Got Shivers Down My Spine...

Good Afternoon everybody!

We've made it to DC, probably the longest stretch so far, in fact I'm tired! LOL

This morning we visited the "Wright Brothers National Memorial" and that's exactly what sent shivers down my spine. It's been amazing for me to see the actual place where these visionary brothers pursued their dreams, and built their first flying machine. It's been amazing for several different reason, the first one being my passion for aircraft engineering and engines in general; having spent 5 years in the Air Force I sort of felt like home. The second reason is that I'm also somehow like those two brothers, visionary, passionate, able to pursue my dreams when the majority of the people I know only a few years ago called me a fool for leaving my job, my family, and all that was familiar to me, to follow my dream. I haven't made it yet, I'm still a work in progress, but my life has been enriched so much by the experiences I've made here in the United States, the people I met, and those that I still have to meet; I'm exceptionally thrilled at the idea that every day is a new day full of surprises, this is how I'm living my life at the present time.

But let's go back to the Wrights brothers, otherwise someone might start thinking this is "ll about me" (oh well, yes, it is! LOL). The memorial site has four parts you might want to visit. The first one is the actual visitor center with a permanent exhibition on the two brothers and several other people who contributed through the years to make history in aviation. The second one (which is the one that sent shivers down my spine! LOL) are the actual points marked by a large granite boulder where the brothers made their first flights. The third is the big monument on top of the hill built in the late 30's (a good walk to get up, great exercise!). The fourth is a pavilion, that architecturally looks like an onion (LOL) and that contains several other exhibition including some life size reproductions of the flying machines.

Left the Wright Brothers National Memorial, we proceeded on leaving the Outer Banks, off to DC. This time I succeeded in taking a picture of the border road sign welcoming us to Virginia, and here's the proof of it.

We then stopped for a quick bite to eat somewhere in Virginia, and then drove for another few hours into DC. On I95 we had several Tornado warnings, and at one point the rain was so bad we almost had to stop.

We made it into DC around 5.30PM, and went to dinner at Logan Restaurant on P Street. I had fried chicken (light and healthy) with gravy and smashed potatoes, while Hap had their house meat loaf (delicious).

So, here I am, right now, writing this "post of the day"! LOL

We're planning a lot of things for these two days in DC, because, although we had both been here before (Hap has lived here and still has a place close to Dupont Circle), we've never visited any of the museum.

On the list for tomorrow we have:

The Holocaust Museum;

National Air & Space Museum;

National Museum Of Natural History.

The day after:

National Air & Space Museum - Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly (Other % of the Smithsonian collection that didn't fit the museum in downtown DC);

Arlington National Cemetery.

Let's see what we end up doing.

We're planning on arriving at the Cape on June the 6th, but we really have no schedule, because that's the way this trip has been laid out, the 1st rule is that there are NO rules!

Good night,

Nico

Welcome to OBX Land

Here we are, we wanted to come visit the OBX (as the locals affectionately call them), better known as "The Outer Banks".


Another busy day for the two travelers.

We started up in the morning with a visit to the car wash where I patiently "hand washed" the buggie for something that was close to an hour but that felt like eternity! I'm so fussy about cars and the way they have to be cleaned! LOL


After we finished with the car, we visited Duke University (loved it!), and then went to Chapel Hill to see the city center and OF COURSE, Univesity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Randy! LOL).

Duke:

UNC @ Chapel Hill:

Chapel hill as I said before is a very nice place, I really enjoyed spending some time there, especially because it's been such a great day!




We took some pictures here and there in Chapel Hill, and then decided to move on and drive to somewhere in between Raleigh and the Outer Banks. We picked up Plymouth, NC, and my question to you right now is: have you ever been there?!?!? Oh my God, you absolutely have to go, they have the lighthouse on the Roanoke River, then they also have the lighthouse on the Roanoke River, and oh yeah, I forgot to say they also have the lighthouse on the Roanoke River!


No seriously, there's a lot more than that, they also have wheat fields... ;-)


We unanimously (LOL) decided to keep going east, and that's how we reached the town of kitty Hawk, which was in our plans anyway.




