Tag / Wendy’s

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Travelling The 50 States – Virginia

Over my 48 years, I’ve done my fair share of travelling across these United States.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment go look back at those trips to each of the 31 states I have visited (62% isn’t bad, is it?) and see if, and when, I may be returning.  Working in alphabetical order, we continue today with the 10th state to be added to the Union: Virginia.

State: Virginia
Joined the Union: 1788
Visits: 2

Over the years, I’ve two trips to Old Dominion, in 2016 and in 2018.

My first foray in Virgina came in 2016, on a road trip from Chicago to Disney World.  Arriving about fifteen hours behind schedule, we finally managed to get to Jeff’s apartment in beautiful Roanoke.  After schlepping our luggage up to the third floor, it was time to relax and take in all the sights Virginia had to offer.  And what it had to offer was a White Sox spring training game on the MLB Network and the first four episodes of the recently released Daredevil season 2 on Netflix.  A take-out Chinese dinner was the capper on the day, after which we retreated to different rooms and called it a day.

Things got off to an early start, for me at least, as I found Saturday night’s dinner not agreeing with me very well.  When I woke up for real on Sunday morning, Jeff had been out to the market and had returned with bagels and other items and fresh coffee being brewed.  Eventually, Val woke up and the three of us spent the morning eating breakfast and watching the Sunday morning news shows.

After taking in a fifth episode of the new season of Daredevil, we decided to head out on the second leg of the trip, with Disney World our next destination.  Our first stop was at the Wendy’s in Ridgeway, Virginia, about an hour into the trip.  While certain people tried to once again get their bearings, I went in and bought lunch for both Jeff and myself.  Val expressed interest in some curly fries, perhaps intrigued by the previous day’s stop at Arby’s, but the Hardee’s across the street did not offer them and there was no Arby’s in sight.  Over Val’s objections, Jeff vowed to stop at the next Arby’s we found to get her those curly fries, but we oddly did not see one for the rest of the day.

I made my second trip to Virginia in late July of 2018 to celebrate Jeff’s 50th birthday.  The trip started Thursday night after work, when Val and I caught a flight to Roanoke.  The three of us worked remotely on Friday before heading out for dinner and to see the sights of Roanoke, which basically was The Roanoke Star and a grocery store.  Saturday, we headed out early to hike up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob.  With an elevation of 3,197 feet and a trail distance of approximately 4.4 miles, McAfee Knob is one of the highlights of the Appalachian Trail.  It took quite an effort on my part, and probably more time than we were planning, but the views from the top, not to mention the satisfaction of one of my traveling companions, were worth it.  The trip back down was a bit easier, thanks to a fire road, but a small stumble by yours truly certainly made things interesting.  Sunday was spent relaxing and recovering from the strain of the previous day, until it was time to head back to the airport and fly home.

Will I return?  One day, I’d imagine.

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Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip Part 2

When we left off last time, we were two days into the road trip and had finally made it to Virginia.  We pick up the tale the following morning.

Sunday

Things got off to an early start, for me at least, as I found Saturday night’s dinner not agreeing with me very well.  After taking care of that particular problem, I found that the guest bathroom in Jeff’s apartment was missing one very important item: toilet paper.  Nothing on the roll, nothing under the sink, and nothing in the little closet.  Thankfully, there was some Kleenex on the back of the toilet, so I was forced to kill that off in order to go about my night.

When I woke up for real on Sunday morning, Jeff had been out to the market and had returned with bagels and other items and fresh coffee being brewed.  After some initial difficulties using the toaster (turns out you need to push the handle all the way down for it to work), I was good to go.  Eventually, Val woke up and the three of us spent the morning eating breakfast and watching the Sunday morning news shows.

At some point, either while waiting for Val to wake up or while she was in the shower (I forget the exact order), Jeff pulled out some of his art books for me to look through, most of which focused on the fantasy realm.  While I’m not the biggest fan of fantasy, my years of comics reading means I can appreciate good art, so, aesthetically, I could appreciate it.  Later, he pulled out his old portfolio and showed Val and me some of his work from college, when he was an art major.  Seeing as I can hardly draw a stick figure, I was impressed by his talent.

After taking in a 5th episode of the new season of Daredevil, we decided to head out on the second leg of the trip, with Disney World our next destination.  Our first stop was at the Wendy’s in Ridgeway, Virginia, about an hour into the trip.  While certain people tried to once again get their bearings, I went in and bought lunch for both Jeff and myself.  Val expressed interest in some curly fries, perhaps intrigued by the previous day’s stop at Arby’s, but the Hardy’s across the street did not offer them and there was no Arby’s in sight.  Over Val’s objections, Jeff vowed to stop at the next Arby’s we found to get her those curly fries, but we oddly did not see one for the rest of the day.

ZaxbySaksWhile traveling through the Carolinas, we kept passing signs for a restaurant called Zaxby’s.  Those of us from Chicago have never encountered such a restaurant, to the point that the website won’t even tell me the closest location to my house.  Anyway, Val asked what type of restaurant it was and Jeff explained that it was a department store, similar to Nordstrom.  Because in the deep south, there is no difference between Zaxby’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.

SundayTripAround 300 miles into the 750 mile journey, we decided to stop for the night.  We found a Hampton Inn in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and, thankfully, this one met with Jeff’s approval.  Once again, got 3 hotel rooms and, since everyone was feeling relatively good and it was still pretty early, we decided to order in some dinner.  Our first attempt failed when the BBQ joint did not have a dinner-time vegetarian option, so we ordered Papa John’s.

When dinner showed up, we found the smash hit Pitch Perfect II on the television, which apparently every one had seen except me.  Once the movie ended, we decided to call it a night a retreat to our separate rooms for the night. Continue reading →