We have been trying to visit Ellen’s parents every three to four months.
When we used to visit them when our kids were younger, we would generally drive. When the kids left the house, we tended to fly (to Savannah, where Ellen’s parents would pick us up). Now we have returned to driving there, however we try and see things and places each time.
For example, during a previous trip we stopped by Asheville, NC to see the Biltmore, the largest private home in the US, built by a Vanderbilt at the end of the 19th century. This trip our non-Hilton Head focus was baseball.
Our first day, June 12, we drove to Salem, VA. One challenge was the beginning of Interstate I-81. Evidently two miles from the beginning there was a car accident, so it took us about an extra hour to go those two miles. That combined with the scattered thundershowers put getting to the Salem Red Sox versus Lynchburg Hillcats an interesting experience.
We finally made it to the game at the top of the third inning with the sky getting really dark. The Red Sox park, sometimes called Salem Park and sometimes Lewisgale Park, was a very nice Class A park holding around 5K people, though far less than that this night. We chose the middle level tickets. There were the expensive ones behind home which had wait staff and padded seats, the least expensive were general admission, and the middle ones (the one we selected). We ended up in the first row behind the Salem Dugout on the aisle for a grand total of $9/ticket.
We had personally grilled chicken sandwiches which were quite good, had a lot of great conversation with some season ticket holders sitting near us, opened and closed our umbrella’s multiple times as the Red Sox built a solid 4-o lead through the sixth inning. Finally, by the 7th it seemed to be getting worse so we left to go to the Quality Inn we were staying at in Christianburg, VA. Oh we of little faith, Salem went on to win a complete game 6-0.
As a side note the Quality Inn will not be one we return to. In addition to its not great quality, the non-smoking room we ended up in was clearly not in practice non-smoking. The free breakfast, to put it mildly was not something to write home about.
The rest of the trip to Hilton Head was uneventful (happily, no traffic jams) and the time here great. More about that in a few days.