Kitty Hawk (for those of you who might not know, just like I didn't) hosts the Wright Brothers National Memorial (U.S. National Park Service), this is in fact the site where in 1903 the two brothers finally realised their dreams of achieving the first successful ariplane flight.


I'm currently writing this post from a Days Inn overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Once again we've been lucky with the room (spotless and newly renovated), for a rate that is almost 50% off what other hotels around are currently asking ($139+tax).


Tomorrow we're driving up north through the Outer Banks, final destination Washington DC.

I've been there already, but DC is DC. We're planning on visiting some museum, and enjoy some of the nightlife.



Time to go to bed now, hope you guys all had a great day,

Nico

Duke Or UNC, That Is The Question!

Good Evening gentlemen!

I want to start off today by recommending you a cozy, quiet little place (it's a small Best Western) in Durham, NC called the "Skyland Inn". It is very clean, spotless I would say, this is probably the first thing I look at when deciding if I want to stay in a hotel room, and trust me, the owner of this place really did an outstanding job. The rooms are also nicely decorated, basically as nicely as you would have your own bedroom, with nice soft, clean linen, and a very "expensive looking" bedspread, not to mention that the price is REALLY right ($60 if you have a coupon from the local visitor information center).

The restaurant we went to is called "AnotherThyme", very nice place, dim light, great atmosphere, and delicious food! We started off with some tasty pork dumplings with a rich soy sauce, then I had Gazpacho and a Caesar Salad with grilled chicken, and Hap got a true NC fried chicken with steamed vegetables and smashed potatoes on the side. Everything was cooked to perfection, and had a great flavour, and our waiter (Jeremy) other than being very knowledgeable, was also very pleasant. We would definitely go back, and recommend this restaurant to family and friends.

All right, let's go back to our business, let me see, what did we do today?!?!

Oh God, I'm starting to get old, I forgot what we did! LOL

No, I'm just kidding, I know exactly what we did.

Today we had our first (and hopefully last) stop to fix a problem with the car. No big deal really, the head light on the driver's side went out last night, and we wanted to replace it ASAP. We called the VW dealer in Charlotte to get it serviced (Carolina Volkswagen 7800 E Independence Blvd, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28227), and they told us to bring the car in. Our service guy (his last name was Wilson just like Hap) was very nice, especially at the end, when we got the car back and he told us we didn't owe anything...! I was nicely surprised.

By the time we got the car back it was basically lunch time. We stopped on E Trade St. at a pub that served OK burgers (Only because I like it medium-rare and they would only serve it well done!), but awesome (and when I say awesome, that's exactly what I mean) fries, it doesn't get better than that! again, the lady at the bar (who was also the one who took our order and delivered our food was also very pleasant, she engaged in a conversation with us and she was thrilled at the idea of our trip!

E Trade St. is where Johnson & Wales University - Charlotte Campus is, so we stopped for a few pictures, but decided it was time to head out east towards the triangle (Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh).

On the way to "the triangle" we stopped in:

Thomasville, NC to see the biggest chair in the US (How do you like this Suzanne?!?! LOL):

High Point, NC to see the largest bureau in the US:

And Jamestown's FurnitureLand, to see an even bigger bureau (these are apparently the guys who built the one in High Point, so they can say whatever they want to say! LOL):

Our first stop after these three "must see" attraction has been Chapel Hill, NC home of the University Of North Carolina - Chapel Hill". The Campus is huge (and so is Duke that is in neighbouring town Durham, NC), with a fine architecture.

Too bad we arrived in downtown Chapel Hill a little bit after 5PM as that is exactly the time when everything starts closing.

We then proceeded on going to the Visitor Information Center, where we got some brochures on what to do in the Triangle are, and a list of accomodations for the night. We decided to make a reservation with Best Western as it offered the highest quality at the most affordable rate.

I left Hap at the hotel and went to meet with a friend, Luca, whom I only knew through the Internet because of my involvement with the Italian group of WOP98, an Internet community where Italias exchange informations on a variety of topics such as the Diversity Lottery (Green Card), studying in the US, living in the US, etc...Thanks Luca for the nice chat, have a safe trip to China tomorrow, and enjoy Italy in June.

Luca gave me some advice on what to see at Duke (he's getting his PhD there), we drove around the campus for a little while, and then I went back to the hotel room.

