Carowinds And Six Flags Theme Parks

Well in Concord we want to got to NASCAR hall of fame and Hendrick Motorsports complex.

Danville only really because I've heard it mentioned in many country songs I like, actually a lot of towns I recognise from song lyrics and interfered is seeing how and what they actually look like etc. we considered going to Richmond but it'll eat too much time up.

Martinsville is where the NASCAR race is which we'll be at. We are also going to Talladega Alabama and Texas speedways. Half of our planned trip so far will be spent at the speedways the other half will mostly probably be spent in bars we find. I have a habit of drinking in as many pubs as I can when on tour.

 

Yes, so far about 5 days is planned. I'm thinking of checking out a big aquarium I was reading about.

 

Talladega is my favorite track, ... Poconos and Brickyard runners up ...

 

Cool. I wish I could tell you about the aquarium but I've never been.

 

Small downtown, a short dam across the Dan River, an old power plant between the river and an old unused textile mill, and a small suburban type shopping mall on the edge of town. That's all they've got. Roanoke is the place everybody in that region wants to be on the weekend, unless Virginia Tech has a football game in Blackburg.

The prettiest small town in that area is Lexington. Mountains all around, lots of preserved history, and big horse farms. About a 30 minute drive from Roanoke, up I-81.

 

Pocono? That's one of my least favorite lol.

I use for like old banked Bristol but now Martinsville is my favorite because it's all beat and bang. I wish there were more short track. We get lots of short track now with internet streaming and it's fun to watch.

 

OoOo a horse farm. That would be nice.
And I'm not opposed or scared or bored of small towns. most of the time I find them cosy and cute and overall much less busier in all aspects than bigger cities so I can easily find appeal in the more quiet and boring looking ones lol.

I like good views too and the mountain ranges and more mountains. I like mountains and barn yards and old scary looking farms and deserted towns.

 

Lots of horse activity around Lexington: http://www.horsecenter.org/

In general, the prettiest parts of Virginia, including the prettiest farms and small towns, are found along I-81 and I-77. Highway 29 goes to a lot of places that haven't aged well.

I go to small mountain towns all the time, and I grew up in small towns. There are good ones and bad ones. Virginia has some of the loveliest spots in America, and it also has some shit. It even has dry counties, where alcohol is still illegal!

I would recommend all of these, to people who like the sort of place you are describing:

Lexington
Staunton
Natural Bridge
Charlottesville
Roanoke
Lynchburg
Appomattox
Wytheville
Galax
Abingdon
Brookneal
South Boston

I've been to all of them, more than once. In nearly all those places, you can pick almost any back road in any direction, and find yourself surrounded by farms of all kinds, including some that are abandoned, and creeks full of rocks and trout.

 

Oh, wow. What are the "dry" parts? I have no business being in a alcohol free zone.

 

Ten counties, all in the western half, are still 100% dry. But there are others around there with varying degrees of alcohol restrictions, and more where the local culture and economy won't financially support a bar anywhere but inside a boring national chain restaurant. If you find a roadside beer joint in a rural area in between towns, it might just be one of those scary biker places that isn't friendly to visitors from other cultures.

I can more easily answer the opposite question. I know there are plenty of cool, popular bars in the downtown areas of Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville, and a smaller number in Lexington, Staunton, Blacksburg, Galax, and the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs. None of these towns are big enough to be seriously overcrowded.

Since you like country music, you might enjoy a trip to Nashville someday. That's a hard drinking city. In the American South, nobody but New Orleans and Memphis parties harder than Nashville. Downtown is very nice, with a high pedestrian bridge over the river, connecting the center of town to the NFL stadium (Titans).

 

We were thinking of Nashville but I don't think we'll get enough time.

Oh and I have to ask, we are driving mainly because it's cheaper to rent a car for 10 days than it is for one of us to buy a plane ticket to fly a 7hr car trip. I've always, always rented a car or motor home on my travels because it's my idea to drive through places most tourists would miss out on, hence our locations pointed out at the moment. Also having a car leaves you options and by some time constricted to bus timetables etc.

I've also heard that American airports are very tight with security and you literally wait for hours and hours. Is there any truth to that? And is driving ourselves a better idea/option. It works out cheaper on money side of things and like I said, we'll see more this way. I just think if I'm destined to be in an airport for hours then I may as well drive to the locations we want anyway?

Thoughts on that?

We are flying from Atlanta to Dallas though, found cheap flights only about €70 each. But from Atlanta to Alabama to North Carolina and Virginia we will be driving. Probably hire another car in Dallas to get us to Fortworth and out hotel is only half an hour drive from the track.

From memory it was about 7-8 hrs from Nashville to Roanoke. To us that just kills a good portion of the day but really 2-3 days considering we have plans in Charlotte area. So Nashville and Kentucky unfortunately not looking good so far unless we push the trip out to a month or so but the friends we will bring might not be able to afford or take that much time off.

 

Unless it's a holiday weekend, I never go to the airport more than two hours before a domestic flight, and I've never had a problem. Be very careful to follow the rules when packing your carry-on bags, and everything should go smoothly.

Everywhere you go in the South except for Atlanta and New Orleans, you need a car for everything. Our public transportation is a joke.

Not wasted time at all. I've never found a piece of I-81 that's boring.

If you ever get the opportunity to cross the spine of the Appalachians on I-40 (at the NC-TN state line) you will not regret it. That's the best route from Nashville to Charlotte. It follows the northern border of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. For miles, the curving highway follows a deep, narrow mountain lake and a whitewater river.

South and west of Atlanta, the scenery gets boring. Every mile is just like the last one, nothing but flat land and trees.

I'm really enjoying talking to you about all this. I don't run across many people who are interested in this subject. All this Virginia talk has got me wanting winter to be over, so I can make another weekend getaway trip to Lexington!

 

No, thank you. I appreciate all of this. The only thing over my head are the road names at the moment lol. When I look at the nature reserves I get a little excited lol as they look really beautiful.

Ohhhh are there any Man vs. Food places around these areas? I always wanted to go to somewhere he's been.

 

Here's the most unusual one of all: the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's been called the longest and thinnest park in the world. The property is only fifty feet wide, but the road runs for hundreds of miles along the top of a high ridge. It's for recreation only, no trucks allowed, no houses, no businesses. The three best parts of it are the section to the north of Roanoke, and the sections on both sides of Asheville (NC).

In Virginia and North Carolina, the Parkway is the unofficial dividing line between the mountain region (west) and the rest of the state, which has a completely different look and feel.

When I was in college, I was close enough to the Parkway that sometimes my boyfriend and I would drive up to a scenic overlook and park to watch the sun go down over the mountains. Sometimes we would see people that we knew from school. While we were parked there, we usually played classic rock or folk music on the radio, smoked a joint or shared a flask of vodka, and my BF usually got a BJ.


Good memories.

I love the way it feels to hang around places like that. Urban problems and work responsibilities seem like they're a million miles away.

 

It was on the news tonight that their new Fury 325 coaster is now the tallest in the US. The park is open every weekend from now through November 1, and weekdays in the summer.

https://www.carowinds.com/hours-directions/carowinds

For thread readers who are familiar with the park, the new coaster starts out behind the Palladium stage and wraps around past the park's front entrance, which has been completely redone.

 

Oh cool! Yes, we should be able to visit that specific one before it closes in November.