Do Wine & BBQ mix? Why not! Dobson, North Carolina

Stats:
Destination:   North Carolina
Number of Days Spent:  One Week
Where we stayed:   4 nights at Jason's dad's house & 1 night with his sister, Amanda
Best restaurant:   Jason's dad, Richard, makes THE BEST BARBECUE.  Hands down, it is delicious!  On the restaurant side, La Botana in Winston-Salem had amazing fish tacos!  Thanks Stephanie, Jeb, Katie & Tom for taking us there! 
Worst of:    It can get a little cold up on the Parkway in December!
Most Memorable:   Going up the mountains to pick out a Christmas tree from the tree farm.  No, it wasn't a scene out of National Lampoons X-mas Vacation but there is something nostalgic about the whole process and the smell of fresh pine is intoxicating.

Useful Tip:  Wines in this region are not quite on par with California or France yet, but that may be changing sooner than you might think.  As the old adage goes, "Rome wasn't built overnight".  SO go ahead and mix your Mayberry with your Merlot ~ we did.
After years of testing various combinations of spices and seasonings my dad finally perfected what we in the 'know' think is the best BBQ Sauce in the land.  Together with a nice, slow, smoked pork shoulder or butt and a healthy topping of BBQ slaw you have one great sandwich.  I still enjoy chewing on the skins although I know they are absolutely THE worst part to eat health wise.

Just up the road from where I grew up, Andy Griffith also grew up in the town of Mt. Airy.  After his hit show of the 50's and 60's put the town on the map, little signs of Mayberry popped up here and there.  New to the scene is a replica of Wally's Filling Station.  The station sells vintage prints of the era along with old timey sodas and candy.  You can also book a tour with one of the squad cars were a Barney Fife look-a-like leads you around town. 
 

After checking out the 'Old Courthouse' we headed to modern day downtown Mt. Airy to try out Old North State Winery.  The quality of wine reflects their young age as a vineyard, but they have a nice venue and there is some promise there.

We have been to Shelton's several times as my mom used to stare at their grapes from her front porch and I picked up straw here in this very field as a kid.  Shelton's is now the largest vineyard on the East Coast and many of their wines can go head to head with established vines on the West coast.  Our favorite is their new malbec and our second is their port, both surprisingly good! 

Cutting though dense forest and passing around mountain passes, the Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the highlights of any trip to the Appalachian Mountains.  Dotted throughout the length of the Parkway are picnic areas, old mills, parks, overlooks and the this and that knickknack shops that beg you to pull off and have a look.  One such place is a recently opened Candy store just across the NC border into Virginia.  We heeded the call of the sirens and pulled off to satisfy our sweet tooth with a bit of fudge.

One of the more iconic symbols of the Parkway is Mabry Mill.  Normally bustling with activity (similar to Cade's Cove in the previous post) the mill is closed in the winter so we had the place to ourselves.  We have been here a number of times over the years and never grow tired of it's quaint charm.

 
Just past Mabry Mill sits Chateau Morrisette.  The vineyard has a nice alpine feel to it with an all wood lodge and a roaring fire crackling away.  A portion of their Sales of of a couple of wines go to support the Service Dogs of Virginia, which Metro appreciated (dad's service dog).


We had time for one last vineyard and opted for McRitchie Ciderworks.  McRitchie used to be the head vintner at Shelton's before deciding to strike out on his own.  His claim to fame are his use of Apples and if you happen to be in the neighborhood for the fall harvest, they have a Festival complete with fresh apple cider.   

With such a sophisticated day of sipping on wine there was only one way to end it...Bowling.  None us had bowled in years, and the rust was mighty thick.  Despite our poor scores, we still had a good time.
 
In the urbanizing of America, the classic going out to the woods to find the 'perfect' tree for Christmas has been lost.  Most people today drive all the way to the Supercenter or have traded in for the plastic variety (guilty as charged), but there is something satisfying about driving out of the way, going out in amongst a field of pine trees and finding the perfect tree.
 
In what has become somewhat of a annual meeting, we caught up with Aunt Lois's family for one last Mexican meal in NC.  Thanks guys for taking the time out and congratulations to Daniel and Jeanine on their engagement!

After crashing at my sister's house in Raleigh, we headed out to visit some friends for a weekend in our nations capital, Washington DC.

To see more photos from North Carolina click here!

Road Trip! First Stop: The Smoky Mountains of Tennessee

Stats:

Destination:   Smoky Mountains in Tennessee - Pigeon Forge, Knoxville, Smoky Mountain NP

Number of Days Spent:  1 week

Where we stayed:   We stayed with Jason's mom, Karen.