Finally we got some sun today, it really made it for a nice day, and besides that, I really missed it!

On tomorrow's to do list is:

Chapel Hill and UNC Campus; Downtown self guided tour through Franklin St., Duke University Campus, a visit to Raleigh and maybe some other things we can still plan, like a tour of some (all right, maybe only one! LOL) wineries around this area.

Next stop will probably be east of Durham, in Plymouth, NC some 150 miles away, where we will most certainly spend the night, using it as a starting point for our trip through the Outer Banks.

That's all folks, hope I haven't bored you too much!

Nico

I feel like Mr. Vanderbilt!

We did it, we went to the Biltmore Estate.

Rainy, cr*ppy day today, too bad because I’m sure Asheville would have deserved something better than just a 3 hours tour of the Biltmore.

The ticket to get in the property is VERY expensive ($47 for me and $39 for Hap), but trust me, it is worth it! The “house” has 250 rooms, it works like any other regular museum you might go visit, you either pay for one of those self guided tours (with the headsets), you have a tour guide, or you just walk around on your own. We picked the third option (Duh!), but we had a booklet they give you with the tickets, helping us with a brief description of the rooms we were looking at.

This is part of the INDOOR garden at the entrance of the house.

The place is really HUGE, with finished basement (another duh!) where guess what they have? An indoor swimming pool (wide and deep enough to put the Beluga we saw in Atlanta! LOL), and a bowling alley! I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw it, it’s amazing what they did, and what they had at that time (1895).
This is the Greenhouse



I’m sorry I couldn’t take any picture on the inside, but that was the rule, and I had to stand by it.

After we left the house we went wine tasting! We had five small glasses of wine they make at the local winery inside the estate, it was good but pricey, and besides that, the car is already FULL!!! LOL

After we left The Biltmore Estate we headed south east where we presently are in downtown Charlotte, which is also home of the Johnson & Wales University – Charlotte Campus.



Still cold and wet here, hopefully tomorrow it’ll be better. All right, need to find a nice place where to have dinner now.

Talk to you later,
Nico

I went to Car Heaven!

Good evening guys, it’s later than usual tonight, it’s been another busy day on the road.

Just to give you an example of how busy we’ve been, I just realized today I took 415 pictures!
We woke up this morning in Knoxville, had breakfast (I made my first waffle of the year, actually I made two! LOL), and the headed to Sevierville where we saw the Muscle Car Museum.

I would recommend it to anybody who loves cars, especially old cars, as it was really a great experience. They have roughly 90 different models on display, for a value of $5 million dollars. Chevy, Pontiac, Ford, you name it, they have it! ;-) It was also very interesting to read where the cars came from, who the owner is, and how much money had originally been paid to purchase the car.

So, if you’re passionate about cars, and you’re in the Knoxville area, I would definitely recommend you to stop at the Muscle Car Museum.

If you’re passionate about aircrafts, you’re a Air Force Vet, or you just like those big silver birds, then you should pay a visit to the “Tennessee Museum Of Aviation – Warbird Collection”, as it has a very interesting exhibit of Air Force memorabilia, and it also displays a collection of aircrafts (and their personal stories), and helicopters.

The “Tennessee Museum Of Aviation” is also in Sevierville, very close to the Muscle Car Museum, you can’t miss it!

After that we headed south to Gatlinburg, TN, going through Pigeon Forge (which is between Sevierville and Gatlinburg on US 441). Now, what to say about Pigeon Forge?!?! “Dollywood” is there if you’re interested in amusement parks, roller coaster, etc. US 441 looks like Disneyland, it’s amazing, all sorts of hotels, from the cheapest Motel to some quite expensive Hotels.
Once we entered Gatlinburg, I spotted one of my kid’s dream materializing in front of my eyes…What am I talking about? General Lee from the Duke Of Hazzard obviously! ;-) This is also part of the reason why I took so many pictures. The Sheriff’s car was also there, as was the towing truck! This is the kind of “America” I like…!

If you want to waste $12 a piece, I would certainly recommend you to take the “Sky Lift” (I haven’t spelled it wrong, that’s the way they call it!). It’s like one of those regulars ski lift you take when you go skiing, only more expensive, and less thrilling. The good thing is that I got some great shots from up the mountain (and those pictures are piling up! LOL).

