PaulGraz's Daily Blog for The Great Ice Cream Run!
Day 3, Monday June 11th: Statesville, NC
to Staunton, VA: There's some great stuff planned for today!
Wasting no time to get into some great driving, we get on the Blue Ridge
Parkway. This is really a GREAT road. The weather started out kinda misty /
foggy / hazy - but the cooler temps felt great. I decided to drive the
parkway with the sunroof wide open and the windows all down! It was
awesome!
The 3 MINI convertibles with us also put their tops down for the parkway. The view
while driving on this road is just fantastic. I just wish we had more time
so that we could have stopped at more of the scenic overlook areas along the
drive.
By lunchtime we arrived at Maggie Moo's in Roanoke, VA. This is very close
to Virginia Tech, and there are signs all over to remind you of that fact.
Maggie Moo's was great and kinda reminded me of more fun version of Coldstone.
A few of us decided to have dessert first - and THEN we went to lunch at a real
southern BBQ place - I'm not sure which was better, the ice cream or the BBQ...
Hmmm....
BTW, I only got a "kiddie" size ice cream at Maggie Moo's - they offer kid size,
small, medium, and large. But the kid size was probably larger than what
most places give you as a medium!
Then it was back on the Blue Ridge Parkway for more awesome scenery and great
driving. Around mid-afternoon we took a side trip over to US 11 to visit
Foamhenge! This is a full-scale replica of Stonehenge - only this one is
made out of styrofoam! I saw this 2 years ago but it wasn't complete yet.
The guy who did this must be a nut - gotta love it!
Now we were off to Buena Vista, VA to Alexanders Ice Cream Emporium - this one
is all done up like an old fashioned candy store, and the ice cream here was
great.
After that stop we had to make up some time and get to the hotel, so we finished
up by taking I-81 north to Staunton. We had a real good evening ice cream
event lined up - we visited Wrights Dairy-Rite, in downtown Staunton. This
place is over 50 years old and still looks very original but very well kept - it
really felt like a trip back in time. They even put up a welcome for our
group on their sign! They have some 50's-style drive-in bays where you can
eat in your car and have the food brought to you - or you can go in and get a booth,
where you place your order by picking up a telephone and calling it into the
kitchen. Their specialty dessert is the "Wheelie" - which starts out with
a fresh glazed donut, topping with lots of ice cream, whipped cream, and your
favorite toppings. Looks like most went with the hot fudge. I had to
pass on this one - after 2 other ice cream stops today and a really good lunch -
it was time to take it easy on the diet. But I did get a small soft-serve
cone...
See my pictures page for all my pics from the day...
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