Best restaurant:   Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners, Moravian cookies and 'makeshift' Lefse grilling.

Worst of:   Some crazy, junior Ms. Park Ranger wannabe gave us a hard time for "getting too close" to the bear.  Yeah, the REAL park ranger was at least 50 feet closer than us when we swung by earlier in the day, but she apparently is the expert in such matters. 

Best of:   Testing out our new DSLR camera,  Wildlife spotting at Cade's Cove, Observing American Capitalism at its finest hour on "Black Friday", being able to carry on our family traditions in the middle of our travels - we truly are fortunate.

Most Memorable:  Sharing this You Tube Video explaining why North Dakota is the least visited state in the Union...over and over again.  Yes, it's Michael Moore back in the day when he had a TV show.  Don't worry our more conservative friends, he only does the intro and the video has no political slants what-so-ever.

Useful Tip:  Head to Cade's Cove in the morning.  The animals are much more active and there isn't so much traffic.

In between watching Landon, we decided to take a Road Trip to visit my family in Tennessee and North Carolina as well as visit a few friends in other parts of the East Coast.  The total trip ended up being over 5000 miles, 15 states, a quick jaunt over to Canada and zero tickets - a feat in itself if you know my lead footed history. 

Our first stop was at my mom's house in Tennessee.  Living just an hour away from Smoky Mountain National Park and Pigeon Forge with a nice view to boot, she didn't do too bad in picking a place to live.   

Located in the heart of Smoky Mountain National Park, Cade's Cove provides an excellent opportunity to catch a glimpse of some of the wildlife that abounds in the Appalachian Mountains.  We even saw a small black bear resting underneath this solitary tree. 

 

While wildlife and stunning scenery shots are the primary draw of the park, one cannot miss the human aspects as well.  Several early churches, mills and homes have been preserved to showcase life as it was at the turn of the 19th century.  The park is open year around, and between 10 and 2 the single lane road that circles the cove is bumper to bumper so come early.  If you come in the summer months, they have demonstrations on churning butter, grinding grain and other old fashioned methods of production.

 

With the family getting further and further spread out, it gets harder and harder to get everyone together at one time.  We were fortunate enough to have grandma up from the beach as well as aunt Sheila, my brother Justin, and my sister Amanda with her boyfriend Eric all together at one time. 

 

 

What has become an institution in America, Black Friday Shopping was not left off the agenda in our family either.  Fortunately none of us 'needed' anything badly enough to sacrifice a good night of sleep over so we casually strolled out of the house at around 9am to do a little shopping at the outlet malls, poke our head into the insanely busy Christmas Store and catch a few "Door Busters".  Midway though our shopping excursion, we all went out to the Comedy Barn.  Here is a skit that was done there a couple of years ago.  The guy with the crazy laugh was not there obviously, but it's funny and you get the idea.

With our families being so spread out, we celebrate Christmas around Thanksgiving every year with my family.  Tracy finally got that DSLR she has been wanting to take with us on the last leg of our RTW journey, we all got matching pajamas and had a great time playing the "Chinese Exchange" game where Tracy's hand embroidered dishtowels were the most fought over gift.

 

Our Thanksgiving could not be complete without a morning of baking!  Our tradition is to start with Norwegian lefse & then move onto Moravian sugar & molasses cookies.  This is one of our favorite traditions of the year and everyone pitches in...if only in the taste testing department!

 

Stuffed with Lefse and Cookies, it was time for us to head over the hill to dad's house in NC.

To see some photos from the Smoky Mountains & our Thanksgiving/Christmas there click here!

Going offline for the next month in Burma

 After the last few weeks relaxing with family we are off on the last leg of our RTW trip.  Backpacks packed with the essentials, passports & visas (finally) in hand we set off for Myanmar (Burma) on February 1st, arriving some 37 hours later in Yangon on February 3rd.
We have heard from other travelers that blogspot is blocked (as is Facebook) so we'll update you on our trip via our blog when we head to India in March.  If you would like to know where we are currently check out the twitter box on the right hand side of the blog, with a little luck it should still work! 
Here is our tentative itinerary:

• Burma - February

• India - March & April

• Indonesia - May (1st 2-3 weeks)

• China - End of May through June

We have scheduled a few posts for February while we are traveling to get us fully up to date, we hope you enjoy reading about our time in ND as well as our East Coast road trip !  See you all this summer!