In the past two weeks, I've put almost 1000 miles on my car, and will have topped that by the time I get back home later today. Not bad for never leaving the state, eh? I've also seen some interesting things that I'd never seen or thought about before.
- I saw a truly funny personalized license plate yesterday in Harrisonburg: GOT MKAY. I turned back to the car to get the camera (seriously), but GOT MKAY had things to do, it seems, and had pulled out of the space by the time I was back. While I realize that this is probably a Mary Kay advertisement on the front and back of their vehicle, I prefer to think of it as reading "GOT MMMMMKAY?", preferably said with a Mr. Mackey-style intonation.
- Harrisonburg is a metropolitan area. Who would have known? I didn't, that's for sure, and was somewhat taken aback to hear it. It's also a much prettier town than I remember, heart of downtown excepted, and is undergoing quite the construction boom.
- Speaking of construction booms, Richmond is a lot longer than I remember. Short Pump now extends a couple of miles up 250 further than it did the last time I was here. Literally, a couple of miles of new development along 250 have sprung up in the less-than eighteen months between my visits to Richmond. Quite impressive, though I wonder if the long-term investment will be worth it, once some necessary infrastructural changes work their way into the system. Time will tell.
- Despite the change, once you finally do kick that one foot out of Richmond metro heading west on 250, there is nothing, and I mean nothing around you. Quite serene.
- Pound for pound, I'll rank Richmond's downtown business/government area as among the most difficult to navigate. I won't call it the worst, by any means, but pound for pound, it's up there.
- The county bird of Greensville County, if there is such a thing, should be the mosquito.
- I should get back to places like Natural Bridge and Luray Caverns. It's been quite a while.
- It's still strange for me to drive west on I-64 past 118B. I always smile when I hit that particular clearing between the halves of the interstate around 120-121. If you've made that drive more than a couple of times, you know exactly what patch of road I mean.
- No fog on Afton Mountain. Yay!
- Finally, what the hell is with pancake houses in Williamsburg? Do they breed? I'm not asking entirely facetiously, either. We hopped off of 64 onto 60 on the way up to Richmond the other day, mostly because I wanted to grab a slice at Dino's Pizzeria (best in the state), only to find out that they're closed Mondays. D'oh.
We decided that, rather than immediately getting back on the interstate, we'd stick on 60 and take the scenic route. About 1/4 mile into Williamsburg, I started gradually becoming aware of an inordinate number of pancake houses along the sides of the highway; by about 1/2 mile into the city I was flummoxed by their sheer numbers. All I could see after a while were pancake houses, whether claiming colonial origin or claiming lineage from an "Aunt" of some sort. I think that the most I saw were three consecutive, but there must have been two dozen in a 2.5-mile stretch, including a lone IHOP among all of its local competitors. Can anyone help me out here? What the hell is with pancake houses in Williamsburg?
Thursday, July 03, 2008
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Happy 4th of July! It escaped me earlier, but I was just reminded when the fireworks started over at Campbell Barracks which I can watch quite nicely from my balcony. Is Lilja old enough to enjoy a good fireworks display? Warmest regards to the missus, I hope you are having a nice holyday!
Not only is Downtown Richmond hell to navigate, but they make it so much more difficult by adding all those bloody "No Left Turns" and funky parking rules. And it still upsets me that you are still not allowed to just plow over all the lawyers. It says a lot that there are parts of Northern VA that are far easier to navigate than Richmond.
Maybe it's the fact that people in Richmond are still fighting the civil war...
Forgot to mention that you should keep in mind that Wmsbg is VA's version of Miami: retiree heaven. So perhaps the number of pancake/waffle establishments is related to retirement - or golf.
Breakfast places do tend to be popular in odd tourist areas, too. Did you happen to notice if there were an inordinate number of tour busses around?
I wish I had a better answer for, rather than my waffling around.
118B... I got a little misty at the reference. I need to make a pilgrimage... we need to make a pilgrimage.
"That arranged can be." And seriously -- let's get it done. Juanitos?
Bottom's Up is still my favorite Richmond pizzeria.
Luray is still okay as we just visited a week ago. There is a new addition though, one I find to be both alarming and upsetting. There is now a pretty green color on many portions of the cavern that were typically beige, off-beige, off-white-beige, etc. that I found quite distasteful. What is it you ask? Copper? Nope. It's algae. Yup, algae. Apparently tourism is necessitating longer term use of lighting in the cavern that is allowing what would normally be dor dormant algae to bloom and grow. It's creating a rather sublime, yet distasteful, odor reminiscent of the lake behind my house. Still worth a gander though.
I agree about AM 610. It sucks. When I went home Monday morning I came to a dead stop at 242 out by Williamsburg and finally had to break down and call 511 to find out that there was an accident up at 238 (which apparently was completely gone by the time I reached there). Even 511 was bad because it only cycled through the accident once but let me know all kinds of stuff about construction zones that were nowhere near me. Gotta love Virginia and the idiots that drive her roads.
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