all over the living room.

• My mom and stepdad together owned a pizza shop-cum-family-restaurant from roughly 1980 through 1988, when mom noped out to open up her current restaurant. In true family fashion, my uncle ran the dinner shift, my grandmother was the head waitress they called the Nazi, and my cousins worked the front counter and kitchen, I was busgirl-turned-waitress.

• The 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb honors the 110 flights of stairs climbed by first responders, the money raised is donated to the Fallen Firefighters Association. Participants were given a badge with the name and face of a fallen 9/11 firefighter to wear during the climb. We missed the event and there’s no way either of us could have done it but even so, I would’ve loved to do it.