Hampton Outs


Today started with the 5+ hour drive to Williamsburg and finished with sightseeing and pizza. We were given another beautiful day and the drive was interesting- especially in North Carolina. Periodically in the median there are hundreds of feet of flowers. Sometimes all one color, red, blue, yellow and other times combinations. One stretch went for about 500 feet and consisted of red and white stripes of flowers. Then there were the billboards. “ Get US out of the UN”. “Jesus is the answer”. “Truck Pull”. We stopped at our old standard- Cracker Barrel- for lunch and Diane, our waitress told us her special today was baked chicken with cornbread dressing and one side. We both got it with fried apples and biscuits (which is our dessert).


I forgot to mention yesterday that the Hampton Inn we stayed at in Wilmington will be changing to a Red Roof Inn soon. It was really not up to Hampton standards, but I did get a great rate. So today, when we arrive at the Williamsburg hotel, there is no signpost saying Hampton Inn and the building itself had all the Hampton signs removed. You could still see the outline of the signs. When we checked in we found that as of last Friday this hotel was no longer part of the Hampton chain. They didn’t comply with something Hampton required so they had there plug pulled. The good news is that everything but the name is the same. It is interesting to me that the Hamptons I got good rates at are no longer part of the chain.


We got to Williamsburg early enough to do some sight seeing. We went down to the Historic Section (that’s the way it is spelled on the map) and walked around. This turned out to be Colonial Williamsburg Lite. The way Williamsburg works is it is free to walk around. If you want to go in any buildings and see the colonial artisans doing their thing you have to buy a $34 ticket. That’s the plan for tomorrow. Williamsburg is wonderfully preserved and steeped in history. We’ve got all day to see it tomorrow – no driving.

We finished up at UNO’s Pizza. Just our luck, it was full of kids, teachers and family all supporting their school by going to UNOs with a discount coupon. Service was good once we were seated. We had a deep-dish cheeseburger pizza. Then back to the hotel. Our room has a Jacuzzi bath tub – That should be good for my shoulders. I’m going to go try it out.