#TimeShare - Day 8 Conclusion

Casa Del Schmidbauer

We only had a few hours to go for our final day of the trip, so this will be short.

We packed up and made our way down the street to Tudor's Biscuit World.  Couldn't leave the South without one of their breakfasts--the "Ron" and an Apple Biscuit.

Onto Pennsylvania, and Washington, where George and Tom set up a university.  They celebrated with a dance.

Pushing on to the Buckeye State, with a stop in Cambridge to see a local glass factory.  Mosser Glass makes decorative pieces you might buy in a local store.  It's quite the operation in back of the gift shop.

Well, that does it.  1719 miles and 8 days later, we returned home.  Lots of fun, although it was a bit more damp than we would have liked.  Now, where to go next?  We do have a 30 year anniversary coming up in the fall...

#TimeShared - Day 7

Morgantown, WV
Latitude 39.39 degrees
Longitude 79.59 degrees

We're now in "one the way home" mode.  This was helped when we decided to skip Skyline Drive--it would have taken several more hours, and between rain and fog, the views would have been minimal and the risk high.

This was a fairly clear point. When we looked over at the Skyline Drive exit, it was a wall of fog.

This decision allowed us to hit our first stop--the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory.  A small facility cranks 28,000 pounds of potatoes into chips A DAY, all of which are hand-coated with various flavors.  They are protective of their process--no production photos.  We got some samples, which led to some purchases.

“Samples”

Onto Maryland, and multiple stops.  There's a private toll bridge over the Potomac, between Maryland and West Virginia.  $1.50 allows you to cross a single lane floating wooden bridge. Listen for the clickety-clack in the dashcam video below.

The first toll house on the old National Road aka US40.  The feds debated for years whether to impose a toll, before deciding to let the states do it.

The "Braddock Stone"--the oldest road sign in America.  Now in a glass case in front of the local museum.

Moving to West Virginia, specifically Morgantown.  We came here to see a statue of Don Knotts, TV icon.  "I was gonna take Thelma Lou down to Mt. Pilot for the picture show".

We decided to stop for the night, which may not have been the best call.  A mediocre BBQ place (we should have run when we saw it attached to a hotel) followed by a so-so hotel.

Tomorrow, a few more stops before home.

#TimeShared - Day 6

Zion Crossroads, VA

Last night, Mindy spent some time putting together an itinerary for today, and we thought we were set.  But when we went down for hotel breakfast, we ran into another couple from yesterday's timeshare fracas.  We got to talking--we were planning to skip Monticello, because the website indicated that we could only get tickets for very late in the day.  The other couple told us they got in without any problem.  So, we decided to give it a shot--and indeed we got in, although we had to wait for awhile, walking the grounds on a gloomy day. 

Then it was a tour of Tom's home--I saw it as a kid, right around the Bicentennial.  The current program doesn't shy away from Jefferson's "enslaved people" as they did back then.  There's a multimedia presentation on Sally Hemings, who was, more or less, Jefferson's slave and mistress.  It was heart-wrenching.  On the other hand, the tour ran into Tom himself--you'd think he could retire by now.

A series of cables runs through this wall clock, with a weight indicating the day of the week. It turned out to be too tall, forcing “Saturday” into the basement.

Well, that’s a color choice.

We then drove into town and the Dairy Market food hall for Italian food.  We're fans of these upscale food courts.

After a drive around the UVa campus (at one point winding up in a private area we had to back out of), we went up the mountain (to be precise, Carter Mountain and their orchard).  It's well known for its scenic views, although the rain and mist took care of that.  We got some cider and donuts.

“Scenic” overlook. We swear there’s a mountain range there.

Speaking of the rain, we decided to head back to the hotel and take refuge for the remainder of the day.  Fortunately, we brought some provisions and snacks.

Tomorrow, we move on, with a decision to make--make a run for Skyline Drive or not (based on the weather, it's not looking good).

#TimeShared - Day 5

Zion Crossroads, VA

Well, it's come to this--the rationale for the hashtag.  We partly came down here to attend a timeshare presentation (and get a cheap hotel, travel points, and a gift card in the process). 

We drove about 20 minutes from the hotel to the resort (where they chose NOT to house us--probably not the best way to ingratiate themselves with us).  After filling out a form basically saying we wouldn't slip out during the event, we sat in a conference room and got the spiel.  If you've never done the timeshare thing, you get handed from one smiling person to another, part of a battalion of salespeople.  There's videos, testimonials, talk about your dream vacation--and then comes the hard sell (which they swear isn't one).  Think about the last time you bought a car, and multiple the "what do I have to do to get you in this Corolla?" bit times ten. We got a quick tour, and the model homes seemed very nice.  The math just doesn't work, especially when a quick Google search shows people selling the same places for pennies on the dollar (if that), and a class action lawsuit underway.  So, we politely said nyet, got our stuff, and left.

