We had a nice breakfast at the Residence Inn in Roanoke, however I was suffering from GF waffle withdraw! Needless to say, the breakfast was fine. Still to find some grits, places serving oatmeal instead, however the eggs, yogurt, fruit and various nut toppings are keeping me happy! We have about a 4 hour drive to Charlotte, our southernmost destination today and where I will be attending a conference, so we were up early and out so that we could at least enjoy one attraction in Roanoke! That was the Virginia Museum of Transportation. It is a fairly small museum in what looks to be an old rail building – they have various gauges of model railroads, old cars, a Greyhound bus display, a section on airline history and then trains, trains and more trains with some older vehicles like fire engines, busses (school and public), police cars and even a tug from the Panama Canal thrown in! Andrew recognized the Panama canal tug, also called a mule, as we have watched the mules in action when taking a cruise through the canal many years ago.
Now, to drive to Charlotte! We did a split of highway driving along I81 South and then got off and joined the Blue Ridge Parkway again and drove through some beautiful countryside and some small towns until we arrived at I85/I77 and then drove into Charlotte to our hotel which is the UNC Marriott. The Gluten Intolerance Conference (GIG) that I am going to is at the Hilton however the prices were pretty steep there and as the Marriott very close (about a 10 minute walk on campus) it seemed like a nice place to stay and use my points. We arrived in good time, about 5pm after about a 4.5 hour drive and were glad to park the car and relax in the lounge! Andrew enjoyed a beer I picked out for him (inside joke as I do not drink beer and have to trust the bartenders and apparently it was a good “local” IPA selection) while we had some snacks and I enjoyed some ginger ale! The ONE peeve that I have with Marriott is that they are a Pepsi loyalist and I cannot drink that soapy stuff – Coke Zero all the way!
Here is the approximate route that we took:
