La Salle Explorers

[DooKSucks]

We went to some tapas place downtown for my nephrew's birthday recently, she liked that, so we'll probably go back. Barcelona I think it was called. You got any recommendations?

Death & Taxes, but reservations might be problematic.

[Jungle Rat]

Shit, the MIF had a free hotel room that expires in November, so we're going to fuckin' Raleigh this weekend just to use it. I'm actually looking forward to it...

Where are you eating?

Dammit DS. I thought we were through with the fat jokes with you but nope.

[DooKSucks]

Shit, the MIF had a free hotel room that expires in November, so we're going to fuckin' Raleigh this weekend just to use it. I'm actually looking forward to it...

Where are you eating?

Dammit DS. I thought we were through with the fat jokes with you but nope.

Heh. Raleigh has a good restaurant scene (comparatively speaking) with a decent number of "trendy" and good to very good restaurants.

[Jungle Rat]

Pilot buddy took this over the Atlantic. Thought it was cool.

Screenshot_20221019_085059.jpg (204.66 KiB) Viewed 413 times

[hedge]

That is cool..

[Jungle Rat]

He takes some really cool ones from above from all over the world.

[hedge]

Some of the most amazing visual experiences of my life have been from the window seat of a plane at sunrise or sunset...

[Jungle Rat]

Definitely. I've been lucky to take a few helicopter tours in some cool places. Can't beat it from up there. Sometimes I hit the glo cart & fuck around with google earth. It's about 6 years old though. At least here. Our area must have been taken just after Matthew because boats are piled on top of each other in places. Eerily weird.

[hedge]

I took a helicopter ride in Kauai one time, loved it. Open doors, Vietnam style, so you could see everything below. Incredible. Can't remember the cost, it wasn't much, couple hundred bucks IIRC, would've been worth it at triple the price, whatever it was...

[innocentbystander]

I took a helicopter ride in Kauai one time, loved it. Open doors, Vietnam style, so you could see everything below.

Vietnam style? Did you shoot all the people laying on the beach while listening to Flight of the Valkerie's blasting on a reel-to-reel and then surf the beach at Kauai after?

[hedge]

If you had been down there I would've...

[Jungle Rat]

Too nice. Take out the entire family from above with a rocket. No chance of any IB spawn.

I've taken the HHI one I posted years ago. Looking into one around here. Would love to get some aerial shots.

[eCat]

as luck would have it, the wife is off the entire week of Thanksgiving this year.

So in an effort to make up for the fact that she completely forgot our 25th wedding anniversary, she wants to us to go away somewhere the weekend before.

I've gone to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge so many times over the years I am over it, and Northern Michigan in late November has little appeal so I started researching small mountain towns in West Virginia, western Virginia and western North Carolina. No shortage of cool little towns. I ended up ruling out most of the Carolina towns because I still have to go thru the Gatlinburg mess to get to them, although Hendersonville and Bryson City sounded appealing. West Virginia is OK, but its really devoid of anything serious unless you want to be around the River Gorge area.

That leaves us with western Virginia. Looking over the maps, I think I'm going to break the trip up into 3 cities, Damascus, Galax and Salem. Its a part of the country I've never been to before, it looks like I can avoid the interstate driving there and I think there is enough to keep us busy. Filling a day with wineries always helps

[hedge]

Galax ain't hitting on much as a town, but the scenery should be nice. Salem, which appears to be a neighboring town to Roanoke (very trendy from what I gather), site of Stu's favorite Grateful Dead show that he ever attended (might've been 2 shows), mainly b/c I wasn't there harassing him, is getting up towards the Shenandoah Valley, which is really nice. You should jump on the Blue Ridge Parkway from there and drive up there a little ways...

[eCat]

Maybe Salem should be our base then

I'll look to see what the rental situation is like

[eCat]

ended up renting a place on a vineyard near Floyd, VA about an hour away from Roanoke -a small 1 bedroom out in the middle of nowhere.

[sardis]

Some of my NC clients would set up residency in Galax and "commute" to Charlotte so their kids could get in-sate tuition at University of Virginia.

[sardis]

Knowing the area well, a good NC mountain trip would be Route 64 starting in Hendersonville, going through Brevard, Cashiers, and ending in Highlands.

Also, the Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk area is pretty good. Stay away from Asheville. It's too big now and smells of weed everywhere.

[Jungle Rat]

Low Country.

[DooKSucks]

Knowing the area well, a good NC mountain trip would be Route 64 starting in Hendersonville, going through Brevard, Cashiers, and ending in Highlands.

Also, the Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk area is pretty good. Stay away from Asheville. It's too big now and smells of weed everywhere.

Blowing Rock is popular amongst folks in Fayetteville, as is Highlands.

Fuck the mountains.