2022 USA East Coast road drip — Day 9
Another early morning today, after falling asleep in our motel watching Rosanne 😂. Out to explore some of Virginia, starting with McDonalds for breakfast… we know that sounds unadventurous, but they do things you can’t get in the UK!
Helen got two breakfast burritos (her favourite) and Tina got a sausage and egg McGriddle, which is basically sausage and egg sandwiched on pancakes.
Then we went for a lovely walk and explore around an old Hydro Plant called Belle Isle.
Looks like someone’s been having a Jack Daniels party here 😂
Here is the old Hydro Plant from across the stones.
It’s pretty cool but we wanted to get closer. So took a walk along the bridge to get across.
The building itself was really cool. Abandoned and full of beautiful graffiti art.
And of course when you are exploring these places you need to get climbing to see the cool bits that are boarded up!
We found an abandoned electric scooter on the way back to the car. Sadly it didn’t work 😂
After our little explore we went into Downtown Richmond, Virginia.
Saw some interesting houses on the way. What we are noticing as we move state to state is the difference in the residential housing. It’s all got it’s own unique style.
Downtown, we took a look inside the Pipeworks building where it had some cool art and a weird art installation of mannequins thrown at a large target 😂 😂 😂
Then we walked along the canal. Sun’s not shining today but it wasn’t freezing. Warm enough for a nice walk.
It actually felt very much like Manchester with the canal and the lovely brick buildings and bridges.
Afterwards just a short drive away we went to see a thing called The Grand Kugel.
It’s a massive granite sphere, the largest construction of its kind in the world, that is set into a matching, perfectly concave cup. Water is then forced in from the bottom of the cup creating an evenly distributed, incredibly thin layer of water. The ball, no matter how heavy, can then be moved on the liquid surface.
So it’s actually really cool that you can move it around. It’s suppose to move easily.. but it doesnt.
Tina managed to move it, but it did take a bit of push!
Time for lunch and we stopped at Doumars Cones and BBQ.
Which is a drive-in BBQ and cone place. The creator, Abe Doumar, is the inventor of the ice cream cone!
You pull up and the waitresses come to your car window.
We did pop inside to use the toilets and the inside was cool.
It even had the worlds first ice cream cone machine.
Food was ready and it was delivered straight to the car on a snazzy tray!
What an experience! Food was great too — Helen had a sliced pork sandwich and lime milkshake, and Tina had a cheeseburger and vanilla shake. They had an amazing spicy BBQ/mustardy sauce, which Helen said was scrummy!
Small portions though, which was perfect as it allowed us to save room to try an ice cream cone.
Orange sherbet and butter pecan — delicious!
On the way to our next stop and we saw some cool things on the way…
Then we passed this cool little town that looked almost abandoned.
But turns out it wasn’t. These are actual shops that sell stuff. One was a clothes store. Amazing.
We then popped into an antique store to pick up some license plates for our USA Bar.
We managed to get a good few of them which is great!
This place was huge!
And it has some cool stuff. We are so gutted we are only backpacking. Wish we has cases to buy loads of stuff to bring home.
And over the state line we go, back into Maryland.
We passed another antique store and popped in. It was closed but Tina got talking to the owner and as usual after hearing her accent he let us in to look around!
As we were leaving he asked us why we love America. We told him we love old gas stations and neon signs. He told us to go to the back of the store and open the doors (closed to the public)
Wow! He had a workshop that he repairs cars and neon signs. We exchanged details as we are keen to try and buy a few things off him. Dean he was called and what a lovely man!
On the way to our motel we stopped at this lovely town called Berlin.
This is the town Runaway Bride was filmed (The one with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere).
We popped in for a quick drink. The bartender was super nice. And he actually got Tina’s accent right the first time (instead of thinking she’s Irish) 😂
He even named the bill “Scotland!!!!” 😂 😂 😂 The Americans are bloody loving Tina’s accent!
Into the town we are staying tonight : Ocean City. Was an interesting drive. Lots of long bridges and channel tunnels.
Would have been a better drive if the weather was good, but sadly it was really cloudy and it started to rain!
We stopped at the Longboard Cafe for food and cocktails.
We got some Asian style ribs, pulled pork sandwich with Mac and cheese and a Mexican sweet corn to share. Mac and cheese was nice but not a patch on Tina’s Mum’s! The rest of it was quite disappointing.
We then checked into our motel.
As we are in Ocean City, the motel has a beach home style to it. Our room even has a balcony.
With a view of a sort of tropical themed beach vibe.
It looks nice but don’t be fooled. It’s all indoors.. it’s pishing of rain outside.
We had a beach front pub crawl planned but the weather ruined it.
So we went to the bar across the street which was an arcade.
Wasnt the ideal place to be but actually we ended up having a great night. Since being at the basketball game on Tuesday we played on the basketball arcade game most of the night 🏀
Tina’s highest score was 37 and lowest was 17. Helens highest was 33 and lowest 6. So we defo improved over time 😂 😂 😂
Then we played some Pac Man.
And Tina got the highscore… but didn’t manage to get her full name in on time 😂 😂
Here is our route for today :
Tomorrow we head to Atlantic City in New Jersey for some casino gambling fun! Woooo 🎰💲🤞🍀 Wish us luck we win big!
