The Road to Virginia

Durans on old Route 66

We finally left Base Camp Tucson in early May, 2019 for an extended trek east to rendezvous with brother, Ed and sister in law, Pat for a week long time share visit in Williamsburg, Virginia. They'd never been, and we did visit (way before RV's came in to our travel lives) for a week back in 2004. We were so impressed with the natural beauty and American history then that we really wanted a redo someday. Well, when Ed called to say he thought it'd be a great destination and visit, we signed up. Winding through the mid section of the country, especially the part from Eastern New Mexico through the Texas Panhandle, and into Oklahoma and Arkansas, can be tricky business at this time of year. This year's weather vortex has proved to be no exception. We call it..take a deep breath and thread the needle! We managed to dodge the bad storms mostly, that is until we actually got all the way to Tennessee. Memphis, to be specific. Before we got there though, we had a couple of new experiences. The first was Duran's Central Pharmacy in Albuquerque

Hand rolled tortilllas at Durans

The Huevos Rancheros were great, if 9.0 on the incendiary Richter scale. They did say these were unusually potent that particular day. Next, we spent the night, carefully skipping across stormy

Oklahoma, in Elk City, home of the National Route 66 Museum. Here, the entire road is recreated

A good display of cars from the era of Route 66

in a really fascinating way. This is a place along I 40 well worth the stop! As we sped through Arkansas, thinking we had avoided the worst of the storms, we made it to Memphis, got settled for a couple of days (mostly eating)...and the skies commenced to open! It didn't really slow us down, and we managed to seek out a couple of noteworthy new finds. The first is some worthy Memphis Bar B Que at Commissary in Germantown.

Great Memphis BBQ

This place puts forth some righteous food! I sampled the brisket and M A had barbecued chicken. They both ranked high on our (fussier than usual) we're from Texas! scale. Then we stumbled on a new (to us anyway) regional chain called Rise. They do mostly fried chicken, sides, and biscuits, in a fast casual atmosphere. Small menu, and everything we tried was above average.

A visit to Memphis wouldn't be complete for me without the landmark Gibsons Donuts! I could eat my way through the entire glass donut case, but I limited myself to a classic glazed and one lemon filled, which was overfilled with delicious lemon custard...think Homer Simpson....Dogghhnuttttt..gllluhhh! 

Gibsons, Memphis

We kept our compass pointed east by northeast, after pulling out of Memphis, and headed for a quick stop in one of our favorite towns, Asheville, NC. We had only half a day and a night to hit some familiar places, so we dead headed for Wicked Weed for lunch and one of our must do Italian restaurants..anywhere.. Vinnie's! Both hit the mark, as usual. Asheville has a disproportionate number of good bakeries too, and we managed to squeeze in two of them. The West End Bakery has great bread, and their morning buns are always stellar! Also, The Well-Bred Bakery and Cafe, near the entrance to The Biltmore Estate, makes amazing pastries, especially cakes! We took home a slice of their deep chocolate cake, and we almost had to fight over who got the last bite. Mary Ann actually let down her self imposed sugar ban to compete for it with me. It was that good!

Well-Bred Bakery, Asheville

Our next stop will be the Williamsburg/Newport News area, about 2500 miles from Tucson. Stay tuned for our visit to that interesting part of The USA.