On to lunch at the Well Hung Vineyard--an andouille crostini, a chicken sammich, and a flight of wine slushies.  It was all very good.

We had originally planned to go to Monticello on this trip.  I went there as a kid, but Mindy has never been.  Unfortunately, we discovered that a) you have to reserve a time weeks in advance to avoid being rushed through at the end of the day (which we couldn't do vs. an unknown time for our timeshare event) and b) someone decided to go the Disney route and charge you an arm and a leg.  With these in mind, we chose instead to go to Highland, just down the road from Tom's colossus, and the home of President James Monroe.  We walked in, paid a reasonable fee, and took a tour with a knowledgeable docent.  The grounds are lovely, and the whole place is well maintained.

A 300+ year old white oak.

The earliest surviving Presidential china (the War of 1812 took out the dinnerware before that).

Then back to the still-elevatorless hotel for a nap, followed by a trip back to Charlottesville (getting very used to the 15 mile trip) to visit the Downtown Mall , and the Citizen Burger Bar.  I had a huge burger, while Mindy had fries with burger on the side.

Enough for today--more from VA tomorrow.

#TimeShared - Day 4

Zion Crossroads, VA
Latitude 37.58 degrees
Longitude 78.12 degrees

We've reached our second major stop for the trip, but before that--

A quick jaunt to Richmond to see the state house.  We did some research online, and it asserted there was plenty of parking, but when the website link is dead...we eventually found a spot a few blocks away. The Virginia State House, like many, are in the midst of construction, but most of the interior was open.  The actual chambers were locked, but we could look in.  It's a relatively small place--looks like a toy on a hill.

In case the crowd gets rowdy…

We were very interested in Viscountess Astor, an American who moved to England and became the first woman elected to the House of Commons.

Moving on to "Mr. Smedley", a local entertainer with a mouse under his hat, immortalized with a statue.

We love big things--here's one.  Don't run with it!

We stopped for lunch at the Silver Diner, a surprisingly upscale place with a goal of perfecting diner food. I think they succeeded. Mindy had the Bruschetta, while I had a club sammich. Outstanding!

While we waited for our hotel room to open up, we stopped at Albermare Ciderworks-- Mindy had a small flight, while I had the non-alcoholic version. We may go back...

We had some issues with our hotel--no working elevator, no king bed, and no TV (we moved to another room for the last item).  This is the place we were assigned by the timeshare company who wants us to buy (I guess they aren't very proud of their resort, where we go for the actual spiel).  Then, after the rain moved in and our first dinner choice fell through (how do restaurants pay their leases when they are only open a few days a week?) we noticed a wood fired pizza place across the street called Matchbox PIzza. Lucked out again-- excellent!

That's enough for now--tomorrow, we sit through a timeshare bit, then hopefully move onto more exciting things.

#TimeShared - Day 3

Ashland, VA
Latitude 37.45 degrees
Longitude 77.28 degrees

Reporting from a new state.  We started back in Charlotte, when we decided not to go back to the comic convention--we saw all we were going to see, and we had all the fun.  So, we moved onto Sunday brunch at Vicious Biscuit.  Wow, that was a LOT of food.  We shared beignets, I had a "Fat Boy" (fried chicken biscuit with pimento cheese), and Mindy had the "Vicious Benny" (Eggs Benedict in biscuit form).  It was great, but we had to continue with food comas.

Our next stops involved giant furniture--Thomasville, a quiet town that used to crank out furniture, has a giant chair that Presidents have sat in:

High Point, a surprisingly large town with tons of design shops, has a giant chest of drawers (which has a bureau inside it--there's a whole saga at roadsideamerica.com):

And Jamestown has a giant highboy inside a gate for a complex of furniture stores:

Meanwhile, Greensboro has a  downtown square devoted to O. Henry:

Crossing into Virginia, there's an old shoe factory that is now a hotel.  Bring in the giant heels!

We decided to shoot for the Richmond area tonight, so we're ready for tomorrow--a state house, and the reason this is called #timeshared.  We finished the day with serviceable Mexican food--nothing to write home about.

#TimeShared - Day 2

Matthews, NC

Back at our hotel after a busy day.  After grabbing a hotel breakfast, Mindy found a farmers' market close by, and we finally tracked down a parking spot that was supposed to be reserved for a hardware store (which somehow was only open Wed-Fri).  We walked around for a bit--it was interesting, and we night have bought a few things if we were locals.

We then headed downtown to the convention center and #heroescon.  We thought we had timed it correctly--we had 3 day tickets, and interpreted instructions that we would get in early.  Turned out we only got in BEFORE one-day ticket holders, and there was a huge line of three-day holders.  So, we took a quick tour around downtown, finding public artwork, before strolling into the show 20 minutes later.

You missed a “K”.

