Christmas – December 23, 2011

Rachel took off work today while Deana worked a full day.  After breakfast Rachel, Rita and I drove to Chapel Hill and stopped for some specialty items at a Persian shop called Jahan.  Then we went to Trader Joe, Whole Foods, and the Meat House for food items.  We drove to Hillsborough and had a sandwich at Weavers Market.  Then we walked a 10K (6 mile) AVA year-around event through the historic town.  It was a beautiful sunny day with mild temperatures.  We came home and had a very nice dinner of thick steaks on the grill and a variety of vegetables.  In the evening we played cards with next-door neighbors to about 11:00 pm.

Christmas - December 22, 2011

After a refreshing good night’s sleep we rallied and set out once more.  Rachel and Deana went to work and we played with Olive and unpacked.  We met Rachel at a very nice café/bar in the renovated American Tobacco Center called Tyler’s Tap Room.  We had a nice lunch and I had a flight of four local microbrew beers.  We went to a very nice gourmet food supermarket in Chapel Hill called A Southern Season.  If you are ever in this area and like foods, you should visit this store.  In the evening we all went to dinner at Parizades in Durham, one of our old-time favorites that is reminiscent of a European café.  I had delicious lamb chops, Rita had chicken, Rachel had steak and Deana had grouper.  Everyone liked their food as well as the Willamette Valley pinot noir.  We ended with the most delicious chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

Days 2 & 3 of our Christmas Road Trip – 2011

Tuesday morning we woke to light rain in Longview, Texas, and headed east on I-20 for a long drive during intermittent rainfall.  We passed through Monroe, Louisiana, to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where we stopped for lunch.  Then we drove east through Jackson, Meridian, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Gadsden, where we stopped for dinner, to Chattanooga where we spent the night.  

The next morning, Wednesday, we woke to a downpour which remained with us through most of the day.  We drove northeast through Knoxville to Ashville, North Carolina.  I had wanted to take a different scenic route but our GPS took us this way which was okay since it was too rainy for seeing the scenery.  We stopped for lunch in Hickory then made our way to Rachel and Deana’s house in Durham, arriving around 4:00 in the afternoon.  It was good to see Rachel and Deana and their dog Olive.  Also, their house was festively decorated for the holidays.  After a good salad for dinner Rita and I slept for about 11 hours straight.

Day 1 of our Christmas Road Trip - December 2011

The first day of our Christmas road trip began from home which we left in the rain about 9:30 am.  While I had looked at a map and marked out a route, we used a Garmin GPS for the first time.  There are many nice features to this GPS and I feel I’ll warm up to it eventually.  We skirted around Austin on toll roads then headed east on highway 79 through Hutto, Taylor, Rockdale, to Hearne where we turned north on highway 6 to Calvert, our first stop.

We stopped at Zamykal Kolaches in Calvert to pick up a dozen kolaches.  Then we walked across the street to the Wooden Spoon café.  While the food was okay there was nothing special about the café or the meal.  Soon we were back on the road heading north on highway 14 through Bremond to Groesbeck where we stopped for gasoline.  My father once lived in Groesbeck but this was our first return there in about 40 years or so.  We continued on to Richland where we headed north on I-45 a short distance.  In Corsicana we took highway 31 west around Athens and Tyler where we took I-20 to our destination of the Hampton Inn in Longview, Texas.

We checked into the hotel and called Rita’s brother, Ken, and his wife, Mary.  They came by and we drove the very short distance to Cheddars restaurant where we had dinner.  After dinner and conversation they took us back to the hotel and headed off.  It was a short but nice visit.  The rain followed us to Longview and it appears that it will be with us tomorrow as well.