2nd Installment of 2020 Fall Road Trip

The first day of our trip, Monday, took us across and down the state of Ohio to the small town of Marietta, GA.  Dick had read a book about the settlement of this area, and was interested in seeing it for himself.

Marietta sits right on the Ohio River and we were able to sit out on the river bank by our hotel and watch several tugboats and a long line of barges being moved down stream.

There was a lovely walking/bike trail along the river that we enjoyed since it had been a long day of travel.

We chose to stay in the historic and romantic Lafayette Hotel built in 1918.  It is a grand riverboat era hotel as evidenced by the furnishings from the lobby to the guest rooms.

When was the last time you saw one of these?  They actually have the three original small phone booths with varying eras of phone designs in the hall way.

We enjoyed walking the streets and met the nicest local ladies who gave us personal recommendations for dinner.

They highly recommended this new establishment, 740 Social and we were not disappointed.

Outside eating was a bit rustic and spooky, but the food was delicious and the weather could not be beat.

Marietta, OH is a lovely, small picturesque college town we were so glad we included this as our first night on the road.

The next day we traveled through both Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky, and 

Tennessee, where we went through some of the most beautiful country side and saw the prettiest colors of the entire trip.

We went on the look-out when we realized we were in Hatfield & McCoy country.  Thankfully, we did not encounter any feuds.

Source

Our plans were to stop in Jonesborough, TN, which is the oldest town in the state; however, we got there later than we had hoped and there was no room in the Inn.  After riding through this pretty and quaint historic town, we headed on south toward Black Mountain, North Carolina, where we spent a couple nights.

On Tuesday, we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway.  There were too many amazing vistas to share, but these are a few of our favorites.

A waterless water fall.

On the way back to the hotel in Black Mountain, we drove by Ridgecrest Conference Center where we attended several Music Week Conferences through the years.

Our first trip there was in 1967 with a church group.

Perhaps the most memorable was the time we took John as a baby in 1970.

Another memorable trip was when we camped in Black Mountain and took the kids to Grandfather Mountain.

There were so many wonderful memories here and we hate that the center will be sold.

On Wednesday morning we went to the Cove, the Billy Graham Conference Center.  It is truly holy ground.

From here we drove to Lancaster, South Carolina where we spent two wonderful nights with some of our longest couple friends, Bill and Velta Morris.  One thing about special friends is that we picked up where we left off 5 years ago and simply enjoyed each other's company.  Velta is the queen of hospitality and we felt like family around her beautiful Fall table.

She accompanied Dick which brought back so many memories from his seminary days when he was Minister of Music at their church in Kentwood, Louisiana.  It was in their apartment that Dick proposed to me in 1965.

From here we drove to Myrtle Beach, SC on Saturday morning and that's for another day.