HeroesCon is, as I've said, a REAL comic book convention, truly focusing on comics and away from overall media.  This is now a rarity in the industry.  There's publishers (just indies), dozens of dealers with rows and rows of "longboxes", comic-centric companies (software, auctions, etc), and "artist's alley". 

The latter is what it sounds like--a lineup of comic artists who will sell and sign their work, draw custom requests during the show, or just have a chat.  There were some majors (Chris Claremont, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Roy Thomas, Jim Shooter), but most are self-publishers or work with small publishers.  There's two in particular we were interested in--Yale Stewart (JL8) and Thom Zahler (Love & Capes).  Mindy has supported their Kickstarter/Patreon campaigns for years.  We purchased prints from both of them.

We also invested in a few other indies--we love Ahoy Comics, and we picked up the second volume of Billionaire Island (we missed the first issue of the original issues, but picked up the rest) and Captain Ginger, a cat-based comic.  Then there's Afterglow and Destiny, NY from Space Between Entertainment.  Finally, we selected The Weather Man, an Image book by Jody LeHeup.  Mindy picked these because they appear to have multiple volumes, which means she can continue on if and when she wants.

Our haul from the con.

One of the main things I wanted to do at the con was research.  I recently spent some time reorganizing my comic collection, in anticipation of selling part of it off--I'm literally running out of room.  I've got some info (thanks to collectorz.com and covrprice.com) on potential values, and selected a few theoretically valuable comics from my collection.  I had hoped to talk to the "slabbers" (companies that take your comics, grade them, and seal them in acrylic cases, supposedly guaranteeing their value to buyers).  But what I found were self-service kiosks, plus the idea that I have to pay to join their systems, then pay again to use their service.  More research is needed.

Cons also have conference sessions--we sat in on one that featured Don Simpson, a longtime artist who had a minor role in an Image project known as "1963"--an Alan Moore joint.  Moore has become well known for being very cranky, to the point that he has taken his name off of his old projects.  His foul humor has held up the conclusion of 1963, which was originally offered as an annual--and never came out.  Now, Simpson is publishing an unofficial, unapproved "annual" using his own and some parody characters to complete the job.  It wan't the most organized presentation (they never are), but quite enjoyable.  I picked up a related book at Simpson's booth.

We were about done for the day, so after driving by some roadsideamerica.com sites--

This was a handy statue.

We nearly missed this one—too bad a mechanism which moves the big head was down.

we got some barbecue at Midwood Smokehouse--Burnt Ends (aka Food of the Gods) and Grilled Cheese with Pulled Pork. Sides were both unique and excellent.

That's enough for one day.  Tomorrow, finishing up Charlotte and onto Virginia.

#TimeShared - Day 1

Matthews, NC
Latitude 35.8 degrees
Longitude 80.42 degrees

We started our trip early--was shooting for 8a, but made it by 7:30.  After a Sheetz breakfast, we headed south--out of Ohio and onto West Virginia.  They made our route into a turnpike, which normally I would okay with--we have an EZPass. The problem--drivers didn't seem to understand how a tollgate works, resulting in a near stoppage a mile long.

Finally made it!

Onto Virginia, specifically Wyethsville for three items--a giant pencil...

the birthplace of a First Lady...

...and Skeeter's, a local institution and a hot dog place.

The dogs were excellent, although a little strange.  The redness of the wiener is not a visual effect.  Not sure if they are smoked or pickled.  Also, for a place that has reportedly sold 9M frankfurters, they have yet to work out an efficient operation.

More driving through the mountains, and we made it to Charlotte, NC.  We came here for Heroes Con, the first comic book convention we're attending since the "before times". 

We came here several years ago, and it's a rare example of a real "comic" show.  No pro wrestlers signing autographs, no appearances by "red shirt #3 from episode 43 of Star Trek", no huge displays by media behemoths--just rows of comic dealers, publishers, and artists, along with some craft sellers.  We bought a 3 day pass, since we couldn't buy a day pass in advance. 

We picked up our passes (once we found the right booth), and took a quick tour around the place.  We did stop at the Ahoy Comics booth--an indie that we LOVE, and we've covered on our comics podcast.  PIcked up a couple trades there.  Tomorrow, we'll hit the floor in earnest, along with some sessions.

#TimeShared - Day 0

It's time--literally--for another trip.

We're driving to the Southeast--to Charlotte NC and a comic book convention there, then onto Charlottesville VA (two different places) where we will take advantage of a free hotel stay in exchange for a timeshare presentation.  Don't worry, we have no intention of buying one (and if you're on the fence, google "John Oliver timeshare").  From there, we’ll work our way back home.

BTW--this blog will be posted after the fact.  Hotel wi-fi is spotty at best, and I would like to avoid stress on the trip where possible.  I will be writing as we go, and posting pics on Instagram/Facebook.

As always, we're leaning on roadsideamerica.com to find bizarre points of interest.  Tomorrow, it's off to Charlotte, with a stop to see  "The First Lady of Hot Dogs".