General Lee from the "Duke Of Hazzard" (You can see more pictures on Flickr):

We left Gatlinburg in the afternoon on US 441 which is also the only road going through the park. This scenic by-way is spectacular to say the least, so much that I had to stop several different times to enjoy the scenery, but also take pictures.

The entrance to the Park:

Our loyal "Buggy" somewhere in the park:
36 miles after on the other side of the park the first village you go through is Cherokee, NC. I’m actually pissed I didn’t get the chance to take a picture of the TN/NC border sign, as there wasn’t any on US 441, oh well, go figure!

Cherokee is really a small center who, I take a guess here, lives mainly from all of those Indian Artifacts shops they have on the main street, but also from the Indian Casino who certainly has huge revenues, and little or no taxes if I’m not wrong.

We finally got to Asheville, where we’ve been lucky enough to find a hotel downtown for a decent price. Being only a few steps away, we walked through downtown Asheville, and find out that some places at night look a little bit too dark! Dinner at a French Restaurant on Lexington Ave.. They have an outdoor sitting area which is really amazing, it feels like dining in one of those Paris backstreets (but it could also be Italy without a doubt). Food was good, I had a crepe, Hap had trout. Tuesday night is also their All you can eat Mussel day! Too bad I don’t like Mussels…We also had an onion soup as an appetizer which was pretty good.

Tomorrow we go visit the Biltmore, and that should take pretty much all morning/afternoon I would say. The evening looks quite open, I have some ideas already in my mind, but right now I’ll say goodnight to you, and call it a day, it’s been a loooooong one.

Goodnight folks,
Nico

Welcome To "Tennessee"!

Another perfect day my friends.

First of all, I’d like to start this post thanking once again Todd for his hospitality and his being the way he is; he made us feel like home, and most of all, he hang around with us, which is great! Thanks for joining yesterday at the meat orgy, “Chima”, the Brazilian steakhouse was superb.

My thanks also to our dear friend George down in Fort Lauderdale for giving Todd our number and making all of this possible; it is really true, good people attract good people.

As I said at the beginning, another perfect day.
We started with a coffee and a jelly donut at Dunkin Donuts while on our way to Stone Mountain, GA!

I was so much looking forward to visiting Stone Mountain, see the carving, and enjoy the sky ride, and the trip to the Park didn’t absolutely disappoint me. Something I totally underestimated is the size of the park itself, it’s huge, with several different areas inside, four entrances, and many different attractions someone can experience while at Stone Mountain.

To me this is a prelude to Mount Rushmore, SD; I had shiver running down my spine today when I saw the carving, I can’t really imagine what is going to happen when we get to South Dakota.

Stone Mountain took us about 2 hours to go through, we went to the top of the “rock” and back down with the cable car, then we visited the “Carillion”, and subsequently we decided to head out NW towards Chattanooga, TN.

Welcome to Tennessee road sign:

Chattanooga here we come!

Still at this point I can’t actually believe I’m in Tennessee! LOL For an Italian like me it sounds so exotic to be here, and the people are so different from what I’m used to in Florida, some are “scary”, and some are very pleasant, makes you want to know more about this state.

Our stop in Chattanooga, TN, has been unfortunately a brief one, but nonetheless we enjoyed every second of it. We went to “Lookout Mountain” and enjoyed the “Incline Railway” called “The American Most Amazing Mile” which is also with 72.7% grade incline, the steepest passenger railway in the world!

As you can see we’re still looking for “biggest/largest/tallest/deepest” and many other “est” here in the US. There will be a lot more to come, don’t worry about that.

I should probably say that what made the ride on the cable car more interesting was probably the young married couple with two kids; they had a great TN accent (which I absolutely love), but what was even better than that was the small boy they had. Guess what his name was: Yeah, you got that right, it was BUBBA!!! The guy absolutely made my day…

I should mention that the ticket for the railroad was round-trip, so it basically takes you up there, and then back down; while we were up, we noticed that only three blocks away from the entrance to the cable car they have “Chickamauga & Chattanooga Battlefield Park” to commemorate the bloodiest two days in American History. It is America’s first National Military Park. The park commemorates the men who fought and died here, whether they wore blue or gray, really worth a visit.

The drive up to Lookout Mountain is certainly as good as reaching the final destination; it was amazing to see how many nice pieces of real estate are up there overlooking the Chattanooga area, and the Great Smoky Mountains who can be seen on clear sunny day at a 100 miles distance.

Right now I’m writing you from a hotel room in Knoxville, TN. We decided to keep moving NE in order to be able tomorrow to be in Sevierville, Gatlinburg (for the scenic by-way through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park), and who knows, maybe reach Asheville, NC before dawn, find a place where to sleep, and then just enjoy the city and what it has to offer, the day after with absolutely NO pressure.

For tomorrow there are also many things scheduled in our program, I doubt we will be able to do everything, but we will try. I’ll obviously keep you posted and let you know about our progress tomorrow evening.

Before I go, my quote for the day, since we’re here in Tennessee and it looks a lot like a Bible Belt State to me, here it is: “Jesus is coming, look busy!” ;-)

That’s really all for the day.

Warmest Regards,
Nico

A Day At The Zoo...

Good Evening PEOPLE,

Hope you all had a nice day...We did!

We woke up early enough to have breakfast in a nice cafe in Mid-Town Atlanta; it's pretty amazing to see how, despite the fact that the real estate market is not in the best possible condition here in the metro area, the high rise building are still going up, and up, and up. If you go see the gallery for the day on Flickr, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Coke is EVERYWHERE!:

Here is the link to the photo set to see the pictures in case you want to go see them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26810742@N02/sets/72157605252189911/

After breakfast we took a quick downtown Atlanta tour, and then, since it was a great sunny day, we decided to go to the Zoo (which we skipped yesterday because of the crowds infesting the park! LOL).

It was absolutely worth every penny, I'm a big animal lover (I know, I went to the Zoo, I guess I'm not), but hey, if the next time I come back on this earth as a Meerkat, I definitely want to go live at the Atlanta Zoo. All they do is sleep, eat, and ehm, well, you know what I mean... ;-) What more could anybody possibly ask for?

You don't believe what I'm saying?

Just take a look at the African Naked Mole (Yeah,right, the one I sent you all guys the Email a few weeks ago, the one that looks like a pee-pee with big teeth!):

I also saw Pandas and Giraffes for the first time, alligators (not really the first time!) and a lot of monkeys, birds, and snakes...oh, did I mention I saw alligators? ;-)

Here is the goat, yes, the one that gives you the goat cheese you put in your crusted salmon:

Or this beautiful owl who I just found out has hollow bones, and only weights 3 pounds for that reason:

Here's an especially endangered species of Panda, that needs a lot of TLC:

And here are the Flamingoes:

We spent roughly 3 and a half hours at the Zoo for an admission price of $13.99, again, if you ever come to Atlanta, skip the big water tanks and the Georgia Aquarium and go straight to the Zoo, and most probably the Botanical Garden which might be in our plans for tomorrow.

As soon as we got home this afternoon, the plan was for me to check the website for Stone Mountain and then go over there to see the carving, have dinner, and watch the laser show, but being Memorial Day Weekend, we found out today was a big day, with Lee Greenwood in concert...Yes, you're right, Lee Greenwood, the one that is proud to be an American where he knows he's at least free...! :-)

We said "No Thanks" to that, although I love country music, it is just that at this point in my life as I said already, I'm trying to avoid the crowds as much as I can!

Instead we changed our schedule for the evening and went to Chima, the Brazilian Steakhouse that you can check at: http://www.chima.cc/.

Todd, our wonderful host also joined us for dinner, I must say we really enjoyed his company for these few days we've been staying at his place.

For those of you who don't know how a Brazilian steakhouse works, it's quite simple.
You pay a flat price (in this case it was $46.50) a you eat as much meat as you want (I think I mentioned this already in a previous post! LOL I'm getting forgetful!).

Now, let me tell ya, I probably had three 8oz Filet Mignon, several slices of beef tenderloins, a pork chop with a parmesan cheese crust, some Portuguese sausage, ribeye steak, beef carpaccio, a nice home made pasta salad with tuna, smashed potatoes, green and kalamata olives, and last but not least, vanilla ice cream with a hot banana sauce, with banana slices cooked in a orange juice reduction, I think I went to Meat HEAVEN!!!

I actually think I did, although my stomach at one point (after dessert! LOL) told me enough is enough, and therefore I had to stop.

We even got a huge (enough for four) birthday cake for Hap included in the price, the staff at Chima really outdid themselves, making me think that after all I was glad we decided not to go to Stone Mountain.

Speaking of Stone Mountain, it's our first thing on our "To Do list" for tomorrow, we certainly won't see the Laser show, but we're definitely going to see the carving, we have to!

All right, it's time for me to go plan the route for tomorrow, it would be nice to head further west a little bit to get to Chattanooga, TN, maybe up north to Knoxville, and then head east to reach Ashville, SC, and finally put the top down and enjoy the ride on the Appalachian Trail through the Blue Ridge Parkway (a road that stretches for 469 miles, from Maine to Georgia!). Some of the hihlights will be the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mount Mitchell State Park, Grandfather Mountain, Little Switzerland, and many other places we're going to talk about later.

That's all for today folks, I hope you're enjoying reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it, it's a pleasure.

Have a good night.

Nico

What y'all have?!?!

What y’all have?!?!

Are y’all having a good time? We are…

We started this morning early enough to be among the first to enter the Georgia Aquarium. The only thing that I really feel like I should say about it is: “Been there, done that”! The place is really no big deal, and although the building looks really nice from the outside, and pride itself for being the largest aquarium in the world, the only positive comment that I have is that I loved they named the little Beluga whale after me (oh well, maybe not, but I appreciated the fact that its name was Nico…

I’m sorry but I just can’t help compare it with “The Atlantis” at Paradise Island in the Bahamas, now, that was an aquarium, with a 1 hour guided tour of the facility.

We decided to make our next stop the Atlanta Zoo. It’s been a very nice day weather wise and we thought it was going to be nice to spend the rest of the morning/afternoon cuddling with the lions and wrestling with the giraffes. Well, little did we know that today being a holiday weekend, the Zoo was totally packed. The entire parking lot was full, and there was a sign telling us to get to an additional lot that was opened not too far away; a little bit like going to Haulover Beach after 12PM, it’s hard to find a spot! Now, I don't know what you would have done, but we mutually agreed the Zoo could have waited, I’m personally NOT a big fan of big crowds anyway, so, after that guess where we decided to go?!?!?

Of course, you got that right, “The Varsity”!!!!

The Varsity is supposed to be the largest Diner/Drive-in in the US; they serve burgers, hot dogs, fries, onion rings, and some other kind of healthy food they’re thinking about proposing to the general public at healthy food stores such as Whole Foods in the near future.

We had an order of two Chili Hot Dogs and a Chili Burger, a side of French Fries, and a big bucket of Sprite to go with it. I was ready to ask for a Pepsi, but as y’all might understand, this is not really the right place to ask for something like that! LOL

The Varsity is an institution, they serve fast food, they’re not particularly kind nor exceptional when it comes to excite my taste buds, but still they manage to be in every Tourist Guide, and let’s admit it, they certainly are an icon of Atlanta, a piece of history! This is what really amazes me, and that’s why we needed to go there and pay tribute to the Goddess Fat!

The afternoon has been very low key, we wanted to go visit the “Jimmy Carter Center & Library”, one of the 10 (?) Presidential Libraries in the US, and so we did! It was quite an experience; I must admit that I really enjoyed it, especially because of this holiday mood these days, with street parades, celebrations, etc.

As for the evening, it looks quite open, who knows, Soul Food anybody? ;-)

The plan for tomorrow is to visit Stone Mountain in the afternoon, hang around there for the evening (maybe hike some of the trails), have dinner at one of the restaurants on the common (It looks nice, and I’ve read good reviews about the food which is always good), watch the laser show they have at night for desperate tourists like us, and then probably just head back to Atlanta to spend the night.

The morning at the present time looks wide open, we might in fact want to try to go back to the Zoo, and if we really get desperate, maybe visit the World Of CocaCola!
From all of us at CNN, have a great evening.
Peace,
Nico